| 1729 English cricket season | |
| Cricket formats | first-class and single wicket |
The 1729 English cricket season is the one in which Samuel Johnson played at Oxford University. The season is also noted for the earliest known innings victory and the earliest known surviving cricket bat.
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| Date | Match Title | Venue | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 June (Tu) | Kent v Sussex[1] | Walworth Common | result unknown | |
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The match was for fifty pounds per side with a play or pay rule agreed. |
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| 30 July (Wed) | Dartford v London[2] | Dartford (precise venue not specified) | result unknown | |
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The teams were described as "the Gentlemen of Dartford and London"; the stake was fifty pounds. |
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| 5 August (Tu) | Gentlemen of Middlesex v Gentlemen of London[3] | The Woolpack, Islington | result unknown | |
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The venue was described as "in the Field behind the Woolpack Back Gate near Sadler’s Wells", the match having a stake of £50 per side. Several sources have listed the match in 1728 due to an error in original research. |
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| 5 August (Tu) | London v Dartford[4] | Kennington Common | Dartford won "very much" | |
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Described thus: "a great Cricket Match at Kennington Common between the Londoners and the Dartford men, for a considerable Sum of Money, Wager and Betts, and the latter beat the former very much".[3] |
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| 28 August (Th) | Mr Edward Stead’s XI v Sir William Gage’s XI[5][6] | Penshurst Park | Sir William Gage’s XI won by an innings? | |
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This match seems to have resulted in the earliest known innings victory as Gage's XI "got (within three) in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men (i.e., Stead's XI) threw it up". The report added re Thomas Waymark that "a groom of the Duke of Richmond signalised himself by extraordinary agility and dexterity".[6] |
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| ? Sept[6][7] | Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire v Kent | Lewes | result unknown | |
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This is the first time that Sussex and Hampshire are used in a team name, though not individually.[8] |
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There is a bat in The Oval pavilion which belonged to John Chitty of Knaphill, Surrey. Dated 1729, it is the oldest known bat.[9] It looks more like a field hockey stick than a modern cricket bat but its curvature was to enable the batsman to play a ball that was always rolled, as in bowls, never pitched. Pitching began about 30 years later and the straight bats used nowadays were invented in response to the pitched delivery.[8]
Dr Samuel Johnson attended Oxford University from October 1728 until the following summer and later told James Boswell that cricket matches were played there. Boswell mentioned this in his Life of Samuel Johnson.[1]
A local game in Gloucester on Monday 22 September is the earliest known reference to cricket in Gloucestershire.[9]
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