1734 English cricket season

The 1734 cricket season was the 137th in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style – 1598 New Style). Four counties (Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex) and two clubs (Croydon and London) took part in all the known games.

Important matches

The following matches are classified as important:^{[fc 1]}

date	match title	venue	result	source
12 June (W)	Kent v London	Dartford Brent	London won	^[1]^[2]
notes	London beat Kent on Dartford Brimp (sic) "though there was 6 to 4 laid against London in the middle of the game".

19 June (W)	London v Kent	Artillery Ground	London won by an innings & 25 runs	^[1]^[2]
notes	Team scores are known: Kent 31 & 51; London 107. A resounding win for London, especially given their victory at Dartford the previous Wednesday.

c.25 July (Th)	Croydon v London	Duppas Hill, Croydon	Croydon won	^[3]
notes	No details are given of this game except the winners. The report includes a pre-announcement of the following game.

1 August (Th)	London v Croydon	Artillery Ground	London won	^[1]^[2]
notes	It is known that London won the game. Reported in the Grub Street Journal of Thursday, 8 August.

26 August (M)	London v Surrey	Kennington Common	result unknown	^[1]^[2]
notes	Pre-announced in the London Evening Post of Thu 22 August. It says: "the wickets to be pitched precisely (sic) between 12 and 1 o'clock"! No surviving post-match report has been found and so there is no evidence that the game took place.

6 September (F)	Kent v Sussex	Sevenoaks Vine	Kent won	^[4]^[2]
notes	Lord Middlesex (1710–1769) and his brother Lord John Philip Sackville (1713–1765) played for Kent; and Sir William Gage for Sussex. On a biographical note, Lord Middlesex (Charles Sackville) was 2nd Duke of Dorset 1765–1769. The famous 3rd Duke of Dorset was his nephew, being the son of Lord John Philip Sackville.

11 September (W)	Sussex v Kent	Lewes (precise venue not specified)	result unknown	^[4]^[5]
notes	The report of the previous game states that "the same Gentlemen were to play on the Downs near Lewes in Sussex".^[4] No surviving post-match report has been found and so there is no evidence that the game took place.

September	London v "any eleven excluding Croydon"	Artillery Ground? (unconfirmed)	result unknown	^[4]^[6]
notes	London issued a challenge "to play with any eleven men in England, with this exception only, that they will not admit of one from Croydon".^[4] No surviving post-match report has been found and so there is no evidence that the game took place. As London wished to play "any eleven men in England" (excluding players from Croydon), and not just "any team in England", it appears that they welcomed allcomers and that the players in the "any eleven" team, if it was formed, would have been drawn from a number of clubs and counties. Whether, in the absence of any concrete data, such a team comes under the heading of "Non-international England cricket teams" is open to speculation. There was a dispute between London and Croydon after the latter apparently failed to attend an arranged match between the two clubs. London were especially aggrieved that Croydon did this after "having been regaled with a good dinner".^[6]

Other events

Thu 13 June. The St James Evening Post reported a couple of serious injuries in a private match at the Artillery Ground. "...a stander-by (sic) had the misfortune to have his knee-pan (i.e., patella) put out by a blow from the ball, and another was much bruised in the face by a like accident".^[1]

A game between London and Sevenoaks arranged for Monday, 8 July, on Kennington Common, was not played due to the non-appearance of the Sevenoaks team. The Whitehall Evening Post reported that according to the Articles of Agreement their deposit money was forfeited.^[1] Since the first known usage of Articles of Agreement in the 1727 season re the Alan Brodrick's XI v 2nd Duke of Richmond's XI match, it had perhaps become common practice to draw up such an agreement before important matches, especially if large stakes were involved.^[7]

September. A report included in Waghorn's Cricket Scores states that London was due to have played Croydon but that the Croydon team withdrew "having been regaled with a good dinner"! The London Club thereupon announced its intention to have one more match before the end of season and so challenged any eleven men in England except that "they will not admit of one from Croydon".^[4] See the last match in the above list.

The game on 6 September (see above) is earliest known use of Sevenoaks Vine as a venue. It is one of the oldest cricket grounds in England. It was given to the town of Sevenoaks in 1773 by John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745–1799) and owner of Knole House, where the ground is sited. The land was thought previously to have been used as a vineyard for the Archbishops of Canterbury (hence the name). The weatherboard pavilion is 19th-century. The Vine Cricket Club must pay Sevenoaks Town Council a rent of 2 peppercorns per year – one for the ground and one for the pavilion. They, in turn, must pay Lord Sackville (if asked) one cricket ball on 21 July each year.^[7]

First mentions

Counties

none

Clubs and teams

none

Players

Venues

Vine Cricket Ground, Sevenoaks (aka Sevenoaks Vine)^[4]

Footnotes

↑ First-class cricket was officially defined in May 1894 by a meeting at Lord's 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. Pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective and the important matches designation, as applied to a given match, is based on the views of one or more substantial historical sources. For further information, see First-class cricket, Forms of cricket and History of cricket.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 Buckley, FL18C, p. 9.
1 2 3 4 5 ACS, Important Matches, p. 20.
↑ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 6.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 7.
↑ McCann, p. 15.
1 2 Maun, pp. 65–66.
1 2 "From Lads to Lord's – 1734". 2007. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29.

Bibliography

ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978 1 900592 52 9.
Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
Waghorn, H. T. (1906). The Dawn of Cricket. Electric Press.
Wilson, Martin (2005). An Index to Waghorn. Bodyline.

Additional reading

Altham, H. S. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914). George Allen & Unwin.
Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. Aurum.
Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. Eyre & Spottiswoode.
Buckley, G. B. (1937). Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket. Cotterell.
Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
Marshall, John (1961). The Duke who was Cricket. Muller.
Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.

External links

Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825

English cricket teams in the 18th century

"All" England

English cricket venues to 1825

English cricket seasons

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