1729 English cricket season

The 1729 English cricket season was the 33rd cricket season since the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. Details have survived of six matches, the earliest known innings victory is believed to have happened and the earliest known surviving cricket bat dates from the season.

1729 English cricket season

Recorded matches

Records of the following matches exist:[1][2]

Date Teams Venue Result Source
24 June Kent v Sussex Walworth Common result unknown [3]
The match was for fifty pounds per side with a play or pay rule agreed. It is the earliest match featuring a team that is expressly called Sussex, though teams raised by patrons in earlier seasons are understood to have been composed mainly of Sussex players. Not recorded by CricketArchive.
30 July Dartford v London Dartford Brent result unknown [4]
The teams were described as "the Gentlemen of Dartford and London". The stake was £50. Not recorded by CricketArchive.
5 August London v Dartford Kennington Common Dartford won [5]
Described thus: "a great Cricket Match at Kennington Common between the Londoners and the Dartford men, for a considerable Sum of Money, Wager and Betts, and the latter beat the former very much".[6]
26 August Surrey v Kent Farnham result unknown [6]
The Daily Journal on 26 August reported that a match would be played same day near Farnham between "Mr Steed of Kent and his Company, against the best Players in the County of Surrey".[6] Not recorded by CricketArchive.
28 August Edwin Stead's XI v Sir William Gage's XI Penshurst Park Sir William Gage's XI won [7][8]
Stead v Gage was alternatively titled Kent (Stead's XI) v Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire (Gage's XI). It was an 11-a-side match played for 100 guineas with "some thousands" watching.[7] The match seems to have resulted in the earliest known innings victory as Gage's XI "got (within three) in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men threw it up". The report added that Thomas Waymark, "a groom of the 2nd Duke of Richmond signalised himself by extraordinary agility and dexterity".[7]

The report then states that Waymark "turned the scale of victory, which for some years past has been generally on the Kentish side".[7]

September Hampshire, Surrey & Sussex v Kent The Downs, Lewes result unknown [7]
A report dated 13 September says that: "the great match played at Penshurst will be played again in Sussex".[7]

In several sources, a Gentlemen of Middlesex v Gentlemen of London match is listed as due to take place in Islington on 5 August 1728.[8][7][9][10] Research suggests that this match may have been played in 1729.[11]

Other events
The oldest cricket bat still in existence dates from 1729. Note the shape, which is more like that of a modern-day hockey stick than a modern-day cricket bat. It is kept in the Sandham Room in the Member's Pavilion at The Oval

A bat which belonged to John Chitty of Knaphill in Surrey which is dated 1729 is the oldest known cricket bat. It is on display in the Pavilion at The Oval.[12]

Samuel Johnson attended the University of Oxford from October 1728 until the following summer and later told James Boswell that cricket matches were played there. Boswell mentioned this in his Life of Samuel Johnson.[3]

A local game in Gloucester on Monday, 22 September is the earliest known reference to cricket in Gloucestershire.[12]

First mentions

Clubs and teams

Venues

References
  1. ACS, Important Matches, p.19.
  2. Other matches in England 1729, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-02. (subscription required)
  3. Maun 2009, p.38.
  4. Maun 2009, pp.38–39.
  5. Buckley, p.3.
  6. Maun 2009, p.39.
  7. Waghorn, p.7.
  8. Wilson, p.50.
  9. Maun 2009, p.37.
  10. Other matches in England 1728, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2019-01-03. (subscription required)
  11. Maun 2011, p.248.
  12. Bowen, p.263.
  13. Buckley, p.7.

Bibliography
  • ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
  • Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
  • Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
  • Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9.
  • Maun, Ian (2011). From Commons to Lord's, Volume Two: 1751 to 1770. Martin Wilson. ISBN 978 0 9569066 0 1.
  • Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
  • Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.

Further reading
  • Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
  • Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
  • Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
  • Marshall, John (1961). The Duke who was Cricket. Muller.
  • McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
  • Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.
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