1772 English cricket season
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The 1772 English cricket season was a notable season in English cricket history because it is from then that surviving scorecards are common. There are three scorecards from 1772, all involving Hambledon matches, and there are some for every single season since then, providing a continuous statistical record (albeit an incomplete one till the 19th century).
In the match list below and for all future seasons in this series, there are hyperlinks to surviving scorecards on CricketArchive.
Hampshire twice defeated All-England but lost to Kent by 2 wickets in the three recorded matches before defeating Surrey in an unrecorded match. The leading bowlers of the day were Thomas Brett of Hampshire and Lumpy Stevens of Chertsey and Surrey, although the scorecards of this year have not preserved any bowling or fielding data. But the greatest player of the season was again John Small, who was the top batsman by a distance, though William Yalden of Chertsey and Surrey also achieved good scores.
Re the matches on 10-11 and 26-27 August, the sources occasionally refer to teams raised by the Hambledon Club as being representative of both Hampshire and Sussex. It is a fact that Sussex as a county team is rarely mentioned during the "Hambledon Era" and it is distinctly possible that Hambledon was a two-counties organisation. Hambledon village is very close to the border between Hampshire and west Sussex [1].
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[edit] Honours
[edit] Matches
| Date | Match Title | Venue | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 June (M) | Sheffield v Nottingham [4] | Sheffield | Sheffield won | |
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Nottingham forfeited the match after being dismissed for 14 and then seeing Sheffield score 70 with wickets still in hand. See also the match on 26 August 1771. A pre-match announcement appeared in the (Nottingham) Daily Messenger on Tues 25 May: We are informed that the great Cricket Match which has been so long depending between the Society of Nottingham & that of Sheffield is to be finally determined at Sheffield on Mon., June 1st . . . . The Sherwood youths have been practising for some weeks past, and we are told, the odds at Nottingham are 2 to 1 in their favour. The paper followed up with an incredibly biased report on Fri 12 June that bewailed the defeat of the Nottingham team. |
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| 24-25 June (W-Th) | Hampshire v All-England [5] | Broadhalfpenny Down | Hampshire won by 53 runs | |
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Hampshire 146 (John Small 78, E Aburrow 27) & 79 (John Small 34); All-England 109 (T White 35) & 63 (T May 18) No details of bowling or fielding are known. Noted bowlers taking part in the game were Stevens, Frame, Brett, Nyren, Hogsflesh, Richard May, White and Barber. The match was played for 500 guineas. In some accounts, All-England was termed Kent, Middlesex and Surrey. Commencing with this game, we have what amounts to a continuous statistical record with surviving scorecards of at least some games in every single season from here onwards. Until the end of the 18th century, there are still numerous matches without scorecards, but a norm was established in 1772 and the available data soon becomes considerable. John Small’s score of 78 was the highest recorded in the 1772 season and, as such, it is also the highest known individual score in a first-class match since the beginning of cricket’s statistical record. Hampshire had two given men: William Yalden and John Edmeads, both of Surrey. This gave Hampshire two wicketkeepers, Sueter and Yalden, but it is not known which of them kept wicket in this match. It is likely that Sueter was carrying an injury and was fit to bat but not to keep: otherwise why have another keeper as a given man? The All-England wicketkeeper was probably the Gill of Buckinghamshire known to have been the wicketkeeper for All-England in the matches against Dartford in September 1759 (see S&B, p.2). Gill does not appear again in recorded scores. |
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| 23-24 July (Th-F) | All-England v Hampshire [5] | Guildford Bason | Hampshire won by 62 runs | |
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Hampshire 152 (W Yalden 68) & 122 (W Yalden 49, John Small 30); All-England 126 (J Miller 30, R Simmons 27) & 86 (J Miller 26) The second game this season with a surviving scorecard. As in the previous game between the teams, Hampshire had two given men: William "the Yold" Yalden and John Edmeads, both of Surrey. Yalden’s contribution was immense as he scored 68 and 49 in Hampshire’s totals of 152 & 122. Again, the bowling and fielding details are unknown. Some confusion has arisen over the extras. According to Mr Ashley-Cooper: In the course of the game, the Hambledon Club got 11 notches in byes and All-England 21, but they were not entered in the scoresheet. He gave the match scores as 144 and 118 to 117 and 73 with Hampshire winning by 72 runs. |
