1803 English cricket season

1803 English cricket season

Cricket formats	first-class and single wicket
Most runs	Lord Frederick Beauclerk 284
Most wickets	Lord Frederick Beauclerk 12
Most victims	7 (two players)
Most catches	4 (two players)

In the 1803 English cricket season, Thomas Howard made his debut in first-class cricket.

Honours

Prime Minister William Pitt referred to cricket when introducing his Defence Bill.^[2]
With the Napoleonic War continuing, loss of investment and manpower impacted cricket and only three first-class matches have been recorded in 1803:
- 21–24 June — All-England v Surrey at Lord's Old Ground^[3]
- 4–6 July — Nottinghamshire & Leicestershire v Hampshire at Lord's Old Ground^[4]
- 11–12 July — All-England v Surrey at Lord's Old Ground^[4]
Another match that has sometimes been regarded as first-class is H C Woolridge's XI v W R Capel's XI at Clifford's Park, Rickmansworth, on Friday 26 August.

1803 debutants included:

^ ^a ^b Note that scorecards created in the first quarter of the 19th century are not necessarily accurate or complete; therefore any summary of runs, wickets or catches can only represent the known totals and computation of averages is ineffectual.
^ Bowen, p.268.
^ Haygarth, p.305.
^ ^a ^b Haygarth, p.307.

HS Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1926
Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744-1826), Lillywhite, 1862