Richard Newland ( 11 September 1713 – February 1778) was an English cricketer of the mid-Georgian period who played for Slindon and Sussex under the patronage of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond. He also represented various England teams and, in some matches, led his own select team. The eldest of three cricketing brothers, he is generally recognised as one of cricket's greatest early players and has been called a pioneer of the sport.
Newland is cricket's earliest known left-handed batter. He is remembered as a great all-rounder who was proclaimed "The Champion" in a famous poem by James Love. Despite his fame, nothing is known of his bowling arm, style or pace except that he used an underarm action. The actual length of Newland's career is unknown and has been the subject of speculation by some writers, but there were 21 senior matches between 1743 and 1751 in which he definitely appeared: 14 eleven-a-side and seven under single wicket rules. In 1745, he made a score of 88 which is the highest individual innings on record until the 1760s.
Newland was an uncle of Richard Nyren, who became captain of Hambledon in the 1760s and 1770s. Newland is said to have been his nephew's mentor. In 1900, the historian F. S. Ashley-Cooper included Newland among his choice of four outstanding 18th-century players, along with John Frame, David Harris, and John Small.
Family and background Richard Newland was born in 1713 (the parish record reads, born and baptised September 11, 1713"Slindon Parish Registers, Film # 004428123, Image p. 38". England, Sussex, Parish Registers, 1538-1910, database, FamilySearch. Retrieved 30 July 2023.) at Slindon, Sussex. His parents were Richard Newland Sr of Slindon and Elizabeth Newland (née Hammond) of Eartham, Sussex. They married in 1704 and had ten children, five brothers and five sisters, all born in Slindon. Newland Sr was a yeoman farmer and Richard Jr became one too. Two of Newland's brothers, John (1717–1800/1804) and Adam (born 1719), also became well-known cricketers. One of the sisters, Susan, married Richard Nyren of Eartham and their eldest son Richard became the famous captain of Hambledon in the 1770s. It is said that Newland taught his nephew to play cricket. Susan and her husband were also the grandparents of John Nyren, who wrote The Cricketers of My Time.
Newland's history has been complicated by the existence of a namesake surgeon who became his brother-in-law after he, the cricketer, married the surgeon's sister Mary. The cricketer's dates have been confirmed as 1713–1778 and his surgeon brother-in-law's as 1718–1791. The dates and other details have sometimes been confused in cricket records. It follows that Richard Nyren had two uncles called Richard Newland.
In a letter from Goodwood House, dated Wednesday, 30 July 1740, to his friend Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, the 2nd Duke of Richmond mentioned several local people including "John Newland, that you must remember". This is the first mention in the sources of the Newland brothers.
The second recorded mention of the Newlands is in a letter dated 9 July 1741 from the Duchess of Richmond to her husband, Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond. She mentions a conversation with John Newland about a Slindon versus East Dean match played a week earlier at Long Down, near Eartham. The first definite mention of Richard Newland in surviving sources is as captain of an England team playing against Kent in a single wicket three-a-side match at the Artillery Ground on 11 July 1743, when he was 29 or 30 years old.
According to David Underdown, an ancestor called John Newland was a steward in the local manor house at the end of the sixteenth century. The manor belonged to the Kempe family who were Roman Catholics and, in the seventeenth century, Jacobites; they even had a priest hole in the manor house. Richard Newland Sr was a churchwarden, a position of respectability in Georgian times which meant he was, as Underdown puts it, "a solid member of the village community". Despite this apparent respectability, Underdown points out that Slindon was, like most Sussex villages, a violent place with smuggling connections. The Slindon team included Edward Aburrow Sr (alias "Cuddy"), who played as a bowler and was the village tailor. He gained a reputation for smuggling, though it is more accurate to say that he was jailed in 1745 for bearing arms whilst landing "prohibited goods" at Elmer's Sluice on the Sussex coast. In 1749, Newland himself and his brother John were among a group of men indicted for assaulting one Griffith Hughes, though all were discharged, and this incident too may have been connected with smuggling.
Cricket career Duke of Richmond's patronage
Newland relied for his cricketing opportunities on the 2nd Duke of Richmond, who had captained his own team for many years until he broke a leg in 1733. No longer able to play himself, Richmond channelled his enthusiasm for cricket into his patronage of Slindon Cricket Club. The village of Slindon bordered on his Goodwood House estate. Richmond's commitment to Slindon is evident in letters he wrote to his friend the Duke of Newcastle in 1741. On 28 July, Richmond sent two letters telling Newcastle about a match that day which had resulted in a brawl with "hearty blows" and "broken heads". The match was at Portslade between Slindon, who won, and unnamed opponents. On 7 September, Slindon played Surrey at Merrow Down, near Guildford. Richmond, in a letter to Newcastle before the game, evoked "poor little Slyndon against almost your whole county of Surrey". The next day he wrote again, saying that "wee (sic) have beat Surrey almost in one innings".
1742–1743 Newland was an all-rounder who batted left-handed and he is the earliest known left-handed player in cricket's history. His bowling arm, style and pace are unknown except, like all bowlers of the time, he used the underarm method of delivery with the ball bowled all along the ground. Through the 1740s, he was arguably the best and most famous player in England. He has been described as "The Pioneer of Cricket".
