1741 English cricket season
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The 1741 English cricket season was notable for the first appearance in recorded matches of the famous Slindon Cricket Club.
Much of our knowledge is based on letters written by the Duke and Duchess of Richmond to each other and to the Duke of Newcastle. The gloating letter by the Duchess after "little Slindon" beat "almost your whole county of Surrey" is particularly illuminating about the values and refreshingly frank attitudes of the time. A Victorian duchess could never have written such a letter as she would be ruled by politeness and protocol.
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[edit] Honours
[edit] Matches
| Date | Match Title | Venue | Result | |
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| 1 June (M) | Surrey v London [3] | Charlwood, Surrey | Surrey won | |
| 15 June (M) | London v Surrey [3] | Artillery Ground | result unknown | |
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The second match was announced in the report of the first. |
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| 15 June (M) | Slindon v Portsmouth [4] | Stansted Park | Slindon won by 9 wkts | |
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This is the earliest report of a match involving Slindon, though the club must have been playing for some time beforehand. The Duke of Richmond in a letter said that "above 5000 people" were present. In a second letter, he gives the result. |
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| c.26 June (F) | Kent v London [3] | Chislehurst | rained off | |
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An interesting comment about the Kent team was that it was "eleven out of three parishes for the county". Expectations were high but the whole day was ruined by the rain. |
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| 3 July (F) | London v Chislehurst [5] | Artillery Ground | Chislehurst won by 60 runs | |
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"One of the best matches that has been played these many years". However, Chislehurst seem to have won it easily enough by quite a large margin. |
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| 22 July (W) | Surrey v London [3] | Richmond Green | tied | |
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This is the earliest known instance of a game being tied. Unfortunately the scores are not recorded but "the bets (were) drawn on both sides"! . |
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| c.31 July (F) | London v Surrey [3] | Artillery Ground | result unknown | |
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Interest in this match must have been high after the previous one was tied but surprisingly there is no report. |
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| 7 September (M) | Surrey v Slindon [4] | Merrow Down, Guildford | Slindon won | |
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The Duke of Richmond in a letter to Newcastle before the game spoke of "poor little Slyndon (sic) against almost your whole county of Surrey". Next day he wrote again, saying that "wee (sic) have beat Surrey almost in one innings". The Duchess of Richmond wrote to her husband on Wed 9 September and said she "wish’d..... that the Sussex mobb (sic) had thrash’d the Surrey mob". She had "a grudge to those fellows ever since they mob’d you" (apparently a reference to the Richmond Green fiasco in August 1731). She then said she wished the Duke "had won more of their moneys". |
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| 14 September (M) | London v Surrey [5] | Artillery Ground | result unknown | |
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"Wickets to pitched at half an hour past 11 o’clock". |
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[edit] Other Events
Thu 9 July. In a letter to her husband, the Duchess of Richmond mentioned a conversation with John Newland re a Slindon v East Dean match at Long Down, near Eartham, a week earlier. This seems to be the first recorded mention of any of the Newland family [4].
Tues 28 July. In two subsequent letters to the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke of Richmond spoke about a game on this date which resulted in a brawl with "hearty blows" and "broken heads"! The game was at Portslade between Slindon and unnamed opponents. Apparently, Slindon won the battle but the result of the match is unknown! [4]
Tues 18 August. A match played on the Cow Meadow near Northampton between two teams of amateurs from Northants and Bucks is the earliest known instance of cricket in Northamptonshire [6].
Mon 10 August. There was a match at Woburn Park between a Bedfordshire XI and a combined Northants and Huntingdonshire XI [3]. Woburn Cricket Club under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford was on the point of becoming a well known club (see 1742 English cricket season) [6].
[edit] The Duke and Duchess of Richmond
Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (1701 - 1750) married Lady Sarah Cadogan (1706 - 1751), daughter of William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan, on 4 December 1719 at The Hague, Netherlands. They had eight children including Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (1733 - 1806).
It seems that the marriage of Richmond to Duchess Sarah was a success and that was not always the case among the Georgian aristocracy. The Duchess took a keen interest in all the Duke's doings including his cricket. Several references and letters written by her, including some financial accounts, have survived. Her stout support of her husband in the matter of her grudge against the "Surrey mob" is not only historically interesting but says a great deal about the obvious affection between them and it is noticeable that she did not long survive him [7].
[edit] References
- ^ An unofficial seasonal title proclaimed by media or historians prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship was constituted
- ^ Champion counties from 1728
- ^ a b c d e f H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
- ^ a b c d Timothy J McCann, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Sussex Record Society, 2004
- ^ a b H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
- ^ a b G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
- ^ From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300–1787
[edit] External sources
[edit] Further reading
- H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
- Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
- Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
- David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000
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