1793 English cricket season

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In the 1793 English cricket season, Surrey teams defeated All-England three times.

The secondary sources are sometimes confusing on the subject of the Oldfield Club at Bray, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. The team featured in several major matches during the late 18th century and was a top-class side at this time as it had a high playing standard and numerous recognised players. The team is sometimes referred to as the Oldfield Club or as Maidenhead, but the Oldfield Club was representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex, so its team should always be called Berkshire.

1 Matches
2 Other Events
3 Leading batsmen
4 Leading bowlers
5 Main Sources

[edit] Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Source	Result
13-14 May (M-Tu)	Old Etonians v Old Westminster	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB146	Eton won by 34 runs

22 & 23 May (W-Th)	MCC v Middlesex	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB146	MCC won by 54 runs

30-31 May (Th-F)	Essex v MCC	Langton Park, Hornchurch	SB147	MCC won by innings & 10 runs

6-7 June (Th-F)	MCC v Essex	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB148	Essex won by 2 wkts

12-14 June (W-F)	All-England v Surrey & Sussex	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB132	S&S won by innings & 29 runs
In the ACS Guide, this match is shown as taking place in 1793 after references in WDC and Britcher; but S&B and Bentley both have it played in 1792 as quoted in MCC records. It is a case of one source’s word against another’s but the clincher seems to be a report of the game in The Sportsman magazine which did not start publication until Oct 1792.
17-18 June (M-Tu)	MCC v Essex	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB149	Essex won by 3 wkts

20-21 June (Th-F)	MCC v Kent	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB149	MCC won by 10 wkts

24-26 June (M-W)	MCC v Berkshire	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB150	Berkshire won by 119 runs
S&B calls this game MCC v The Oldfield Club but Oldfield was representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex. ACS Guide says the game should be called MCC v Maidenhead yet in several other fixtures they use Oldfield. The Oldfield club played at Oldfield Bray, near Maidenhead. Berkshire had a high standard in the late C18.
27 June (Th)	(West) Kent v Essex	Gravesend	SB153	West Kent won by 128 runs
The so-called Kent v Essex game reported in SB153 was a minor fixture. The Kent side was probably a local club or, as Haygarth himself calls it, a "scratch" team.
27-28 June (Th-F)	Kent v MCC	Dartford Brent	SB151	Kent won by 8 wkts

28-29 June (F-S)	Kent v MCC	Dartford Brent	SB151	MCC won by 73 runs
The game was quickly arranged when the previous one finished and started on 28 June.
1-3 July (M-W)	Earl of Winchilsea v G Louch	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB152	Winchilsea's XI won by 3 runs

12-13, won by 15 July (F-M)	All-England v Surrey ^	Windmill Down	SB154	Surrey won by 15 runs

15 July (M)	Assheton Smith v Earl of Winchilsea	Perriam Down	SB155	Winchilsea's XI won by 3 wkts
The Assheton Smith v Earl of Winchilsea game in Wiltshire on 15 July is in both SB155 and the ACS list. Apart from Earl of Winchilsea and Assheton Smith themselves, hardly anyone involved was a recognised player and the game is decidedly a minor fixture.
22-24 July (M-W)	All-England v Surrey ^	Dartford Brent	SB157	Surrey won by 53 runs
^ S&B and ACS both say the first game was All-England v Surrey though it was played in Hampshire; five of the All-England players were Hampshire men. S&B says the second game was Surrey v Hampshire with given men on each side: i.e., Hammond for Surrey; Boxall, Fennex and Ring for Hampshire (and also Newman of Essex). But ACS differs and calls S&B’s Hampshire an All-England XI. This highlights the difficulty of team names. Five Hampshire players at home are in an All-England team while seven Hampshire players away are in a Hampshire team, according to S&B. I am inclined to agree with ACS here and call both these teams All-England, albeit with strong Hampshire contingents. According to S&B, the second game was at Lord's but ACS have discovered it was at Dartford Brent (in Kent!).
25-26 July (Th-F)	Berkshire v MCC	Oldfield Bray	SB157	Berkshire won by 85 runs

5-7 Aug (M-W)	All-England v Surrey	Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland	SB158	All-England won by 7 wkts

7-10 Aug (W-S)	R Leigh v Earl of Winchilsea	Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland	SB159	Winchilsea's XI won by 5 wkts

19-20 Aug (M-Tu)	Newman v R Leigh	Navestock, Essex	SB159	Newman's XI won by 37 runs
Navestock is near Brentwood. It was the home ground of the original Essex Cricket Club but this was nothing to do with the later Essex CCC.
29-31 Aug (Th-S)	Sussex v Kent	Brighton	WDC	Kent won
Mr Waghorn found only bare details of this game and has recorded "a grand match of cricket between 9 of Kent with Ring and Beldam, against 9 of Essex (sic) with Scott (i.e., of Hambledon) and another, for 500 guineas, played at Brighton, which ended in favour of Kent". It is curious that Kent and Essex should play at Brighton and it is assumed that the source wrote Essex instead of Sussex.