1758 English cricket season
Cricket season review
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Details have survived of one major eleven-a-side match in the 1758 English cricket season, and one single wicket event.[note 1]
London & Surrey v Kent
In the only "great match" of the season, a combined London & Surrey team played against Kent.[5] The venue is uncertain, and it is possible that a return game took place at any of about five venues, but the report in the General Evening Post (three weeks later) is very ambiguous. This match was played 16/17 August, probably on the Artillery Ground, and was won by London & Surrey.[6]
Single wicket
A "fives" game was held on Kennington Common in August. Tom Faulkner, one of the Harris brothers, and three more of the London club defeated five players from various Surrey clubs by three wickets.[7]
Impact of the war
The reduction in the number of matches was essentially due to the Seven Years' War. In G. B. Buckley's Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, he recorded a number of inter-parish games including: Saffron Walden v Cambridge; Faversham v Tenterden; Faversham v Dover; New Romney v Ashford. The presence of these and the absence of "great matches" suggests a lack of investment and resource in the game during wartime with the sport falling back onto its parish roots.[6]
Notes
- Some eleven-a-side matches played from 1772 to 1863 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources.[1] However, the term only came into common use around 1864, when overarm bowling was legalised. It was formally defined as a standard by a meeting at Lord's, in May 1894, of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the county clubs which were then competing in the County Championship. The ruling was effective from the beginning of the 1895 season, but pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective.[2] Matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status.[3] Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as important or, at least, historically significant.[4] For further information, see First-class cricket.