The History of Cricket: 1300 - 1600 | Biographies | Essays

Introduction

Purpose

The scope of this project is to write a general history that has a special emphasis on cricket from the perceived origin of the sport until the major watershed of 1787. The theme of the work is to recount cricket events and matches against the background of a changing social, cultural, technological and geopolitical scene. My intended audience includes those who are studying the known details of early cricket matches but I am mainly writing for those who might describe themselves as "interested amateurs", in other words for the general readers who are interested in both cricket and history.

There have been many writers of cricket history such as Harry Altham, John Arlott, Derek Birley, Sir Neville Cardus, Ashley Mote and David Underdown who understood that the term "history of cricket" actually means "history AND cricket". But I believe it was the great West Indian writer CLR James who coined the classic question "What knows he of cricket who only cricket knows?". I have tried to know more than cricket and have tried to place its early history into the general history of the period.

I have had a lot of fun writing this book because, at the end of the day, cricket is only a game and so anything to do with it should be fun. I hope you as the reader will have fun by enjoying the book and maybe find it useful too.

Outline

My ideas when I began the project were that I would create a chronology of cricket in the underarm era and a consolidation of what we know about the early matches from which few details have survived. Underarm of course lasted well into the 19th century and I decided to end the history in 1787 because that year marked the first great watershed in the game’s history. It saw the opening of Thomas Lord’s first ground and the reincarnation of the Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Club as the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). You may say this was just a new ground and a new(-ish) club but it was much more than that. Lord’s quickly became the focal point of the whole sport and MCC, whatever its actual origin, has always been the game’s premier club.

New ground, "new" club, new era.

The opening of Lord’s provided the sport with a "status" venue that was recognised and embraced by metropolitan society. Unlike changes in the rules and the spread of the game throughout England and the World, Lord’s was not part of the game’s natural evolution. It was born of a decision that was intended to make cricket more private for a select few but it had ramifications that no one at the time could ever have foreseen. Lord’s marked the end of cricket as a rural sport and for that reason it is the first of three watersheds in the game’s history to date. The other two were the formalisation of the County Championship from the beginning of the 1890 season which, inter alia, began the Golden Age of the game; and the expansion of limited overs cricket from the start of the 1969 season. Who knows, but could Twenty20 be the fourth watershed?

To put events into their historical perspective, I resolved to keep one eye on the times themselves. As Sir Neville Cardus said, the game and its players have always reflected their times. Just as Twenty20 and its lively atmosphere is a reflection of our times, the challenge match for high stakes played before an even more raucous crowd is a classic reflection of Georgian times. It is very important, I believe, to make sure that the historical and cultural background stays in mind when studying cricket. Therefore you will also read about some famous historical events here and I will try to explain how they impacted the game’s growth and development: events like the slave trade, the English Civil War, freedom of the press, the Hanoverian Succession, the South Sea Bubble, the Industrial Revolution, the growth of London, the Seven Years War and the transportation of convicts. One of history’s most momentous events, the French Revolution, began only two years after Lord opened his new ground. Then came the Napoleonic Wars and the invention of the railways, both of which would shape the course of the 19th century; and of cricket too.

So much for the theme of the work. The scope includes a detailed record of cricket references by date, especially references to actual matches and particularly those matches about which little is known. I have tried to give as much detail as I can about these elusive contests and each one has its own sub-section within the year it took place. I am less concerned about the large body of "known" matches from 1772 which form the beginning of cricket’s statistical record and which have surviving scorecards that are now freely available on the internet (see CricketArchive). I should point out that I am absolutely not a statistician and it is not my purpose to delve into statistics, which are restricted to a useful minimum. I am concerned with the historical record and statistics have a nasty tendency to divert and mislead history. I must re-emphasise that it is the "unknown" games (i.e., those without scorecards) that I want to bring to light although summaries of the "known" games are included here for completeness.

You might say that those games are not unknown as they are referenced in the works of F S Ashley-Cooper, H T Waghorn, T J McCann and the doyen of researchers, G B Buckley. They are indeed. But that is the point. They are scattered across those works and there is no one book that consolidates the knowledge. Not only that, some of these secondary source books are unobtainable. I have hunted high and low for Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket and have been forced to rely on photocopies. I paid £250 for Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket! I was luckier with Waghorn, largely thanks to J W McKenzie who reprinted The Dawn of Cricket and because I managed to get an original of Cricket Scores 1730-1773 at a reasonable price. To anyone else who obtains Waghorn's books, I would recommend that they also buy Martin Wilson's An Index to Waghorn, which is an invaluable aid. I am indebted to Don Ambrose who sent me photocopies of the definitive Ashley-Cooper work, which is that marvellous series of articles in Cricket Magazine way back in 1900. I have the first two volumes of Scores and Biographies and again I am indebted to the acumen of another cricket enthusiast: Roger Heavens performed a great service to all researchers when he published his facsimiles of these works in the 1990s. Harry Altham wrote the first great history of cricket in the 1920s and his book is still an invaluable source. Rowland Bowen's Growth and Development remains essential reading. There are some excellent recent works too, particularly Tim McCann's comprehensive coverage of early Sussex cricket; the two Hambledon books by Ashley Mote, one of which recreates the famous reminiscences of John Nyren; Derek Birley's brilliant and highly readable Social History of English Cricket; and David Underdown's Start of Play. A very recent and surprising addition to the pantheon is More Than A Game by former Prime Minister John Major, who has provided a highly readable account of the early years and some useful details about single wicket contests in particular. A particularly outstanding and useful work is The 17th Century Game of Cricket: A Reconstruction of the Game by David Terry.

