Chertsey Cricket Club in Surrey is one of the oldest in England. Its own website dates its founding as 1737 but in fact matches involving a Chertsey team date from 1736.
There are two known games that were played before July that season. One is Croydon v Chertsey at Duppas Hill in Croydon; the other is Chertsey v Croydon at the Laleham Burway ground in Chertsey. Knowledge of the games was gathered through an announcement in Read’s Weekly Journal dated Saturday 3 July about a deciding game on Richmond Green to be played on Monday 5 July. In each of the two matches, the home team won "by a great number of runs". The match at Laleham Burway is the first important one known to have been played at this famous venue in Chertsey.
The club played a number of big matches against London and Dartford. In the 1760s, they played matches against the sport's rising power, the Hambledon Club, and in September 1778, Chertsey beat the rest of England (excluding Hampshire) by an innings and 24 runs.
The Duke of Dorset (who played cricket for Chertsey) was appointed as Ambassador to France in 1784 and arranged to have the Chertsey Cricket team travel to France in 1789 to introduce cricket to the French apparently to improve Anglo-French relations. However, the team, on arrival at Dover, met the Ambassador returning from France at the outset of the French Revolution, and the opportunity was missed.
Chertsey produced several famous players in the 18th century including the great bowler Edward "Lumpy" Stevens and the noted wicket-keeper William Yalden.
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