The Hambledon Club

The Hambledon Club in rural Hampshire had certainly been founded by 1768. Its basis was a local parish cricket team that was in existence before 1750 and had achieved prominence by 1756 when it played a series of three matches versus Dartford, which had itself been a major club for at least 30 years. Its mainstay was Reverend Charles Powlett (1728–1809) who, according to Ashley-Cooper, was "regarded, if not as the actual founder, at least as the chief patron of the Club". When Billy Beldham was interviewed by James Pycroft in the 1830s, he remembered overhearing a remark by Powlett in about 1785 which indicated that the Hambledon Club was by then some thirty years old. In fact, Powlett graduated as MA from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1755 so his involvement with the team may have begun that year. It is likely that at this time it was just a team based on a parish organisation and not a formally constitued club.

As late as September 1764, two London newspapers referred to Hambledon as "Squire Lamb's Club". It is believed that "Squire Lamb" was actually Squire Thomas Land (1714–1791) whose family resided in Hambledon and were noted locally for hunting with hounds. Land may have been the parish team's patron for some years in the 1750s and 1760s but then left, perhaps in umbrage, when the Hambledon Club was formally constituted in the mid-1760s.

The Hambledon Club was multi-functional and essentially a social club that, inter alia, organised county cricket matches. The evidence of F S Ashley-Cooper's Hambledon Cricket Chronicle (HCC) is that the members were primarily interested in good wine, singing and gambling. As we have seen, Georgian cricket was an occasion for gambling and the object of playing the game was to win it, not to play up and play it as the Victorians would have it. Horse racing was enjoyed just as much as cricket for the members made sure their weekly meeting was rescheduled if it clashed with the racing at Winchester.

It has often been said that Hambledon's teams should be termed "Hampshire" but, according to evidence quoted by G B Buckley, "Hampshire & Sussex" was synonymous with "Hambledon Club" and it is true that Sussex per se was not at all prominent during the Hambledon Era. Having been one of the greatest counties in the days of Richmond and Gage, it had fallen away after their deaths and did not recover until the rise of the Brighton club in the 1790s. Significantly, Hambledon used several Sussex men in its teams, including Richard Nyren himself. Hambledon is very close to the West Sussex border with Hampshire and I think Mr Buckley's evidence does indeed point to the Hambledon Club being representative of two counties.

According to John Nyren, Hambledon was about to pack up in 1771 after a number of defeats during the previous couple of seasons but, having managed to defeat Chertsey (aka Surrey) at Laleham Burway in the "Big Bat Match" on 23 September 1771, they decided to carry on. Although there was a bad year in 1773, Hambledon's stature continued to grow till by the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England.

HCC covers the years 1772 to 1796 and says that for most of this period the "Club Days" were Tuesdays, those being the occasions of meeting for the members and of practice for the players. From 1772 to 1785, "the season started on the first Tuesday in May". After that they tinkered with the system but, in September 1782, they did begin a process of sending printed lists of meeting dates to each member. Attendance at meetings was often poor and the minutes, reproduced in HCC, show that consequently a candidate's election had to be postponed for several weeks. In August 1777, it was agreed that seven members would constitute a ballot and this was reduced to five in 1793, long after the glory days had passed. In typical club fashion, collecting subscriptions was a problem and various means, including posting of names, were employed to try and persuade members to cough up. Two of the most prominent players, William Barber and Richard Nyren, were commissioned to collect arrears.

For a long time, an abiding mystery was the identity of the legendary "Madge" whose "immortal memory" was toasted at club meetings from 1781 along with the Queen's Mother, the King, the Hambledon Club, Cricket and the President. HCC waxes eloquent about who Madge might be, both in the book and in the foreword by E V Lucas, but misses the point, perhaps deliberately given that they were writing in the 1920s. I need not be so reticent. "Madge" is a what, not a who, and it means the vagina. It was a crude, contemporary slang term and would be the equivalent of "cunt" or "twat" now. Rowland Bowen explains it in his Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, p.63–64. According to John Arlott in Arlott on Cricket, p.10, the meaning of "madge" was found in the 1950s, from Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), to be "the private parts of a woman".

