1741 English cricket season

The 1741 English cricket season was the 45th cricket season since the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. Details have survived of nine significant matches, including the first known appearance of Slindon Cricket Club. The earliest known tie in an elevel-a-side match occurred.

1741 English cricket season

Recorded matches

Records have survived of nine significant matches:[1][2]

Date Teams Venue Result Source
1 June Surrey v London Charlwood, Surrey Surrey won [3]
The report of this match announced a return fixture a fortnight later.
15 June London v Surrey Artillery Ground London won [3]
Return to the above. F. S. Ashley-Cooper noted in his personal copy of Waghorn that "London won" but his source has not been rediscovered.[4]
15 June Slindon v Portsmouth Stansted Park, Westbourne Slindon won by 9 wickets [2]
The earliest known match involving Slindon Cricket Club which came to prominence in the coming years. The Duke of Richmond in a letter said that "above 5,000 people" were present.[5]
26 June Kent v London Chislehurst Common rained off [3]
The Kent team was made up "out of three parishes for the county". Expectations were high but the whole day was ruined by the rain.[6]
3 July London v Chislehurst Artillery Ground Chislehurst won by 60 runs [7]
Described as "one of the best matches that has been played these many years", Chislehurst's margin of victory was substantial for the time.
22 July Surrey v London Richmond Green tied [8]
Scores are not recorded but the result was "a Tye, which occasioned the Betts to be drawn on both Sides". It is the earliest known instance of an eleven-a-side game being tied, a single wicket match was tied in 1736 between the same two teams.
31 July London v Surrey Artillery Ground unknown [2]
 
7 Sept Surrey v Slindon Merrow Down, Guildford Slindon won [9]
The Duke of Richmond in a letter to his friend the Duke of Newcastle before the match spoke of "poor little Slyndon against almost your whole county of Surrey". Next day he wrote again, saying that "wee have beat Surrey almost in one innings".

The Duchess of Richmond wrote to her husband on 9 September, and said she "wish’d..... that the Sussex mobb 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 London v Surrey Artillery Ground unknown [7][10]
Waghorn's source pre-announced the match and gave the start time as: "wickets to be pitched at half an hour past 11 o'clock".

A single -wicket match was played on 8 June between five players of London and five of Surrey at the Artillery Ground for £20 a side. The result is unknown.[7]

Other events

The earliest known match in Bedfordshire took place on 10 August involving Bedfordshire and a team from Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire.[8] The match was hosted by John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, who captained Bedfordshire. The Northants/Hunts team included its patrons George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax (Northants) and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (Hunts).[11] A further match followed between the two teams at Cow Meadow, Northampton on 15 August which is the earliest known match in Northamptonshire.[12][8]

There was a match at Wotton Underwood in Buckinghamshire that was reportedly attended by 6,000 people. Details, including the date, are unknown except that the patrons were the Duke of Bedford (who lost) and Richard Grenville.[10]

Among the main primary sources for the events of the 1741 season are letters written by Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and his wife Duchess Sarah. 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.[13][14] In other letters to Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, the Duke spoke about a game on 28 July which resulted in a brawl with "hearty blows" and "broken heads." The game was at Portslade between Slindon and unnamed opponents.[15]

First mentions

Counties

Clubs and teams

Players

Venues

References
  1. ACS, p.21.
  2. Other matches in England 1741, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
  3. Waghorn, 1899, p.26.
  4. Maun, p.104.
  5. McCann, p.18.
  6. Maun, p.105.
  7. Waghorn 1906, p.12.
  8. Waghorn 1899, p.27.
  9. McCann, pp.20–21.
  10. Maun, p.108.
  11. Maun, pp.106–107.
  12. Man, p.106.
  13. McCann.
  14. Marshall.
  15. McCann, p.20.
  16. Buckley, p.16.
  17. Main, p.99.

Bibliography
  • ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
  • Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
  • McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
  • 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.
  • Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
  • Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.

Further reading
  • 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.
  • Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
  • Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
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