1733 English cricket season
| Cricket formats | major, including single wicket |
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In the 1733 English cricket season, cricket continued to rely mainly on its patrons but there are fewer reports of matches than in the three previous seasons.
Matches
| Date | Match Title | Venue | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 May (Tu) | London v Greenwich [1] | Blackheath | London won by 15 runs | |
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London scored 112 in the first innings after going in first. No other totals were mentioned. | ||||
| 28 May (M) | London v Greenwich [1] | Artillery Ground | result unknown | |
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This was a rematch announced in the report of the previous game. | ||||
| 26 June (Tu) | Fulham v Chelsea [1] | Parson’s Green | Fulham won by 3 runs | |
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The prize was 30 guineas. | ||||
| 5 July (Th) | London v Kent [2] | Artillery Ground | result unknown | |
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Advertised as for one guinea each man with wickets to be pitched at one o’clock and the spectators to keep outside the line round the ground. "If any persons get on the Walls (sic), they will be prosecuted as the Law directs; and the Company are desired to come through the Py'd Horse Yard, Chiswell Street". | ||||
| c.11 July (W) | Surrey v Middlesex [3] | Moulsey Hurst | Middlesex won by 3 runs | |
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The report says the teams "were very hard matched". The Prince of Wales gave each player a guinea after the game. | ||||
| 1 August (W) | Kent v Surrey & Middlesex [3] | Moulsey Hurst | Surrey & Middlesex won | |
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The Kent v Surrey & Middlesex match was arranged immediately after the match on or about Wed 11 July by Frederick, Prince of Wales and Mr Edwin Stead. The Prince of Wales awarded a silver cup to the winners of the Wed 1 August match and this is the first known instance of a cup being played for. This is also mentioned in Kent Cricket Matches. | ||||
| 20 August (M) | Ealing & Acton v London [1] | Ealing Common | result unknown | |
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Announced by Berington's Evening Post as: "for £50, play or pay". | ||||
| 31 August (F) | Prince of Wales XI v Sir William Gage’s XI [4] | Moulsey Hurst | result unknown | |
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The announcement in the St James Evening Post (Sat 25 to Tues 28 August) states: "On Friday next a great Match at Cricket will be play’d on Molesey (sic) Hurst; by 11 of the best Players in the County on each Side, for a Wager of 100 Guineas between His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and the Right Honourable, the Lord Gage". Mr Waghorn reported this in Dawn of Cricket as being on the following Friday, 7 September, and he confusingly recorded the county as Suffolk when it was in fact Sussex. Lord Gage is of course Sir William Gage. The Prince of Wales was by now completely taken with cricket and had become another great patron of the sport. | ||||
| 10 September (M) | Surrey v Kent [5] | Kennington Common | result unknown | |
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The same game seems to be dated 20 September in Dawn of Cricket which may be a Gregorian equivalent, although it is possible by reference to a game reported by Buckley in 1736 that Dawn of Cricket has got the year wrong, never mind the day and month! The game reported in Kent Cricket Matches is correctly dated Monday 10 September (Julian Calendar). Kent Cricket Matches and Dawn of Cricket both report word for word a condition about roping the enclosure. | ||||
| 12 September (W) | London v Kent [1] | Artillery Ground | Kent won by 3 wickets | |
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This seems to be the earliest known result wherein the win was by a certain number of wickets, unless the Richmond v Chambers game in 1731 was actually conceded by Richmond. London scored 65 & 35; Kent scored 71 "and the second hands of the Kentish men won the wager and had three men to spare". | ||||
| c.19 September (W) | Croydon v London [3] | Duppas Hill, Croydon | drawn | |
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Team scores are known: Croydon 95 & 76; London 89 & 41-5. Time expired and it was drawn. Croydon had three given men and it was reported that the betting reached record levels, but that statement could not have been verifiable even at the time. It is interesting that the Croydon team was called "the country men". The report says a rematch would take place at the Artillery Ground "on Wednesday next". | ||||
| 26 September (W) | London v Croydon [1] | Artillery Ground | drawn due to rain | |
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This was the rematch of the previous game. London had a lead of 8 runs when play was abandoned but we do not what stage the game had reached. Reported in the Whitehall Evening Post dated Saturday 29 September. | ||||
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
- ↑ H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
- ↑ Timothy J McCann, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Sussex Record Society, 2004
- ↑ F S Ashley-Cooper, Kent Cricket Matches 1719-1880, Gibbs & Sons, 1929
Bibliography
- Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
- McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
- Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
- Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
- Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.
Additional reading
- ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
- Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
- Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
- Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
- Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
- Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
- Marshall, John (1961). The Duke who was Cricket. Muller.
- Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978-1-900592-52-9.
- Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
External links
- Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825
- CricketArchive – 1733 match list
- From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787
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