That such an item should be in the club toast suggests the influence of alcohol. The importance of wine is very clear in the club minutes and accounts. This evidence reinforces the view that it was essentially a social club. Wines, ports and sherries were bought in large quantities from a Winchester firm called Gauntlett and Smith. One club minute says: "A wet day, only three members present, nine bottles of wine". John Nyren clearly drank his share of the booze available on match days when he goes on about "genuine Boniface", "John Bull stuff" and talking cats! It wasn't just the members because Nyren recalls "those fine, brown-faced fellows of farmers" and "how they would drink to our success!"

The minutes and accounts also reveal expenditure on cricket. Several players such as Noah Mann, Richard Purchase, Billy Beldham and John Wells were voted expenses so that they could hire horses for travel. The club also paid for equipment including the hats that the players wore in matches.

In 1782 the club moved from its original ground at Broadhalfpenny Down to Windmill Down, about half a mile away towards the village of Hambledon itself, and the Hambledon Club's great days ended when Lord's was established as the home of the new Marylebone Cricket Club in 1787. Membership declined during the 1790s. On 29 August 1796, fifteen people attended a meeting and amongst them, according to the official minutes, was "Mr Thos Pain, Authour of the rights of Man"! It was clearly a joke for Thomas Paine was then under sentence of death for treason and exiled in revolutionary Paris. The last meeting was held on 21 September 1796 when the minutes read only: "No Gentlemen".

Kennington Common

Kennington Common was one of the earliest London cricket venues and is known to have been used for major matches from 1724 to 1785. Cricket on Kennington Common provided an alternative spectacle to prizefighting and an even more brutal "entertainment" in the form of public executions. The common was in effect the south London equivalent of Tyburn and there are records of executions all through the time of cricket's tenure. The gallows was where St Mark's Church now stands, not far from Oval tube station.

In 1600, the common was bounded on the south west by Vauxhall Creek. It extended over marshy land to the south west of the Roman road called Stane Street, now Kennington Park Road. There is a 1660 record of a common keeper being paid for grazing and, in 1661, the notorious Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens were laid out nearby (note that The Oval still has its Vauxhall End). The first recorded execution took place in 1678 and these continued until 1799: the common was the south London equivalent of Tyburn (i.e., where the Marble Arch now stands). It is likely that cricket was played there by the late 17th century but there are no definite records before the match in 1724. Cricketers on Kennington Common used the Horns tavern as a base. This was first recorded in 1725. Other sports including quoits and bowls were held on the common.

In addition to watching sports and executions, people gathered on the common to listen to public speakers. In 1739, the Methodists John Wesley and George Whitefield preached to an estimated 30,000 people.

As we have seen, the earliest recorded use of the common for cricket was the London v Dartford match in 1724. In August 1726, a combined London and Surrey XI played the Kent XI of leading patron Edward Stead for a purse of 25 guineas. In 1729, the 7 August edition of the London Evening Post reported: ''On Tuesday was played a great cricket match on Kennington Common between the Londoners and the Dartford men for a considerable sum of money, wager and bets, and the latter beat the former very much''. There was a very close contest on the common in August 1730 when London defeated Surrey by 1 run. The report said that it was ''was thought to be one of the completest matches that ever was played.''

Given that it was a common, an interesting development occurred on 12 July 1731 when the London v Sevenoaks game became the first known to have been played in an enclosed ground. A report said ''the ground will be roped round and all persons are desired to keep without side of the same''. The Surrey v London game on 28 September 1731 was promoted as ''likely to be the best performance of this kind that has been seen for some time''. The ground was again enclosed: ''for the convenience of the gamesters, the ground is to be staked and roped out''. It seems therefore that enclosure quickly became common practice in 1731! In addition, the advertisement refers to ''the whole county of Surrey as London's opponents''. The Prince of Wales (i.e., Frederick Louis) was expected to attend and this was his first recorded involvement in cricket; he became a great fan and one of the major patrons.

Newspaper reports of the time were more concerned with odds than results so players were hardly ever mentioned by name. There was an exception on 7 August 1735 when the General Evening Post announced a single wicket match on the common the following Monday involving seven players of the London Club. The game would be three against four with Mr Wakeland, Mr Dunn and Mr Pool against Mr Marshall, Mr Ellis and two others. Ellis is known to have been ''London's best bowler'' while Dunn was a noted batsman.