It will be clear from the foregoing that my information has been drawn from a wide array of sources and I have tried to name primary sources throughout. Most of the material has been collated from the secondary sources and these are usually acknowledged within each reference unless the same information has come from several sources, as is the case with much of the general historical material. I have included a select bibliography on the site which includes the sources used for this work but is actually a recommended reading list. All opinions and analyses stated are my own unless a source is given.

I am not going to pretend that the work is error-free because it is a massively ambitious project and, human frailties being what they are, I know that other pairs of eyes will see what mine have not. Not only that, research continues and the data is always changing. So, taking a realistic view of the project, I do not for a moment consider this to be a final edition. I want it to be seen as a living document to be updated whenever new data comes to light or when the inevitable errors and omissions are spotted. That is obviously enough the major advantage of the internet as a means of publication over a book which is stuck with its errors and outdated research.

Anyone who can provide me with constructive, positive feedback is welcome to contact me, especially with information found from new research. For contact details, see: about this site.

Essays and Biographies

When I first published this work in 2007, essays and biographies were interspersed with the chronology after the style of Arthur Haygarth: each biography appearing at the end of the season in which the player was first mentioned; each essay at whatever point in time it was relevant. Feedback has convinced me that this isn't the best way to do it because the reader doesn't know where an entry is to be found. So I've followed the consensus and created separate biographies and essays pages where the entries are easily reached via a link at the top of the page or via links from the chronology itself.

Many essays and biographies are still being developed and more may be added in due course.

Thanks

My researches brought me into contact with a number of people and most of those were able to provide help that was both useful and constructive. Thanks are due to Don Ambrose, Philip Bailey, Derek Barnard, Kit Bartlett, John Boomer, John Bryant, Richard Christenquebec, Richard Cooper, Steven Draper, Tom Ferguson, Ric Finlay, Peter Griffiths, John Hall, Jim Hardie, Bob Harragan, Steve Harrison, Brian Heald, Roger Heavens, Andrew Hignell, Vic Isaacs, David Jeater, Jason King, John King, Richard Lawrence, Julian Lawton Smith, David Main, Ian Maun, Douglas Miller, David Pracy, Paul Smith, Simon Sweetman, Roger Tilbury, Martin Wilson, Stephen de Winton, several Wikipedia members and, of course, my family.

Dates

It should be remembered that the old Julian Calendar was used in England until Wed 2 September 1752 and that the Julian year began on 25 March. The New Year was moved to its present anniversary on 1 January 1753, thus 1752 was England's shortest calendar year because it spanned 25 March to 31 December and lost 11 days in September to accommodate the switch to the Gregorian Calendar. This meant that a date like 10 March 1300 in the Julian Calendar would have been 10 March 1301 in the Gregorian Calendar. Where a Julian date applies, it has been labelled as such. Fortunately, the cricket season has never begun before 25 March and so the change of calendar has little impact on this work until 1752 and only a few comments are necessary. Note that Scotland switched the New Year to 1 January in 1600 and then adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752.

A bit more on the subject of dates, or rather days. In organised matches throughout the entire period under discussion, there was no Sunday play (not legal, anyway). I have tried to record dates of play as accurately as possible and have given the day of the week if the date is known; if a date should be qualified by (S) it always means Saturday.

Key to sources

The main sources I have used are referenced throughout by an abbreviation:

ASW	–	At the Sign of the Wicket (1742 to 1751) by FS Ashley-Cooper (Cricket Magazine, 1900)
DB	–	A Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley
RB	–	Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development by Rowland Bowen
CMT	–	The Cricketers of My Time by John Nyren; edited by Ashley Mote
GB18	–	Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G B Buckley
PVC	–	Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket by G B Buckley
GDC	–	The Glory Days of Cricket by Ashley Mote
HSA	–	A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914) by H S Altham
CS	–	Cricket Scores 1730–1773 by H T Waghorn
DC	–	The Dawn of Cricket by H T Waghorn
SBnnn	–	Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744 to 1826) by Arthur Haygarth (nnn = page number)
TJM	–	Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century by Timothy J McCann

All the above are secondary sources. Where a primary source is known, or has been used, it is named in full on each occasion; the same applies to additional secondary sources used on one or a few occasions.

Note that Scores & Biographies in this work is always volume 1 unless stated otherwise.