1781 English cricket season

Other events

A match on Brinnington Moor in August is the earliest known reference about cricket being played in Lancashire. Reported in the Manchester Journal on Sat 1 September (see FLPV).

The End of Broadhalfpenny Down

As Ashley More says in his splendid account of Broadhalfpenny Down’s long and chequered history, it is not where cricket started. The mythology has arisen from the place’s nickname as "the cradle of cricket". The cradle was rocked by a group of children in the Weald long, long ago in the days before Longshanks, and perhaps even the Conqueror, troubled the world.

We first hear of Broadhalfpenny Down in 1756 because a poor dog got lost there when Hambledon was playing a big match, almost certainly against Dartford. It continued to be the Hambledon Club’s chosen venue until 1781 when the members decided it was too remote and that Windmill Down, which is adjacent to Hambledon village, was more suitable.

Broadhalfpenny Down is actually two miles from Hambledon, which is a fair way when most people are on foot and the rest on horseback. And it is uphill. But it did have a good pub opposite. Oddly enough, Windmill Down did not.

The end was inevitable but it took the Duke of Dorset to say it. He commented that the Down was "a bleak place to play cricket" and indeed he was probably already hankering for a return to London as the game’s centre. Others agreed with him, whether they gave his views consideration or not. As a result, the club decided to take action and thought they had staved off the inevitable by the move to Windmill Down. But they had only postponed it for London beckoned and it only needed a suitable metropolitan venue to end the Hambledon adventure.

And that is what happened.

Counties

Players

Leading batsmen

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so it is impossible to provide a complete analysis of batting performances: e.g., the missing not outs prevent computation of batting averages. The "runs scored" are in fact the runs known.

Leading bowlers

Note that the wickets credited to an 18th-century bowler were only those where he bowled the batsman out. The bowler was not credited with the wickets of batsmen who were caught out, even if it was "caught and bowled". In addition, the runs conceded by each bowler were not recorded so no analyses or averages can be computed.

Leading fielders

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so the totals are of the known catches and stumpings only. Stumpings were not always recorded as such and sometimes the name of the wicket-keeper was not given. Generally, a catch was given the same status as "bowled" with credit being awarded to the fielder only and not the bowler. There is never a record of "caught and bowled"the bowler would be credited with the catch, not with the wicket.

Additional reading