Slindon Cricket Club - "Poor Little Slyndon"

"Poor Little Slyndon"

The last mention of Slindon, now in reality poor little Slyndon, was in a match on 21 and 22 June 1754 against Midhurst & Petworth on Bowling Green, Lavington Common. This was clearly a village match only. Slindon apparently lost by eight wickets and the match seems to mark the great little club's swansong for it was not mentioned in the sources thereafter. Sussex cricket as a whole went into decline and, although a number of inter-parish games were reported over the next decade or so, it was not until 1766 that a Sussex team again appeared in a major match.

References to the Hambledon Club, particularly those in the works of G B Buckley, strongly suggest that Hambledon was the organiser of matches played not just by a Hampshire county team but by a combined Hampshire-Sussex team. A number of Sussex cricketers are known to have played for Hambledon during its glory days: one of them being Edward "Curry" Aburrow, son of the notorious Slindon smuggler; and another being none other than the club captain Richard Nyren, who was born in Sussex and was the nephew of the three Newland brothers.