In the years from 1726 to 1750, cricket became an established sport in London and the south-eastern counties of England. In 1726, it was already a thriving sport in the south east and, though limited by the constraints of travel at the time, it was slowly gaining adherents elsewhere with references being found in other southern counties. Having been essentially a rural pastime for well over a century, cricket became a focus for wealthy patrons and gamblers whose interests funded its growth throughout the 18th century.
Patrons such as the 2nd Duke of Richmond sought to ensure order both on and off the field of play. The earliest known written rules were deployed in 1727, but it was not until 1744 that the first code of laws was enacted. Ground enclosure began in 1731 and, later in the decade, admission fees were introduced. Media interest grew as the newspaper industry developed, a lead being taken by two new publications. London's Artillery Ground became the sport's showcase venue with important matches played in front of large crowds. The single wicket form enjoyed huge popularity through the 1740s until reaching its peak in 1748. Leading players of the period included Thomas Waymark of Sussex; Robert "Long Robin" Colchin of Bromley and Kent; and Richard Newland of Slindon and Sussex.
Continuing growth of cricket Regional, but also colonial Cricket was still a regional sport in England, albeit a very popular one, as the constraints of travel limited its introduction to the rest of the country. It thrived on the funds provided by patronage, gambling, and large, enthusiastic crowds. As its popularity grew, cricket began to spread outwards from its south-eastern heartland. The earliest references have been found of games being played in the traditional counties of Berkshire (1727), Gloucestershire (1729), Buckinghamshire (1730), Hampshire (1733), Essex (1737), Hertfordshire (1737), Dorset (1738), Bedfordshire (1741), Huntingdonshire (1741), Northamptonshire (1741), Suffolk (1743), and Norfolk (1745).
Even so, cricket had already reached the Americas and India as confirmed by references to it being played overseas by English sailors and colonists in the first quarter of the 18th century.
Women's cricket As in all fields of endeavour, it was difficult for women to partake in male-dominated pursuits. The earliest report of a women's match appeared in The Reading Mercury on 26 July 1745. The match was played on Gosden Common, near Guildford, between "XI Maids of Bramley" and "XI Maids of Hambledon". They all dressed in white, but the Hambledon girls wore red ribbons on their heads and the Bramley girls wore blue. The report says: "The Bramley girls got 119 notches and the Hambledon girls 127. There was of both sexes the greatest number that ever was seen on such an occasion. The girls bowled, batted, ran and catched as well as most men could do in that game". The villages were Bramley and Hambledon, both near Godalming in Surrey. A further report says the ladies played a return match at Hambledon, in Surrey, on 6 August.
On 13 July 1747, the Artillery Ground staged a match between a team from Charlton and another from West Dean, two neighbouring villages in West Sussex. There was crowd trouble which caused play to be abandoned. The intention was to continue next morning but no further reports have been found.
Educational links A key factor in the growth of cricket was its introduction to schools and universities. In 1727, Horace Walpole commented that it was already "common" at Eton College—the earliest reference to it both at Eton and in the county of Berkshire. Earlier, the first mentions of the sport in each of Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, and Oxfordshire had related to its being played at, respectively, the University of Cambridge, Winchester College, and the University of Oxford. There were matches at Oxford in the summer of 1729, on the testimony of Dr Samuel Johnson, who was then a student. This was mentioned in James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.
A schoolteacher in New Romney is credited with coining the word "cricketer" when completing a diary entry. He bestowed the accolade upon one William Pullen of Cranbrook but it was in connection with Pullen's death. He had just been hanged on Penenden Heath near Maidstone for stealing a sheep and five bushels of wheat.
Coverage in the media and the arts
No cricket had been reported in the infant newspaper industry before 1697 due to the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 which controlled the press until 1696, but notices were becoming more frequent by the mid-1720s. Early notices tended to be either the announcement of a scheduled match or a brief summary of the gambling odds rather than the actual play. It was not until 1726 that players were first mentioned by name in a newspaper report. Only three notices were published in 1726, but this increased to nineteen in 1730. The London Evening Post was founded in 1726 and the Daily Advertiser (which had several changes of title) began publication in 1735; they carried a good many cricket notices until both ceased publication in 1797. Other newspapers included the General Evening Post, London Daily Post, St James Evening Post, and the Whitehall Evening Post. The early newspapers were not always correct, however, as in 1732 when twelve games were recorded, eleven involving the prominent London Cricket Club. A newspaper report in September stated that London played thirteen matches in all and were unbeaten, but that claim contradicted a report in May stating that Croydon defeated London "by great odds".
Surviving match scorecards have provided much-needed information about cricket in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, but only two are known to have been completed prior to 1750. These came from two matches in 1744.
