Overview of English Cricket From 1816 To 1863 - Equipment and Fashion

Equipment and Fashion

Changes in fashion affected the sport and a reaction to the virility cult espoused by Beauclerk and his ilk brought about the introduction of safer equipment such as padded leg-guards and padded gloves. Wicketkeeping gloves were first mentioned about 1820 and were in general use by 1850. Batting pads had been proposed much earlier, particularly by Robert Robinson, but it was not until the horrific leg injury suffered by Alfred Mynn in 1836 from a ball by Sam Redgate that pads were seen as an essential item of equipment.

Curiously, whereas Sam Redgate was viewed with trepidation in terms of his pace, he was very much a reactionary in fashion terms. Among professionals in the 1830s, he was said to be the last to discard breeches in favour of trousers! Trousers have existed since ancient times but never became fashionable until the sans-culottes of the French Revolution. In England, they began to replace breeches during the Napoleonic War and were widely in use by 1815. Redgate was not alone in his preference for breeches: the Eton and Harrow teams still wore them in 1830.

With trousers came the belts with metal clasps that remained popular until well into the 20th century. Many professionals preferred braces.

Wigs went out with the 18th century and men followed the lead of Napoleon Bonaparte by having their long hair cut short. The Hambledon players had worn hats when playing and this fashion persisted except that the style of hat changed dramatically. By 1830, the tall "beaver" hats familiar in pictures of William Lillywhite and Fuller Pilch had become common. These would be either black or white. Many players preferred a straw hat based on the rural style but these were replaced by white bowler hats, first worn by I Zingari in 1845, which were usually adorned with a ribbon in club colours.

The tall hats were replaced before 1850 by the flannel cap which tended to be either white or chequered. Then the familiar cricket cap began to appear. The schools adopted these first: Eton (light blue) and Winchester (blue) in 1851; Harrow (striped) in 1852. The blue caps worn by Cambridge and Oxford date from about 1861 and 1863 respectively. The county clubs gradually introduced their own caps thereafter though the amateurs still tended to wear their school caps.

Coloured shirts were worn in the middle years of the century as team uniforms, though all were a pattern on a white background (e.g., the All-England Eleven wore white shirts with pink spots). The frilled shirts of Georgian times were replaced by plain cloth. Some players wore high collars and many used a rather large bow tie.

Footwear was almost universally confined to the black "Oxford" shoe.

A kind of short white flannel jackets had originally been mentioned as early as 1812 and this was probably an early form of blazer.