18th Century
Hampshire was used in a team name for the first time in August 1729, when a combined Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex XI played against Kent.
The earliest known cricket match to have been played in Hampshire took place on Tues 22 May 1733. It was at Stubbington, near Portsmouth, between Married v Single. The Married team won. Details were found by Martin Wilson in the American Weekly Mercury, a Philadelphia newspaper dated 20 to 27 September 1733. Mr Wilson subsequently found an earlier version of the report in an English newspaper, the 18 June 1733 edition of Parker's Penny Post.
Read more about this topic: Hampshire County Cricket Teams