1756 English cricket season

Cricket season review November 2025 November 2025 1755 1755 English cricket season 1757 1757 English cricket season Details have survived of five eleven-a-side matches in the 1756 English cricket season, and one notable single wicket match. All of them are historically important.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. The season may be said to mark the beginning of the so-called "Hambledon Era", as the Hambledon team played in three matches against Dartford, one of the strongest teams in the 18th century. Hambledon was then probably run by a parish organisation, rather than by the famous club itself, which is believed to have been formed in about 1765. The Seven Years' War began in 1756 and ended in 1763. There was a reduction in the number of "great matches" while it lasted, as later happened in the Napoleonic Wars, and in the two World Wars. It is probable that cricket's first bowling revolution occurred sometime during, or soon after, the Seven Years' War. Bowlers were certainly pitching the ball by 1770, but there are no surviving reports to describe the reception that pitching had when it was tried and implemented. Dartford v Hambledon Dartford played Hambledon three times in 1756.ACS 1981 23 The date and venue of the first match are unknown.Waghorn 2005 30–31 The second match was played 18 August on Broadhalfpenny Down, and the third 30 August on the Artillery Ground. It is known that Dartford won all three matches.Waghorn 2005 30–31 The match on Broadhalfpenny Down is known because of a famous advert in the Reading Mercury newspaper concerning a dog called Rover, whose owner lost him at the match. He was offering five shillings for Rover's return, but it is not known if the dog was recovered.Maun 2011 66 It should be said that the advert does not conclusively prove that Hambledon was playing Dartford that day, but in the light of subsequent reports it seems a more than reasonable assumption.Maun 2011 66 Nothing is known of the first match except that the last of the three on Monday, 30 August, was billed as "the deciding match between the two elevens", and played for £50 a side.Maun 2011 66–67 Furthermore, in the Public Advertiser announcement for the London v Dartford match on 6 September, Dartford is said to have "beat Hampshire (sic) 3 matches successively".Waghorn 2005 30–31 London v Dartford The teams met twice in September, but neither result is known.ACS 1981 23 The first, 6 September on the Artillery Ground, was played for £50 a side. London had John Bryant, Joe Harris, William Durling, and George Smith playing for them.Waghorn 2005 30–31 The notice for that match confirmed that the second match would be played 9 September "on Dartford Brim (sic) by the same gentlemen".Waghorn 2005 30–31 Other events In Dawn of Cricket, H. T. Waghorn records a pre-announcement that a "fives" game involving Hambledon would be played on Saturday, 28 August at the Artillery Ground. The Hambledon players are unnamed but their opponents were a strong team: Tom Faulkner, Joe Harris, John Frame, John Bell, and William Durling. No details of the result were recorded. Stakes were £20 a side. This may have been a curtain-raiser for the main event on Monday, 30 August.Waghorn 2005 30–31 The Seven Years' War began, officially, on 17 May, when Britain formally declared war on France.His Majesty's Declaration of War Against the French King. [17 May, 1756.] 1 January 1756 T. Baskett and the Assigns of R. Baskett https://books.google.com/books?id=QHw4MwEACAAJ The impact of this war on cricket can be seen in the ACS' Important Matches booklet. It has only sixteen entries for all seven seasons from 1757 to 1763, with none at all in 1760.ACS 1981 23 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 Maun Ian Ian Maun From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770 2011 Martin Wilson Leicester 978-09-56906-60-1 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 Wilson Martin An Index to Waghorn Bodyline Books (limited edition, by subscription only) London 2005 Category:1750s in cricket Category:English cricket seasons in the 18th century Category:1756 in England