1726 English cricket season
The 1726 English cricket season was the 30th cricket season after the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. It is the first season in which a surviving newspaper report names a participant in a match and included the earliest-known single wicket match. Details of two elven-aside matches are known.
Recorded matches
Records of two matches exist[1][2]
- 29 August: London & Surrey v Edwin Stead's XI at Kennington Common. The match was played for a wager of 25 guineas.[3]
- September: Edwin Stead's XI v Chingford at Dartford Brent. This was the conclusion of a match from 1724 which had been unfinished and became the subject of a lawsuit. Lord Chief Justice Pratt ordered it to be completed in order that the stakes could be settled.[3]
Single wicket matches
The London Evening Post of 27 August carried an advertisement for a single wicket match between players called "the noted Perry (of London) and the famous Piper (of Hampton)". This is the earliest definite reference to a single wicket contest. The venue was Moulsey Hurst, near Molesey in Surrey.[4]
Other events
A letter has survived written by an Essex resident complaining that a local Justice of the Peace had literally "read the Riot Act" to some people who were playing cricket on 10 September. He had a constable with him who dispersed the players.[5]
References
- Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (1981) A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863, p.19. ACS: Nottingham.
- Other matches in England 1726, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
- Waghorn HT (1906) The Dawn of Cricket, p.6. Electric Press.
- Maun I (2009) From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750, p.33. Roger Heavens ISBN 9781900592529
- Buckley GB (1935) Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, p.3. Cotterell.
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
- Bowen R (1970) Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development Throughout the World. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. ISBN 9780413278609
- 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