Edmund Chapman

Edmund Chapman (c.1695 – 30 July 1763) was an early English cricketer who was reported to have been one of the best in England during the 1720s and 1730s. He is believed to have played for Chertsey and Surrey in major cricket.^{[fc 1][fc 2]}

Career

Chapman is one of the earliest cricketers whose name has survived in 18th century records. In 1763, a newspaper report announced his death at Chertsey in his 69th year and said of him that he was "an eminent master bricklayer" and "accounted one of the most dextrous cricket players in England". The report added that his mother was "then living at the same place, in her 103rd year".^[1]

There are no known references to Chapman earlier than his obituary notice but, given his age, he must have been an active player from c.1715 until possibly c.1740, presumably playing for Chertsey, or perhaps Croydon, and for Surrey as a county.^[2]

Footnotes

1. ↑ Note that surviving match records to 1825 are incomplete and any statistical compilation of a player's career in that period is based on known data. Match scorecards were not always created, or have been lost, and the matches themselves were not always recorded in the press or other media. Scorecard data was not comprehensive: e.g., bowling analyses lacked balls bowled and runs conceded; bowlers were not credited with wickets when the batsman was caught or stumped; in many matches, the means of dismissal were omitted.
2. ↑ The term "major cricket" deserves some qualification. It is not limited to "first-class cricket" which is a misleading concept that is essentially statistical and may typically ignore the more important historical aspect of a match if statistical information is missing, as is invariably the case re matches played prior to 1772. From that season, scorecards began to be created habitually and there is a continuous and adequate, though incomplete, statistical record commencing in 1772. Major cricket in the Stuart and Hanoverian periods includes both single wicket and eleven-a-side games. Features of these matches include high stakes, large crowds and evidence that the teams are representative of several parishes, perhaps of whole counties. Except in rare instances, village cricket in the shape of a match played between two parish teams, would be classified as minor.

References

Bibliography

• Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.