1798 English cricket season
Cricket season review
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Matches involving town clubs became more commonplace in the 1798 English cricket season, and only a handful of county teams were active. Details of 20 matches are known, but few were historically important.[note 1]
Matches
The important matches in 1798 involved either or both of England and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). They played each twice on Lord's Old Ground (Lord's), and MCC won both timesâby 17 runs in June,[5] and by 7 wickets in July.[6] England defeated Surrey three times, all of the matches played at Lord'sâby 128 runs in June,[7] by an innings & 12 runs,[8] and by 13 runs, also in August.[9]
Other events
As in 1797, the Montpelier Cricket Club had a fairly strong team, especially with given men. They played two matches against MCC, winning by 55 runs at Lord's,[10] but losing by 175 runs in Montpelier Gardens.[11] Other town club matches, mostly recorded by Samuel Britcher, involved Croydon Cricket Club and Woolwich Cricket Club.[12]
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.