Newland was a popular choice for a wager among the gamblers who frequented matches and bets were always laid on his potential score. There are references in 1742 to "the Sussex Man from Slending" and "the noted bowler from Slendon", although it is not certain that Newland was either of these famous players as he was a batting all-rounder. Slindon's most noted bowler was actually Aburrow. At the end of the 1742 season, Slindon played two matches against London at the Artillery Ground but lost them both, the second by the huge margin of 184 runs. In the first, several wagers were laid that one Slindon batsman, perhaps Newland, would obtain forty runs from his own bat – a feat he failed to perform. F. S. Ashley-Cooper said the batsman was "probably Mr Richard Newland". There is no surviving report of the second match except for the result but Ashley-Cooper in a brief description of Slindon says it was most famous for its cricket, "its chief players being the Messrs. Newland – Adam, John and Richard – and Cuddy".
In the single wicket match on 11 July 1743 (see above), Newland is specifically recorded for the first time as one of the six players who took part in a celebrated three-a-side match between England and Kent at the Artillery Ground. The Daily Advertiser declared that the six players were "the best in England". England's Six were Newland (captain), John Bryant of Bromley, and William Sawyer of Richmond. The Kent players were William Hodsoll of Dartford, Val Romney of Sevenoaks, and John Cutbush of Maidstone. Cutbush was a late replacement for Thomas Ridgeway of Sussex. Kent won by 2 runs. The London Evening Post estimated a crowd of 10,000. A return match was arranged at Sevenoaks Vine on 27 July, but "it did not come off".
1744
By 1744, Newland had begun an apparent rivalry with Robert Colchin (aka Long Robin), who organised a number of games between his team and one picked by Newland. On 2 June, a combined Surrey and Sussex played against London at the Artillery Ground.
Surrey and Sussex won by 55 runs and the match is now famous for the world's oldest known match scorecard, which lists individual scores but no details of dismissals. London, whose team included given men, was the host club and their opponents were all from the counties of Surrey and Sussex. The visitors batted first and scored 102. London replied with 79, so Surrey and Sussex had a first innings lead of 23. In their second innings, Surrey and Sussex reached 102/6 and then apparently declared their innings closed, although the Laws of Cricket did not allow for declarations in 1744. In the final innings, London needed 126 to win but were all out for 70. Newland was out without scoring in both innings. The scorecard was kept by the 2nd Duke of Richmond at Goodwood House.
Two weeks later, Newland played for England against Kent at the Artillery Ground. The match was commemorated in Cricket, An Heroic Poem (1745) by James Love. Newland, who excelled in both the single wicket and eleven-a-side variants, was proclaimed "The Champion" by Love. Kent captain Lord John Sackville is reported to have held a remarkable catch in the second innings to dismiss Newland, who made the top two scores in the match with 18* and 15. Sackville's catch may have been the defining moment of the match, which Kent won by one wicket after Cutbush and Hodsoll managed to score the remaining few runs with nine wickets down.
On 10 September, the London club hosted a match against Slindon at the Artillery Ground. Play continued into the next day and, after winning the match by an unknown margin, Slindon issued a challenge to play "any parish in England" and received immediate acceptances from the Addington and Bromley clubs. These matches were arranged to take place at the Artillery Ground over the next few days and it is known that Slindon v Addington began on 12 September. It was impacted by bad weather and Slindon led by two runs at the close of play. There are no surviving reports of play on the 13th. Slindon's match against Bromley was scheduled for 14 September, but there is no record of it having taken place. Newland and Aburrow are known to have played for Slindon against both London and Addington. According to Derek Birley, the Slindon team had a run under Newland's captaincy of 43 matches with only one defeat.
On 17 September, there was a three-a-side match at the Artillery Ground between Colchin's and Newland's teams. Colchin had Val Romney and John Bryant on his team; Newland had Aburrow and Joe Harris. Aburrow was a late replacement for John Mills of Horsmonden, described as "the famous Kent bowler". The stake was 200 guineas and the players were described as the "best in England". The result, however, is unknown.
1745 There are few mentions of Slindon after 1744 and Newland is found playing for England or leading his own team, often in opposition to Colchin's team. On 24 June 1745, Newland was a member of a three-a-side team led by William Hodsoll and including Val Romney. They played against Colchin, John Bryant and one of the Harris brothers at the Artillery Ground and won by 7 runs. The stake was 500 guineas. Two days later, Long Robin's XI defeated Newland's XI at the Artillery Ground by "over 70 runs". There is the usual brief report in a contemporary newspaper but with the difference that it names all 22 players, although no scores are given. Aburrow and Newland's brothers were not named. Colchin had both the Harris brothers and James Bryant; Newland had John Bryant and both of Little and Tall Bennett.
On 5 July, the Artillery Ground hosted a fixture called Sevenoaks, Bromley & Addington v. Slindon, Horsmonden, Chiselhurst & London. It was won by the former but no names or details are known. This is the only mention of Slindon in the 1745 sources.