1793 English cricket season

1793 English cricket season
Cricket formats first-class and single wicket

In the 1793 English cricket season, Surrey teams defeated All-England three times.

The secondary sources are sometimes confusing on the subject of the Oldfield Cricket Club at Bray, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. The team featured in several major matches during the late 18th century and was a top-class side at this time as it had a high playing standard and numerous recognised players. The team is sometimes referred to as the Oldfield Club or as Maidenhead, but the Oldfield Club presented itself as representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex, so its team might be styled Berkshire.

Matches

Date Match Title Venue Source Result
13–14 May (M-Tu) Old Etonians v Old Westminster Lord's (Dorset Square) SB146 Eton won by 34 runs
22 & 23 May (W-Th) MCC v Middlesex Lord's (Dorset Square) SB146 MCC won by 54 runs
30–31 May (Th-F) Essex v MCC Langton Park, Hornchurch SB147 MCC won by innings & 10 runs
6–7 June (Th-F) MCC v Essex Lord's (Dorset Square) SB148 Essex won by 2 wkts
12–14 June (W-F) All-England v Surrey & Sussex Lord's (Dorset Square) SB132 S&S won by innings & 29 runs

In the ACS Guide, this match is shown as taking place in 1793 after references in WDC and Britcher; but S&B and Bentley both have it played in 1792 as quoted in MCC records. It is a case of one source’s word against another’s but the clincher seems to be a report of the game in The Sportsman magazine which did not start publication until Oct 1792.

17–18 June (M-Tu) MCC v Essex Lord's (Dorset Square) SB149 Essex won by 3 wkts
20–21 June (Th-F) MCC v Kent Lord's (Dorset Square) SB149 MCC won by 10 wkts
24–26 June (M-W) MCC v Berkshire Lord's (Dorset Square) SB150 Berkshire won by 119 runs

S&B calls this game MCC v The Oldfield Club but Oldfield was representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex. ACS Guide says the game should be called MCC v Maidenhead yet in several other fixtures they use Oldfield. The Oldfield club played at Oldfield Bray, near Maidenhead. Berkshire had a high standard in the late C18.

27 June (Th) (West) Kent v Essex Gravesend SB153 West Kent won by 128 runs

The so-called Kent v Essex game reported in SB153 was a minor fixture. The Kent side was probably a local club or, as Haygarth himself calls it, a "scratch" team.

27–28 June (Th-F) Kent v MCC Dartford Brent SB151 Kent won by 8 wkts
28–29 June (F-S) Kent v MCC Dartford Brent SB151 MCC won by 73 runs

The game was quickly arranged when the previous one finished and started on 28 June.

1–3 July (M-W) Earl of Winchilsea v G Louch Lord's (Dorset Square) SB152 Winchilsea's XI won by 3 runs
12-13, won by 15 July (F-M) All-England v Surrey ^ Windmill Down SB154 Surrey won by 15 runs
15 July (M) Assheton Smith v Earl of Winchilsea Perriam Down SB155 Winchilsea's XI won by 3 wkts

The Assheton Smith v Earl of Winchilsea game in Wiltshire on 15 July is in both SB155 and the ACS list. Apart from Earl of Winchilsea and Assheton Smith themselves, hardly anyone involved was a recognised player and the game is decidedly a minor fixture.

22–24 July (M-W) All-England v Surrey ^ Dartford Brent SB157 Surrey won by 53 runs

^ S&B and ACS both say the first game was All-England v Surrey though it was played in Hampshire; five of the All-England players were Hampshire men. S&B says the second game was Surrey v Hampshire with given men on each side: i.e., Hammond for Surrey; Boxall, Fennex and Ring for Hampshire (and also Newman of Essex). But ACS differs and calls S&B’s Hampshire an All-England XI. This highlights the difficulty of team names. Five Hampshire players at home are in an All-England team while seven Hampshire players away are in a Hampshire team, according to S&B. According to S&B, the second game was at Lord's but ACS have discovered it was at Dartford Brent.

25–26 July (Th-F) Berkshire v MCC Oldfield Bray SB157 Berkshire won by 85 runs
5-7 Aug (M-W) All-England v Surrey Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland SB158 All-England won by 7 wkts
7-10 Aug (W-S) R Leigh v Earl of Winchilsea Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland SB159 Winchilsea's XI won by 5 wkts
19-20 Aug (M-Tu) Newman v R Leigh Navestock, Essex SB159 Newman's XI won by 37 runs

Navestock is near Brentwood. It was the home ground of the original Essex Cricket Club but this was nothing to do with the later Essex CCC.

29-31 Aug (Th-S) Sussex v Kent Brighton WDC Kent won

Mr Waghorn found only bare details of this game and has recorded "a grand match of cricket between 9 of Kent with Ring and Beldham, against 9 of Essex (sic) with Scott (i.e., of Hambledon) and another, for 500 guineas, played at Brighton, which ended in favour of Kent". It is curious that Kent and Essex should play at Brighton and it is assumed that the source wrote Essex instead of Sussex.

First mentions

Leading batsmen

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so it is impossible to provide a complete analysis of batting performances: e.g., the missing not outs prevent computation of batting averages. The "runs scored" are in fact the runs known.

Tom Walker with 496 runs was the top scorer in 1793. Walker also had the highest individual innings of the season with 138. The only other century was a score of 106 by William Beldham.

The other leading batsmen were Beldham with 383 runs; Earl of Winchilsea 316; Joey Ring270; George Louch 211; Henry Fitzroy 197; Andrew Freemantle 178; Harry Walker 165; Charles Cumberland 155; John Wells 155; James Aylward 153; William Bullen 146

Leading bowlers

Note that the wickets credited to an 18th-century bowler were only those where he bowled the batsman out. The bowler was not credited with the wickets of batsmen who were caught out, even if it was "caught and bowled". In addition, the runs conceded by each bowler were not recorded so no analyses or averages can be computed.

Thomas Boxall with 44 wickets was the outstanding bowler of the 1793 season

Other good performances came from Thomas Lord with 27 wickets; Charles Cumberland 25; Tom Walker 25; Hampton 20; Richard Purchase 18; Littler 14; John Boorman 13; David Harris 13; Timber 13

Leading fielders

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so the totals are of the known catches and stumpings only. Stumpings were not always recorded as such and sometimes the name of the wicket-keeper was not given. Generally, a catch was given the same status as "bowled" with credit being awarded to the fielder only and not the bowler. There is never a record of "caught and bowled": the bowler would be credited with the catch, not with the wicket.

William Beldham with 28 catches was the leading fielder but a feature of the scorecards in 1793 was that an increased number of stumpings were recorded. John Hammond took 18 ct and 5 st.

Other good performances were by Richard Newman 20 ct; Joey Ring 16 ct, 3 st; Tom Walker 13 ct^, 1 st; John Wells 10 ct^, 2 st; William Bullen 11 ct; Thomas Ray 9 ct; Richard Purchase 8 ct

^ Note that there were 7 catches credited to Walker and 4 catches to Wells where it is not known which of the three Walker brothers took the catch or which of the two Wells brothers took the catch.

References

    Bibliography

    Additional reading

    External links

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