User:BlackJack/box2

Berkshire played their first eleven-a-side match as an individual county team on 8 June, when they hosted Surrey on Datchet Common.^[6] The match was reported by the St James Chronicle on Tuesday, 13 June. Surrey won by 6 runs.^[7]

Monday, 29 May 1775. There was a game at Old Field in Bray between the Maidenhead and Risborough clubs with Lumpy Stevens assisting the former, while a player called Briggs was a given man for Risborough. This is the first reference found that is specific to the Maidenhead (aka Old Field) Club at Old Field, Bray. This club shortly became synonymous with Berkshire as a county team.^[8]

In the final years of the 18th century, Berkshire was one of the leading county teams. Signs of their emergence were becoming apparent in 1779, beginning with a match in Maidenhead on 12 July. A team called the Berkshire Club (probably the Oldfield Cricket Club) played against a combined Hampshire & Berkshire team. It was announced a week earlier in the Reading Mercury, but the result is unknown.^[9]

Next, on an unknown date in August, Berkshire travelled to Odiham Down for a match against Alresford. Again, the result is unknown. The Reading Mercury announced on the 9th that the match would be "some time in August". It said Alresford would combine with "some of the Hambledon Club against "the County of Berkshire with the Maidenhead Club".^[9]

Much later in the season, There was a match at Henley between Berkshire and "the County of Oxford" for £25 a side. This is one of the earliest references to cricket in Oxfordshire, outside of the University of Oxford.^[9]

A single innings match took place 8 August between Maidenhead and Chertsey. The venue was Priestwood Common. Maidenhead won by 5 runs. A handful of Maidenhead's players in this game later played for the Oldfield club.^[10]

Four matches involved teams from Berkshire. Maidenhead played Odiham twice in July, and both were won by Odiham.^[11] Maidenhead played against Buckinghamshire in August and won by 124 runs.^[11] In September, there was an inter-county match between Oxfordshire and Berkshire, but the result is unknown.^[12]

Maidenhead defeated Chertsey by 6 wickets in September.^[13]

Odiham defeated "the Berkshire Club" on Odiham Down in October.^[13]

Odiham and Maidenhead played each other twice, Odiham winning both games.^[14]

In September, Chertsey played Berkshire on Laleham Burway. Tom Taylor was a given man for Berkshire, and scored 93 out of 179. Of the 22 players involved, only seven are known to have had significant careers. Berkshire won by 10 wickets.^[15]

Berkshire played Buckinghamshire twice, winning the first by an innings and 21 runs. The result of the second is not on record.^[16]

There were three inter-county matches of a good standard. All involved Essex who played Middlesex (twice) and Berkshire. The first Middlesex v Essex match was in May on Kennington Common, for £500 a side. Middlesex had George Boult and William Fennex as given men. Essex won by 6 wickets.^[17]

Essex met Berkshire in June on Datchet Common. Berkshire won by 148 runs.^[17] The return match against Middlesex was also in June, at Langton Park, in Hornchurch. The stake was 100 guineas, but the result is unknown.^[18]

Buckinghamshire defeated Hertfordshire by 16 runs at Nottis Green, in Beaconsfield. Later, Buckinghamshire met Berkshire and lost by 215 runs.^[18][17]

In September, Berkshire played a combined Buckinghamshire & Middlesex XI at Warfield. Several good players were involved, such as William Bedster, William Fennex, and George Boult. The result is unknown.^[19]

H. T. Waghorn's Dawn of Cricket in 1786 has games involving the Farnham club of Surrey and the Warfield club of Berkshire. It is known that these teams were often augmented by given men like Lumpy Stevens and David Harris, but it has to be assumed that these are parish matches only, the same applying to the Guildford and Godalming teams which also appear in Waghorn's book. While some brief details of the matches are known, the results are usually not. An exception to that is when Farnham and Warfield played each other on Holt Pound in June, as Farnham won by 7 wickets.^[20]

The secondary sources are sometimes confusing on the subject of the Oldfield Cricket Club at Bray, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. The team featured in several major matches during the late 18th century and was an important team at this time as it had a high playing standard and numerous recognised players. The team is sometimes referred to as the Oldfield Club or as Maidenhead, but the Oldfield Club presented itself as representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex, so its team might be styled Berkshire.

There were two matches between MCC and Berkshire in 1793. The first, at Lord's Old Ground (Lord's), ended in a win for Berkshire by 119 runs.^[21] To further the confusion, S&B called it MCC v The Oldfield Club. The ACS Guide says the game should be called MCC v Maidenhead yet in several other fixtures they use Oldfield. The Oldfield club played at Oldfield Bray, near Maidenhead. Berkshire had a high standard at this time. The second match was on Oldfield Bray, and Berkshire won by 85 runs.^[22]

Berkshire lost twice to MCC in July.^[23] They recovered to win a third match by 7 runs,^[24] and then a fourth by 6 wickets.^[24] At the end of August, Berkshire defeated Kent by 49 runs.^[25]

Berkshire had two matches at Lord's. They lost to Middlesex by 233 runs in July,^[26] and to MCC by 2 wickets in August.^[27]