In June 1736, a report of a single wicket match names Mr Wakeland, the distiller, and Mr George Oldner playing together against two famous Richmond players who are ''esteemed the best two in England'' (one of them may have been William Sawyer). Unfortunately, the esteemed pair were not named, though one of them suffered serious facial injuries in this game when the ball came off his bat and hit his nose. The report rails against ''human brutes who insisted he should play on despite his injuries''. This is a reflection of gambling's stranglehold on the sport at the time.

When Surrey played Kent on 20 September 1736, three soldiers apprehended a deserter but the crowd turned on them, rescued the deserter and ''after a severe discipline let them go about their business''! Meanwhile, Surrey won the match by 2 wickets and, unusually for the time, the team scores are known: Kent 41 & 53; Surrey 71 & 24-8.

From this time on, the London club increasingly used the Artillery Ground for its home matches and that also became the main venue for the highly popular single wicket contests of the 1740s. The common became one of several home venues used by Surrey: others were Moulsey Hurst and Laleham Burway. Very few major matches were played on the common thereafter. Executions did continue and it is possible that this association eventually drove the cricketing patrons away, especially given their subsequent withdrawal from the Artillery Ground because of its reputation for uncontrolled gambling.

There was one particularly violent execution on 30 July 1746 when nine men of the Manchester Regiment who had joined the Jacobite Rising were hanged, drawn and quartered. There are no reports of cricket on the common that year but a match did take place at the Artillery Ground on the same day.

In all, 22 first-class matches were played on the common until the last in May 1785 which was, curiously, not a Surrey game but Middlesex v Essex. Numerous minor matches were also recorded there.

The common continued to stage executions until 1799 while fairs, orators and other popular events continued into the 19th century. Most famously, the Chartists gathered on the common for the biggest of their ''monster rallies'' on 10 April 1848. It was soon after this demonstration that the common was enclosed and, sponsored by the royals, Kennington Park was opened in 1854 on part of the site between Kennington Park Road and St Agnes Place. As London expanded, the common has largely disappeared under buildings.

But cricket still has a strong presence in Kennington. One of its major venues is The Oval, which was opened by the new Surrey County Cricket Club in 1845 on a part of the old common that had become a market garden.

Sources include:

• G B Buckley, Fresh Light on Eighteenth Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
  
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300–1787
  
• CricketArchive – list of matches played on Kennington Common
  
• UK local online
  
• H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773), Blackwood, 1899
  
• H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
  

London Cricket Club

Given that the earliest definite mention of cricket being played anywhere is at Guildford in the 16th century, there can be little doubt that the game had reached London by the same time. Even so, there is no written reference to the game in London until 1680 as recorded by G B Buckley from a newspaper piece about umpires. In 1707, a London team played two matches against Croydon but this may have been just an occasional XI as the foundation date of London Cricket Club is unknown. But it was in existence by 1722 when it was referred to as such re a game against Dartford. London was one of the foremost clubs in English cricket over the next four decades and was closely associated with the Artillery Ground, where it played most of its home matches.

London Cricket Club was founded and organised by members of what is usually termed the ''Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Club'', which had its headquarters at the Star and Garter on Pall Mall. This gentlemen's club was multi-functional, though essentially of a social and sporting nature, but its main purpose was to encourage and facilitate gambling. For example, its members also founded the Jockey Club and were usually involved in the organisation of major prizefighting events. Cricket throughout the 18th century was funded by gambling interests and attracted huge stakes.

Very little is known of London's players during its heyday from the 1720s to the 1760s. The following are the names that have been recorded by the season in which they are first mentioned in the sources:

• 1726 – Perry (took part in the earliest known single wicket match)
  
• 1731 – "the famous" Tim Coleman
  
• 1732 – Christopher Jones (Artillery Ground keeper)
  
• 1735 – Dunn, Ellis (London's "best bowler"), Marshall, Pool, Wakeland, Wheatley
  
• 1736 – George Oldner
  
• 1744 – "Little" Bennett, "Tall" Bennett, George Smith (Artillery Ground keeper), Butler, Hodder, Howlett, Norris
  
• 1745 – William Anderson, Norton
  
• 1747 – Thomas Jure
  
• 1748 – George Carter, John Capon
  
• 1759 – Gascoigne
  

In the 1720s, the London club seemed to share its time between Kennington Common and White Conduit Fields but it increasingly began to use the Artillery Ground from 1730. The 1730s were the glory days of London and it completely dominated the cricket scene, especially given its royal and aristocratic patronage. One of the earliest good players mentioned is "the famous Tim Coleman" who was referred to as such in 1731 when it was rare to see any player named in the newspapers. London's main opponents in the 1730s were Croydon and Dartford. They played matches against various other parish clubs and sometimes took on county sides, mainly Kent, Surrey and Sussex. There is sometimes confusion in the reports when London is identified with Middlesex and ''vice-versa'' but, in general, London means the club and Middlesex was a team of players born in the county who were not necessarily of the London club.

