1732 English cricket season

Cricket season review November 2025 November 2025 1731 1731 English cricket season 1733 1733 English cricket season In the 1732 English cricket season, a total of twelve historically important matches are known to have been arranged, though they may not all have been played.note status Any match listed in the ACS' Important Match Guide (1981) is historically important, and therefore of the highest standard, whether or not a scorecard might exist. The same applies to numerous matches discovered by researchers since 1981.ACS 1981 1–40 For further information, see First-class cricket. Most of the matches involved London Cricket Club, who sometimes played against county teams. In August, the Whitehall Evening Post reported that the Prince of Wales attended "a great cricket match" at Kew on 27 July.Maun 2009 55–58 The London club continued to predominate and it was said that its team did not lose a game, although a team called London did lose to Croydon in May. The Artillery Ground came into more frequent use and its keeper, Christopher Jones, was mentioned in one newspaper report. Cricket at this time was still played with two stumps and a bat shaped like a modern hockey stick, which was the ideal implement for dealing with a ball being bowled along the ground, as in bowls. There was still no indication of the major rule changes that transformed the sport into its modern guise. Croydon v London The first match in the records was played on 8 May (a Monday) between Croydon and London on Walworth Common.ACS 1981 20 A newspaper reported that Croydon won "by great odds".Buckley 1935 6 However, at the end of the season, another report said:Buckley 1935 8 This is the thirteenth match the London gamesters have played this year and not lost one match. Despite the contradictory statement in the second report, there is sufficient evidence that London did lose to Croydon in May.Buckley 1935 6–8 London v Surrey London played three matches (possibly four) against Surrey. One result is unknown, one match was drawn, and London won one. Their first meeting was at the Artillery Ground on 7 June, and London won by eight runs.ACS 1981 20 Researcher G. B. Buckley found two reports in the St James Evening Post. The first, a pre-match notice on 6 June, said that "a very great sum of money" was at stake, that the ground would be staked, and "all gentlemen are desired to keep outside the rope". The second report on 8 June simply reported that "London won by 8 notches [i.e., runs]".Buckley 1935 7 The teams met again on 26 June at Sanderstead Downs, near Croydon.ACS 1981 20 A post-match report said, somewhat ambiguously, that "the London gamesters got 77 ahead the last hands [i.e., innings] and but 4 men out, time not permitting them to play it out", which means the match was drawn.Buckley 1935 7 The third match began at the Artillery Ground on 29 August, but it was unfinished at seven o'clock, and a report said "(they) are to play it again on Monday, 11 September".ACS 1981 20Waghorn 2005 11 It is not known if the replay ever took place.Buckley 1935 7 London v Middlesex thumb|right|Cricket pavilion on Kew Green today. London also played three matches against Middlesex. The first was scheduled for 7 August, a pre-match notice stating that the venue would be "the field behind the Woolpack at Islington". If it was played, the result is unknown.ACS 1981 20Buckley 1935 7 The other two matches, on 4 and 13 September, are known from the pre-match notice for the second which said: ".... (those players involved on Wednesday, 13 September) will be the same persons that played Monday, 4 Sept., at Kew Green". The result of that match is unknown.Buckley 1935 8 On 13 September, the teams met at the Artillery Ground, and the result was a draw.ACS 1981 20 The circumstances were controversial, as the report states:Buckley 1935 8 Middlesex went in first and got 88 notches; the Londoners got 84; the County went in again and got 58; the Londoners then went in for 63 notches to win; they got 56 and but four men out, when one of the County men would not play any longer, pretending the time was expired as they were to play to, which was six o'clock, although there wanted six minutes of the time by the scorer's watch. The London gamesters intend to go to law for the money, there being upward of £100 depending on the game. This is the thirteenth match the London gamesters have played this year and not lost one match. As mentioned earlier, the last sentence is contradicted by the evidence of the match on 8 May, which London lost to Croydon.Buckley 