Generally agreed to be the "first modern representation of cricket", a series of engravings, The Game of Cricket, was made by Hubert-François Gravelot in 1739. The six engravings show groups of children playing cricket,Lot 49 – Hubert-François Gravelot . Christie's. Retrieved 11 January 2019. with a wicket of the "low stool" shape, probably wide by tall, with two stumps and a single bail. The engravings were used on porcelain. Gravelot helped to establish the French Rococo style in English publishing and was one of the most celebrated illustrators of the time.
The well known painting A Game of Cricket as played in the Artillery Ground by Francis Hayman (1708–1786) is now lost but it dated from this period. A 1743 engraving of it by Antoine Benoist has survived and now hangs at Lord's. It is widely thought to depict a game at the Artillery Ground, but that is not so because the Artillery Ground was walled around and this game is obviously being played on a common somewhere. The title is fair comment in that the painting shows cricket as played, not played. The picture shows a batsman with a bat shaped like a modern hockey stick. He is defending a two-stump wicket and is ready to try and hit the ball, which has been bowled using an underarm action. In the foreground is a scorer notching the tally. Also from 1743 comes An Exact Representation of the Game of Cricket by Louis Philippe Boitard (c. 1733 – c. 1767). It is a birdseye view showing all eleven fielders as well as two batsmen, two umpires and two scorers. This now hangs in the Tate Gallery.
The England versus Kent match at the Artillery Ground on 18 June 1744 was described by the London Daily Advertiser as the "greatest cricket match ever known". It was a noted social occasion as the spectators included the Prince of Wales and his brother, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland. Also present were the 2nd Duke of Richmond and Admiral Vernon. The poet James Love (1722–1774) commemorated the match in his Cricket: An Heroic Poem (1745), written in rhyming couplets. The poem is one of the first substantial pieces of literature about cricket.
Patronage and players
The most prominent patrons in the 1720s were Edwin Stead (Kent), who died on 28 August 1735; the 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage (both Sussex); and Alan Brodrick (Surrey). Gage and Richmond continued to support cricket through the 1730s, when additional patrons were Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Lord John Sackville (father of cricketer and patron, the 3rd Duke of Dorset). Richmond, having adopted the famous Slindon team of the 1740s, continued his patronage through that decade until his death on 8 August 1750.
Patrons of the 1740s included Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough; John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, who organised matches at Woburn Abbey; George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, in Northamptonshire; John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, in Huntingdonshire; Richard Grenville, in Buckinghamshire; and Lord Montfort, who led a combined London, Middlesex, and Surrey team in 1743. In a 1742 letter to Mr Richard West, the poet Thomas Gray said: "There is my Lords *** and ***, they are Statesmen; Do not you remember them dirty boys playing at cricket"? The cricket historian F. S. Ashley-Cooper believed the two "noble lords" to have been Bedford and Sandwich.
Following William Bedle in the first quarter of the century, an outstanding player of the 1720s and 1730s was Thomas Waymark. He was a groom employed by Richmond, and was perhaps the first great all-rounder. Other players named in the 1730s include "the famous" Tim Coleman; Cook, of Brentford Cricket Club, described as "one of the best bowlers in England"; Ellis, of London, who was their "best bowler"; and John Bowra, of Bromley Cricket Club, known as the "Kentish Shepherd". Researcher G. B. Buckley believed him to be the father of William Bowra.
Wider coverage in the 1740s, especially the two 1744 scorecards, has meant a substantial increase in the number of known players from that decade. Foremost among them were Robert "Long Robin" Colchin of Bromley and Richard Newland of Slindon. Other highly rated players included Newland's brothers, John and Adam. Brothers were a common feature of 1740s cricket. There were two London players called Bennett, known as "Little" and "Tall", who were probably brothers. Both were "reckoned as good a bat as Colchin". Two of Colchin's Bromley colleagues were John Bryant and his brother James. John and Joe Harris played for Addington Cricket Club and Surrey; John and Thomas Bell for Dartford and Kent.
Other top players were Edward Aburrow Sr, known as "Cuddy", a notorious smuggler who was also an outstanding bowler for Slindon; Stephen Dingate, who was a barber by trade; Tom Faulkner, also well known as a prizefighter called "Long Tom"; and William Sawyer of Richmond. Players from Kent included John Cutbush of Maidstone; William Hodsoll of Dartford; and Val Romney of Sevenoaks. There was also John Frame, only 16 when his career began in 1749, who went on to become one of the first great fast bowlers.
Single wicket 1726–1740
The London Evening Post dated Saturday, 27 August 1726, carried an advertisement for a single wicket match between players called "the noted Perry" (of London) and "the famous Piper" (of Hampton), playing "for twenty pounds a side". The match was played at Moulsey Hurst, a multi-sport venue near Molesey in Surrey; this is the first time that players are known to have been named in a newspaper, and the match itself is the earliest known to have been played under single wicket rules.
There were four single wicket matches in the 1730 season, three of which involved four-man Kent led by Edwin Stead in matches against four of Brentford Cricket Club. The other game was between three of Surrey and three of Sussex. The stake was usually £50 (approximately £ in present-day terms).Inflation automatically calculated