1731 English cricket season

On 23 August, a Monday, there was a riot on Richmond Green when crowd anger exploded after the 2nd Duke of Richmond insisted upon strict adherence to the Articles of Agreement drawn by himself and his opponent Thomas Chambers (1677–1750), a Middlesex patron who was a great-grandfather of Lord Frederick Beauclerk.^[2]

The match was the third, possibly a decider, played between these two teams who had met on each of the two previous Mondays—the first was at Richmond Green on the 9th (result unknown) with a return at Chichester on the 16th (Chambers won). The start and finish times, specified in the Articles, were two pm and seven pm. Richmond and his team arrived late, so start of play was delayed. Evidently, the large crowd expected the lost time to be added on at the end. Richmond, whose team were losing, insisted on ending the match as soon as the clock struck seven. The gambling odds were on Chambers, and his backers were furious that Lennox would not play on, so they rioted.^[4]

According to the London Evening Post:^[5]

Chambers' team coming in again wanted about 8 or 10 notches when the hour agreed on being come, they were obliged to leave off, though the hands then playing, they had four of five more to come in. Thus it proved a drawn battle.

The match is significant in another aspect because it is the earliest of which team totals are known, though no individual scores were recorded. Richmond's XI batted first and were all out for 79, to which Chambers' XI replied with 119 for a first innings lead of 40. Richmond's XI were dismissed for 72 in their second innings, leaving Chambers' XI with a target of 33 to win. Their precise total at the end is uncertain, but the wording of the report suggests they had scored from 23 to 25 runs for the loss of five or six wickets.^[6]

During the riot, some of Richmond's players had "the shirts torn off their backs", and one report said "a law suit would commence about the play".^[7] However, the brief report of a different match on 6 September implied that Richmond had conceded the result to Chambers: "11 of Surrey beat the 11 who about a fortnight ago beat the Duke of Richmond's men".^[7]

Teams that were nominally counties took part in ten matches altogether. Nomenclature at this time was indefinite, so a team called Kent or Surrey might actually have been Dartford or Chertsey, for example. London Cricket Club played four matches against teams with county names: Kent on 24 May (Kent won by 3 runs) and 8 June (London won); Surrey on 17 April (London won by 35 runs) and 28 September (result unknown). Surrey defeated Thomas Chambers' XI on 6 September, as mentioned above, and played two other matches against parish teams; Kent also played one against parish opposition.^[8][9][6]

Only two matches were "inter-county", inasmuch as both teams had county names. These were Kent v Middlesex at Kennington Common on 19 July, and Surrey v Kent at Dulwich Common on 4 September. The Kent v Middlesex match was billed in advance as "the County of Kent v. the County of Middlesex, for £50 a side", but the result is unknown.^[10] In the second match, Surrey in their second innings needed twelve to win with three wickets in hand when heavy rain began, and it was ended as a draw.^[11]

Only one single wicket match is in the known records. It was played in July, at a venue in Maidstone, between two Royal Horse Guards officers called Captain Beak and Lieutenant Coke. The brief report said "a considerable sum of money" was at stake, and Beak won after three hours "very hard played".^[12]

The main source for this match is H. T. Waghorn, who remarked that it was the first "military match" he found in his researches. Nothing is known about the playing standards of Beak or Coke, or if either of them played for Kent or another county, but many Army officers did play in important matches through the 18th and 19th centuries.^[12] Two examples were Colonel Charles Lennox (1764–1819) and Captain Charles Cumberland (1764–1835), both members of the White Conduit Club and, in 1787, original members of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Colonel Lennox became the 4th Duke of Richmond in 1806, and was the 2nd Duke's grandson.^[13]

The earliest known ground enclosures were done this year. The playing area on Kennington Common was roped off twice in an attempt to keep spectators off the field. A notice for the London v Sevenoaks match on 12 July said the ground would be roped around, and all persons must stay outside of it.^[16]

Surrey v London on 28 September was promoted as "likely to be the best performance of this kind that has been seen for some time, there being great wagers depending", and the Prince of Wales was expected to attend. The notice also stated: "for the convenience of the gamesters, the ground is to be staked and roped out".^[11]

It is not known when admission fees were introduced but there was certainly a two pence charge in place at the Artillery Ground by the early 1740s.^[19]