1729 English cricket season
The 1729 English cricket season was the 33rd cricket season after the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. Details have survived of six matches, and the earliest known surviving cricket bat dates from the season.
Recorded matches
Records of the following matches exist:[1][2]
- 24 June: Kent v Sussex at Walworth Common. The earliest match featuring a team that is expressly called Sussex. Not recorded by CricketArchive.[3]
- 30 July: Dartford v London at Dartford Brent. Not recorded by CricketArchive.[3]
- 5 August: London v Dartford at Kennington Common
- 26 August: Surrey v Kent at Farnham. Not recorded by CricketArchive.[3]
- 28 August Edwin Stead's XI v Sir William Gage's XI at Penshurst Park. A report of the match mentions Thomas Waymark, who played for Gage's side, by name.[4]
- September: Hampshire, Surrey & Sussex v Kent at The Downs, Lewes
In several sources, a Gentlemen of Middlesex v Gentlemen of London match is listed as taking place in Islington on 5 August 1728.[5][6] Research suggests that this match may have been played in 1729.[7]
Other events
A bat which belonged to John Chitty of Knaphill in Surrey which is dated 1729 is the oldest known cricket bat. It is on display in the Pavilion at The Oval.[8][9]
Samuel Johnson attended the University of Oxford from October 1728 until the following summer and later told James Boswell that cricket matches were played there. Boswell mentioned this in his Life of Samuel Johnson;[3] this is the earliest reference to cricket being played at Oxford.[8]
A local game in Gloucester on Monday, 22 September is the earliest known reference to cricket in Gloucestershire.[10]
First mentions
Clubs and teams
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 1729, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-02. (subscription required)
- Maun I (2009) From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750, pp.38–39. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9
- Waghorn HT (1906) The Dawn of Cricket, p.7. Electric Press.
- Maun 2009, p.37.
- Other matches in England 1728, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-03. (subscription required)
- Maun I (2011) From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770, p.248. Martin Wilson. ISBN 9780956906601
- 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.
- Bowen R (1970) Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development Throughout the World, p.263. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. ISBN 9780413278609
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
- 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