1935 8 Other events Christopher Jones There is a reference in The Craftsman dated Saturday, 26 February to Mr Christopher Jones, Master of the Artillery Ground, at the "Pied Horse" in Chiswell Street (which abounded the ground).Buckley 1937 1 5 and 12 June Confusion surrounds two matches which London reportedly played on Monday, 5 June, and Monday, 12 June. In the first, a London team apparently met a combined Brentford & Sunbury team on Walworth Common, and won "by very considerable odds".Buckley 1935 6Maun 2009 55 However, F. S. Ashley-Cooper says London played Kent at Dartford Brent on 5 June, with the result unrecorded.Ashley-Cooper 1929 7 Although G. B. Buckley had included the Brentford & Sunbury game against London on the 5th,Buckley 1935 6 he later quoted The Craftsman saying that the match was "the whole County of Kent against the City of London and Bills of Mortality, to be played on Walworth Common".Buckley 1935 237 According to the Dartford Cricket Club website in December 2005, the Kent v London game took place on the 12th. The site quoted a report in the Whitehall Evening Post, dated 18 June: "Kent lost to London on the Brent after 6/4 being laid against London in the middle of the game".http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/cricket/ladstolords/1731.html History of Cricket: 1732 Stumpsite 2007 25 April 2026 10 October 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20121010153250/http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/cricket/ladstolords/1731.html dead http://www.dartfordcc.co.uk/ History of cricket in Dartford Dartford Cricket Club 27 December 2005 25 April 2026 Internet Archive 27 December 2005 https://web.archive.org/web/20051227022703/http://www.dartfordcc.co.uk/ dead London v Essex & Hertfordshire There was a match in Epping Forest on 6 July in which London played a combined Essex & Hertfordshire team.ACS 1981 20 It is the earliest known reference to Essex as, in part at least, a county team. The terms were "for £50 a side, play or pay; wickets to be pitched at one o’clock precisely or forfeit half the money". The match is also the earliest recorded mention of cricket in connection with the county of Hertfordshire.Buckley 1935 7 Kew Green The Whitehall Evening Post reported on Thursday, 3 August that there was a "great cricket match" at Kew Green on Thursday, 27 July, attended by the Prince of Wales. Neither the team names nor the result were recorded.Buckley 1935 7 First mentions Counties HertfordshireBuckley 1935 7ACS 1981 20 Clubs and teams Brentford & SunburyBuckley 1935 6Maun 2009 55 EssexBuckley 1935 7ACS 1981 20 Essex & HertfordshireBuckley 1935 7ACS 1981 20 HertfordshireBuckley 1935 7ACS 1981 20 Players Christopher Jones (Artillery Ground keeper)Buckley 1937 1 Venues Epping ForestBuckley 1935 7ACS 1981 20 Notes note References Bibliography ACS Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863 1981 ACS Nottingham https://archive.acscricket.com/online_library/match_guides/bi_imp_match_guide/index.html 85045528 Ashley-Cooper F. S. F. S. Ashley-Cooper Kent Cricket Matches, 1719–1880 Gibbs & Sons Canterbury 1929 220674085 Buckley G. B. G. B. Buckley Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket 1935 Cotterell & Co. Birmingham 23450280 Buckley G. B. G. B. Buckley Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket 1937 Cotterell & Co. Birmingham 23469107 Maun Ian Ian Maun From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750 2009 Roger Heavens Cambridge 978-19-00592-52-9 Waghorn H. T. H. T. Waghorn The Dawn of Cricket J. W. McKenzie London 2005 1906 978-09-47821-17-3 Further reading Altham H. S. Harry Altham E. W. Swanton E. W. Swanton A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914) 5th 1962 George Allen & Unwin London 894274808 Birley Derek Derek Birley A Social History of English Cricket 1999 Aurum Press London 978-18-54107-10-7 https://archive.org/details/socialhistoryofe0000birl_d1n5 Internet Archive Bowen Rowland Rowland Bowen Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development 1970 Eyre & Spottiswoode London 978-04-13278-60-9 Major John John Major More Than A Game 2007 HarperCollins London 978-00-07183-64-7 https://archive.org/details/morethangamestor0000majo_b8t0 Internet Archive Marshall John John Marshall (cricket writer) The Duke Who Was Cricket Frederick Muller Ltd London 1961 11214571 Wilson Martin An Index to Waghorn Bodyline Books (limited edition, by subscription only) London 2005 Category:1730s in cricket Category:English cricket seasons in the 18th century Category:1732 in England