1727 English cricket season

The 1727 English cricket season was the 31st cricket season after the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. It is the first season in which matches are known to have been played in accordance with a set of written rules.[1][2] Details have survived of four matches.

Articles of Agreement

References to two matches between the Duke of Richmond and Alan Brodrick mention that they drew up Articles of Agreement between them to determine the rules that must apply in their contests. This are the first instance where a set of written rules for play is known to exist, although fairly standard rules for play definitely existed prior to this. In early times, the rules would be agreed orally and subject to local variations.[3]

The Articles of Agreement specified that "the Duke of Richmond to choose any Gamesters, who have played in either of His Grace's two last Matches with Sir William Gage" which is the basis for the assumption that the first two matches listed above were played in 1727. The articles also established that Broderick's team should be made up of "any gamesters within three miles of Pepperhara, provided they actually lived there last Lady Day".[3]

Recorded matches

Records of four matches exist.[4][5]

Two matches were played between sides organised by Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet. These two matches are referenced in the Articles of Agreement drawn up for the Richmond–Brodrick matches and it is assumed that they were played earlier in the 1727 season.[3]

Two matches were also played between sides organised by Lennox and Alan Brodrick, 2nd Viscount Midleton, one at Peper Harow in July and one at Godalming in August. These are notable for the surviving Articles of Agreement that were drawn up by the participants.[5][3][6]

Other events

Horace Walpole commented that cricket was already "common" at Eton College. This is the earliest reference to cricket both at Eton and in the county of Berkshire.[7]

First mentions

Players

Alan Brodrick, 2nd Viscount Midleton[3]
Thomas Waymark - the best known professional player who was a groom employed by the Duke of Richmond[8]

References

Dates in Cricket History, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1978. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
A Brief History of Cricket, CricInfo, 2006-03-06. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
McCann TJ (2004) Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, pp.6–7. Sussex Record Society.
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 1727, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
Marshall J (1961) The Duke who was Cricket, pp.47–48. Muller.
Bowen R (1970) Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, p.262. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Marshall, p.52.