1741 English cricket season

1741 English cricket season

Cricket formats	first-class and single wicket

The 1741 English cricket season was notable for the first appearance in recorded matches of the famous Slindon Cricket Club.

Much of our knowledge is based on letters written by the Duke and Duchess of Richmond to each other and to the Duke of Newcastle. The gloating letter by the Duchess after "little Slindon" beat "almost your whole county of Surrey" is particularly interesting.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result
1 June (M)	Surrey v London[1]	Charlwood, Surrey	Surrey won
15 June (M)	London v Surrey[1]	Artillery Ground	result unknown
The second match was announced in the report of the first.
15 June (M)	Slindon v Portsmouth[2]	Stansted Park	Slindon won by 9 wkts
This is the earliest report of a match involving Slindon, though the club must have been playing for some time beforehand. The Duke of Richmond in a letter said that "above 5000 people" were present. In a second letter, he gives the result.
c.26 June (F)	Kent v London[1]	Chislehurst	rained off
An interesting comment about the Kent team was that it was "eleven out of three parishes for the county". Expectations were high but the whole day was ruined by the rain.
3 July (F)	London v Chislehurst[3]	Artillery Ground	Chislehurst won by 60 runs
"One of the best matches that has been played these many years"; however, Chislehurst seem to have won it easily enough by quite a large margin.
22 July (W)	Surrey v London[1]	Richmond Green	tied
This is the earliest known instance of a game being tied. Unfortunately the scores are not recorded but "the bets (were) drawn on both sides"! .
c.31 July (F)	London v Surrey[1]	Artillery Ground	result unknown
Interest in this match must have been high after the previous one was tied but surprisingly there is no report.
7 September (M)	Surrey v Slindon[2]	Merrow Down, Guildford	Slindon won
The Duke of Richmond in a letter to Newcastle before the game spoke of "poor little Slyndon (sic) against almost your whole county of Surrey". Next day he wrote again, saying that "wee (sic) have beat Surrey almost in one innings". The Duchess of Richmond wrote to her husband on Wed 9 September and said she "wish’d..... that the Sussex mobb (sic) had thrash’d the Surrey mob". She had "a grudge to those fellows ever since they mob’d you" (apparently a reference to the Richmond Green fiasco in August 1731). She then said she wished the Duke "had won more of their moneys".
14 September (M)	London v Surrey[3]	Artillery Ground	result unknown
"Wickets to pitched at half an hour past 11 o’clock".

Other events

Thu 9 July. In a letter to her husband, the Duchess of Richmond mentioned a conversation with John Newland re a Slindon v East Dean match at Long Down, near Eartham, a week earlier. This seems to be the first recorded mention of any of the Newland family.^[2]

Tues 28 July. In two subsequent letters to the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke of Richmond spoke about a game on this date which resulted in a brawl with "hearty blows" and "broken heads"! The game was at Portslade between Slindon and unnamed opponents. Apparently, Slindon won the battle but the result of the match is unknown!^[2]

Tues 18 August. A match played on the Cow Meadow near Northampton between two teams of amateurs from Northants and Bucks is the earliest known instance of cricket in Northamptonshire.^[4]

Mon 10 August. A match was at Woburn Park between a Bedfordshire XI and a combined Northants and Huntingdonshire XI.^[1] Woburn Cricket Club under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford was on the point of becoming a well known club (see 1742 English cricket season).^[4]

First mentions

Counties

• Bedfordshire
• Northamptonshire

Clubs and teams

Players

Venues

The Duke and Duchess of Richmond

Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (1701 - 1750) married Lady Sarah Cadogan (1706 - 1751), daughter of William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan, on 4 December 1719 at The Hague, Netherlands. They had eight children including Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (1733 - 1806).

It seems that the marriage of Richmond to Duchess Sarah was a success and that was not always the case among the Georgian aristocracy. The Duchess took a keen interest in all the Duke's doings including his cricket. Several references and letters written by her, including some financial accounts, have survived.

References

1. H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
2. Timothy J McCann, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Sussex Record Society, 2004
3. H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
4. G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935

Bibliography

• Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
• Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
• Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
• Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.

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.
• Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
• Marshall, John (1961). The Duke who was Cricket. Muller.
• Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978-1-900592-52-9.
• Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.

External links

• Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825
• CricketArchive – 1741 match list
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787