1741 English cricket season

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Contents

1 Season Overview
2 Matches

2.1 Other Events

3 Focus
4 Article & Match Sources

Season Overview

A season notable for the first appearance in recorded matches of the famous Slindon 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.

Matches

Date Match Title Venue Result Source
Mon 1 June Surrey v London Charlwood, Surrey Surrey won WCS
Mon 15 June London v Surrey Artillery Ground unknown WCS
The second match was announced in the report of the first.
Mon 15 June Slindon v Portsmouth Stansted Park Slindon won by 9 wickets TJM
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.
c. Fri 26 June Kent v London Chislehurst rained off WCS
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.
Fri 3 July London v Chislehurst Artillery Ground Chislehurst by 60 runs WDC
"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.
Wed 22 July Surrey v London Richmond Green tied WCS
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"! .
c. Fri 31 July London v Surrey Artillery Ground unknown WCS
Interest in this match must have been high after the previous one was tied but surprisingly there is no report.
Mon 7 Sept Surrey v Slindon Merrow Down, Guildford Slindon "almost in 1 innings" TJM
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". She wasn’t a big fan of Surrey, then?
Mon 14 Sept London v Surrey Artillery Ground unknown WDC
"Wickets to pitched at half an hour past 11 o’clock".

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result	Source
Mon 1 June	Surrey v London	Charlwood, Surrey	Surrey won	WCS
Mon 15 June	London v Surrey	Artillery Ground	unknown	WCS
The second match was announced in the report of the first.
Mon 15 June	Slindon v Portsmouth	Stansted Park	Slindon won by 9 wickets	TJM
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.
c. Fri 26 June	Kent v London	Chislehurst	rained off	WCS
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.
Fri 3 July	London v Chislehurst	Artillery Ground	Chislehurst by 60 runs	WDC
"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.
Wed 22 July	Surrey v London	Richmond Green	tied	WCS
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"! .
c. Fri 31 July	London v Surrey	Artillery Ground	unknown	WCS
Interest in this match must have been high after the previous one was tied but surprisingly there is no report.
Mon 7 Sept	Surrey v Slindon	Merrow Down, Guildford	Slindon "almost in 1 innings"	TJM
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". She wasn’t a big fan of Surrey, then?
Mon 14 Sept	London v Surrey	Artillery Ground	unknown	WDC
"Wickets to pitched at half an hour past 11 o’clock".

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.

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!

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 (FL18)

Mon 10 August. There was a match at Woburn Park between a Bedfordshire XI and a combined Northants and Huntingdonshire XI (WCS). Woburn Cricket Club under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford was on the point of becoming a well known club (see 1742).

Focus

Sarah, 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.

Article & Match Sources

The above information is essentially driven out of various historical notes that have been accumulated over many years and so sources used originally may have been overlooked for the moment. But the sources certainly include:

A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley;
Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - various publications;
At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742 – 1751 by F S Ashley-Cooper in Cricket Magazine (1900) (ASW);
Cricket: History of its Growth and Development by Rowland Bowen;
Cricket Scores 1730 - 1773 by H T Waghorn (WCS);
[Chertsey Cricket Club website];
[Dartford Cricket Club website] (DCC);
Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G B Buckley (FL18);
Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket by G B Buckley (FLPV);
From the Weald to the World by Peter Wynne-Thomas (PWT);
Hambledon Cricket Chronicle by F S Ashley-Cooper (HCC);
Hambledon: Men and Myths by John Goulstone (HMM);
Kent Cricket Matches by F S Ashley-Cooper (KCM);
Pre-Victorian Sussex Cricket by HF & AP Squire (PVSC);
Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 by Arthur Haygarth (SBnnn);
Start of Play by David Underdown;
Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century by Timothy J McCann (TJM);
The Cricketer magazine (Cktr);
The Dawn of Cricket by H T Waghorn (WDC);
The Glory Days of Cricket by Ashley Mote;
John Nyren's The Cricketers of my Time by Ashley Mote;
Wisden Cricketers Almanack (annual): various issues

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