1730 English cricket season

The 1730 English cricket season was the 34th cricket season after the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. Details have survived of 14 matches as well as four notable single wicket matches.

1730 English cricket season

Newspaper coverage of cricket increased during 1730 and the sport seems to have become more important in metropolitan London. The first recorded match took place at the Artillery Ground in London, although cricket is thought to have been played on the ground as early as 1725.[1][2][3]

Recorded matches

The following eleven-aside matches are recorded:[4][5]

• June: Surrey v Middlesex at Richmond Green
• 12 June: Duke of Richmond's XI v Sir William Gage's XI at Bury Hill, Arundel
• 2 July: London v Kent at Gray's Inn, London
• 9 July: Andrews XI v Duke of Richmond's XI at Guildford Bason
• 23 July: Epsom v Sunbury at Epsom Down. Not recorded by CricketArchive[6][7]
• 31 July: Greenwich v London at Blackheath
• August: Putney v Fulham at Putney Heath
• 5 August: Duke of Richmond's XI v Sir William Gage's XI at The Dripping Pan, Lewes. It is not clear if this match was cancelled or postponed. It is not recorded by CricketArchive[8][9]
• 5 August: Kent v London at Blackheath
• 12 August: London v Kent at White Conduit Fields
• 21 August: Middlesex v Surrey. Not recorded by CricketArchive[10]
• 26 August: Surrey v London at Kennington Common
• 31 August: London v Surrey at the Artillery Ground
• 4 September: London v Surrey at the Artillery Ground

Single wicket matches

Four single wicket matches are known to have taken place in 1730. On 28 May four men of Kent played four of Brentford at Westerham Common in Kent with a return scheduled at Kew Green on 4 June. On 29 June at Mickleham Downs in Surrey a match was played between three men of Surrey and three of Sussex.[11] On 26 August Edwin Stead and three colleagues played a four-a-side single wicket match against four Brentford men on Walworth Common.[12]

Other events

During April, there were reports in a number of journals about the Duke of Richmond and other members of the nobility playing cricket in Hyde Park.[13] A further report on 22 April mentioned an intention to play a match for 100 guineas.[14]

A twelve-a-side game was played at Tonbridge in Kent on 17 August and on 2 October a match on Datchet Heath, near Windsor, is the first reference to cricket in Buckinghamshire.[15][16]

First mentions

Clubs and teams

• Brentford
• Fulham
• Greenwich
• Middlesex
• Putney
• Sunbury

Venues

• Artillery Ground, London
• Blackheath
• Gray's Inn, London
• Kew Green
• Guildford Bason
• Mickleham Downs
• Putney Heath
• The Dripping Pan, Lewes
• Westerham Common

References

1. Artillery Ground, CricInfo. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
2. Honourable Artillery Company Ground, Finsbury, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-01. (subscription required)
3. Cricket, The Honourable Artillery Company. Retrieved 2029-12-09.
4. Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (1981) A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863, p.19. ACS: Nottingham.
5. Other matches in England 1730, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-01. (subscription required)
6. Buckley GB (1935) Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, p.4. Cotterell
7. Maun I (2009) From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750, p.29. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9
8. Waghorn HT (1899) Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773), p.1. Blackwood.
9. Maun, p.43.
10. Maun, p.45.
11. Buckley, p.4.
12. Waghorn, pp.3–4.
13. Maun, p.41.
14. Buckley GB (1937) Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket, p.1. Cotterell.
15. Waghorn, p.3.
16. Maun, p.46.

Further reading

• Altham HS (1962) A History of Cricket, Volume 1 London: George Allen & Unwin.
• Birley D (1999) A Social History of English Cricket. London: Aurum. ISBN 978 1 78131 1769
• Major J (2007) More Than a Game: The Story of Cricket's Early Years. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-718364-7
• Underdown D (2001) Cricket and Culture in Eighteenth-century England. London: Penguin. ISBN 9780140283549