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| 10-11 August (M-Tu) | Hampshire & Sussex v Kent [6] | Broadhalfpenny Down | H&S won by 50 runs | |
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The stake was 500 guineas. No details are known besides the result. |
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| 19-20 August (W-Th) | Kent v Hampshire [4] | Bishopsbourne Paddock | Kent won by 2 wkts | |
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Hampshire 123 (G Leer 29, T Sueter 26) & 113 (John Small 48); Kent 136 (W Palmer 29, J Minshull 24) & 101-8 (John Wood 20, J Miller 17*) Hampshire again had Yalden and Edmeads of Surrey as given men. The Kent team is called England in S&B but in fact it was a Kent side with two given men: Stevens and White, both also of Surrey. |
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| 26-27 August (W-Th) | Kent v Hampshire & Sussex [7] | Guildford Bason | Kent won by innings & 29 runs | |
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The source says: "Hampshire & Sussex = Hambledon Club". Interestingly, the bets placed seem to have been mainly around how many the Duke of Dorset would score compared with "Mr Ellis", who is an unknown player. It is possible that this was a gentlemen only game and the same may be true of the match on 10 August. The report was in the General Evening Post on Sat 29 August. |
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| 28 August (F) | Surrey v Hampshire [8] | Guildford Bason | Hampshire won by 45 runs | |
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No details are known except the result. |
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[edit] Other events
Tues 2 June. There was a fives match at the Artillery Ground between Kent and Hampshire. Hampshire scored 11 & 46; Kent scored 35 & 23-4 to win by one wicket. The Kent team was John Boorman, John Frame, Richard May, John Minshull and Joseph Miller. Minshull scored 26 & 11; Frame scored the winning run. The Hampshire team was John Small, Tom Sueter, George Leer, Thomas Brett and Richard Nyren. Nyren scored 29 out of 46 in the second innings [9] [4].
There were a couple of games in June that involved the Blackheath club and are included in the ACS list but, as G B Buckley says, "the alleged Kent team cannot have been representative" and they are minor matches only [8].
Another Kent game against a team called London & Middlesex apparently took place on Tues 11 August, the same day as the above, at the Artillery Ground. It is believed that this was not a representative game, especially given the stakes on offer at Hambledon [8].
[edit] First mentions
[edit] Leading batsmen
Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so it is impossible to provide a complete analysis of batting performances: e.g., the missing not outs prevent computation of batting averages. The "runs scored" are in fact the runs known.
| runs | player |
|---|---|
| 213 | John Small |
| 136 | William Yalden |
| 98 | Joseph Miller |
| 66 | Peter Stewart |
| 64 | William Palmer |
| 63 | John Minshull |
| 63 | Tom Sueter |
| 54 | Thomas White |
| 43 | Edward Aburrow |
| 43 | Thomas Pattenden |
| 42 | James Fuggles |
| 41 | Thomas May |
| 40 | Thomas Brett |
[edit] Leading Bowlers
No bowling figures are available.
The most notable bowlers of the time were Edward "Lumpy" Stevens of Chertsey, John Frame of Dartford and Hambledon's Thomas Brett, Richard Nyren, William Barber and William Hogsflesh.
[edit] Leading Fielders & Keepers
No fielding figures are available.
Noted wicketkeepers of the time were Tom Sueter of Hambledon and Hampshire; William Yalden of Chertsey and Surrey; and Richard Simmons of Kent.
One player who was noted for his fielding exploits was George Louch of Chatham who later became an early MCC stalwart.
[edit] References
- ^ From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300–1787
- ^ An unofficial seasonal title proclaimed by media or historians prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship was constituted
- ^ Champion counties from 1728
- ^ a b c Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744-1826), Lillywhite, 1862
- ^ a b F S Ashley-Cooper, Hambledon Cricket Chronicle 1772-1796, Jenkins, 1924
- ^ H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
- ^ G B Buckley, Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket, Cotterell, 1937
- ^ a b c G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
- ^ H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
[edit] External sources
[edit] Further reading
- H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
- Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
- Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
- Ashley Mote, The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997
- David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000
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