1816 English cricket season

In the 1816 English cricket season, Manchester Cricket Club was founded and became the forerunner of Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Honours

• Most runs^[1] – William Lambert 363 (HS 74)
• Most wickets^[1] – Thomas Howard 30 (BB 5–?)

Events

• The 1816 season saw the formation of the Manchester Cricket Club which took part in a number of major matches until Lancashire CCC was established in 1864. Manchester was representative of Lancashire as a county in the same way that Sheffield Cricket Club and Nottingham Cricket Club represented Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
• The issue of roundarm bowling was already controversial enough in 1816 for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) to amend the Laws of Cricket to prohibit it:^[2]

The ball must be bowled (not thrown or jerked), and be delivered underhand, with the hand below the elbow. But if the ball be jerked, or the arm extended from the body horizontally, and any part of the hand be uppermost, or the hand horizontally extended when the ball is delivered, the Umpires shall call "No Ball".

• With cricket recovering from the effects of the Napoleonic War, a total of 8 first-class matches were recorded in 1816:
  • 10–11 June — MCC v Hampshire @ Lord's Cricket Ground^[3]
  • 17–19 June — E H Budd's XI v G Osbaldeston's XI @ Lord's Cricket Ground^[4]
  • 24–25 June — MCC v Hampshire @ Lord's Cricket Ground^[5]
  • 3–6 July — All-England v The Bs @ Lord's Cricket Ground^[5]
  • 29 July–2 August — Sussex v Epsom @ Lord's Cricket Ground^[6]
  • 5–6 August — Gentlemen of All-England v Old Etonians @ Lord's Cricket Ground^[7]
  • 14–16 August — MCC v Middlesex @ Lord's Cricket Ground^[8]
  • 21–23 August — Epsom v Hampshire @ Epsom Down^[9]

Debutants

1816 debutants included:

• Thomas Beagley (Hants)
• Charles Holloway (Hampshire)
• Henry Lillywhite (Hampshire)
• John Mills (Hampshire)
• James Thumwood (Hampshire)
• H Mitchell (Hampshire)
• John Thumwood (Hampshire)
• James Baker (Sussex)
• James Bray (Sussex)
• Thomas Bache (MCC)
• T Price (Hampshire)

References

Bibliography

• Haygarth, Arthur (1862). Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Lillywhite. 

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. 
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins. 

External links

• Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825
• CricketArchive – 1816 first-class matches list
• CricketArchive – 1816 other matches list