1771 English Cricket Season - Matches

Reported in the Kent Weekly Post aka Canterbury Journal on Tues 2 July and again on Tues 16 July. This match was the first of a series of games this year between teams that were apparently "gentlemen only". The games were also titled Tenterden & Benenden versus Northiam & Peasmarsh.

The Gazzetteer advertised both games on Mon 8 July but no post-match reports were found.

Second in the series of gentlemen’s matches (see 3 July above). Two other matches were played possibly in August at Sevenoaks Vine and Laleham Burway, but there are no details and they may again be "gentlemen only" games.

Reported in the St James Chronicle on Thurs 8 August.

Third in the series of gentlemen’s matches (see 3 & 30 July above).

Hambledon scored 65 and 90; All-England took a sizeable first innings lead with 146 and needed only 10-0 to win the game convincingly.

The game was reported in the London Gazetteer on Fri 16 August.

This match and the next one were played by amateur gentlemen. The teams are given and they are local reverends and the like only, although a few names like de Burgh, Ridge and Cotton can be associated with Hambledon. These are therefore minor matches.

The source lists the team changes but they make no difference to the minor status of the match.

The reports indicate that the game was not determined on account of a dispute having arisen by one of the Sheffield players being jostled. It seems the intention was for each team to play 3 innings each. The end details we have are that Sheffield was 60 ahead with Nottingham yet to bat. Sheffield scored 81, 62 and 105 for a total of 248, but we don’t know if 105 was an all out total or not. Nottingham had scored 76 and 112 for a total of 188 with another innings in hand.

The reports mentions a Sheffield batsman called Osguthorpe (sic) who "kept in batting for several hours together". But his name is not among the two lists of players given in S&B, one under 26 August 1771 and another under 1 June 1772 (see details under that date). The lists are evidently the same team but with slight differences for each match. As Osguthorpe is not included, they must be the Nottingham players only. The players are: Coleman (2 appearances), Turner (2), Loughman (2), Roe (2), Spurr (2), Stocks (2), Collishaw (2), Troop (2), Mew (2), Bamford (1), Gladwin (1), Huythwaite (1), Rawson (1).

This match is the earliest known reference to cricket in Nottinghamshire.

It is believed that the origin of Notts CCC lies in this same Nottingham club that apparently came into existence around 1770. The club seems to have undergone some form of reorganisation in 1835 when its team was first recognised as Nottinghamshire county, rather than Nottingham town. The present Nottinghamshire CCC was formally established in 1841.

The Sheffield club organised county matches in Yorkshire from the mid-1700s, its teams in important matches being representative of Yorkshire as a county until in 1863 it was the main participant in the official formation of Yorkshire CCC.

Middlesex & Surrey (i.e., Duke of Dorset’s XI) scored 66 & 25; Bourne Club (Horace Mann’s XI) replied with 53 & 37. Apparently, Dorset’s XI was short of three batsmen in its second innings.

There is a report of this game in the Kent Weekly Post but in another connection. The game caused the postponement of a benefit occasion for a Mrs Dyer at the Canterbury Theatre, which had been scheduled for the same day. Presumably, the Duke of Dorset and his cronies wanted to attend both functions.

Mann’s XI (Bourne Club) scored 65 & 82; Dorset’s XI replied with 58 & 90-9. Apparently, the last wicket pair needed 27 to win the game.

Team totals (both innings combined) were Hambledon 218 and Chertsey 217. The match was for £50 a side and the articles decreed that it must be played out. It was concluded on the Tuesday evening.

Thomas "Daddy" White of Reigate (often confused with Shock White of Brentford) used his extra wide bat whilst playing for Chertsey in this game. The Hambledon players objected. A formal protest was written by Thomas Brett and signed by himself, Richard Nyren and John Small. It brought about a change in the Laws of Cricket, as confirmed in 1774, whereby the maximum width of the bat was set at four and one quarter inches.

For full details of this match and its famous incident, see: Monster Bat Incident 1771.

Chertsey scored 117 and 126. Hambledon replied with 230 and 14 for 0 to win convincingly.