The club's best season may have been 1732 when it was reportedly unbeaten. As a report recounts after the final match: ''This is the thirteenth match the London gamesters have played this year and not lost one match''. As the 1730s progressed, London continued to be generally successful. From time to time, challengers appeared. Chertsey Cricket Club first made its mark in the 1736 season and London also had some tight contests against Chislehurst in the late 1730s.

But the biggest challenge to London's dominance emerged in the 1741 season. This was Slindon Cricket Club which starred the great all-rounder Richard Newland and was backed by the 2nd Duke of Richmond. After Slindon beat Surrey "almost in one innings" at the end of that season, it was inevitable they would come to the Artillery Ground and play London. This happened in 1742 when two matches were played against a background of furious gambling with huge wagers being laid against Newland's expected performance. London prevailed, winning the first match "with great difficulty" and then, having been assisted by the weather, thrashing Slindon by 184 runs in the second. It was London's turn to be thrashed in 1743 when they played another of the "great little clubs": Addington Cricket Club who, on their first appearance at the Artillery Ground, easily won by an innings and 4 runs. Addington did have the great Bromley & Kent player Robert Colchin as a given man. In 1744, Slindon were back and in June they beat London by 55 runs in a match whose scores have been preserved by the earliest known cricket scorecard. Slindon beat London again in September and proceeded to issue their audacious challenge to play against any parish in England. London did not take up the challenge: only Addington and Colchin's Bromley Cricket Club felt able to respond.

There was a noticeable increase in the popularity of single wicket contests in the late 1740s although the London club often arranged these at the Artillery Ground. In the eleven a side game, county matches or games involving "best elevens" were the norm and, as the 1750s began, London was really playing parish matches only unless it had several given men. As the Seven Years War began, London faded from the reports and the club must have disbanded sometime before the war ended in 1763.

Gambling has always had its unsavoury side and eventually the Artillery Ground became a place of ill-repute. The more gentlemanly members became uneasy about association with a place that was widely known for licentious and, occasionally, riotous behaviour, even though it showcased cricket of the highest class. Then the sport was severely impacted by the Seven Years War from 1756 to 1763 and the number of matches played were greatly reduced. There are signs of the game returning to its rural roots during this period and evidently the gentlemen were happy with that development. Apart from four matches in the 1769 season, there are few mentions of London as a team in the aftermath of the Seven Years War and many of the references suggest that these teams were in fact occasional "London XIs" rather than the representatives of an organised club.

In my view, London Cricket Club ceased to exist during the Seven Years War. Evidence to support this view is the decline of the Artillery Ground itself which was used less and less after 1763. A match on 15 September 1778 is the last important one played there. By then, Hambledon had become the predominant centre of English cricket and a lot of games were being played at other outlying venues such as Laleham Burway, Bishopsbourne Paddock and Sevenoaks Vine. London, temporarily, had been abandoned.

With London's demise and the war situation, the "honourable gentlemen" retreated to the countryside and founded or at least augmented the Hambledon Club, which was the main centre of cricket from about 1765 for the next twenty years. In the early 1780s, the gentlemen decided to re-establish themselves in the vicinity of London and founded the White Conduit Club at Islington. But they were not happy about the environment of White Conduit Fields and commissioned Thomas Lord to find a "more private venue". He opened Lord's Old Ground in 1787 at Marylebone. The gentlemen moved their cricketing interests there and reinvented themselves as Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which is thus a direct continuation of the old London Cricket Club.

Sources include:

• H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
  
• F S Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751, ''Cricket'' Magazine, 1900
  
• G B Buckley, Fresh Light on Eighteenth Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
  
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300–1787
  
• H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773), Blackwood, 1899
  
• H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
  

Dartford Cricket Club

Dartford Cricket Club in Kent is one of the oldest in England with origins dating from the early 18th century, perhaps earlier. It is probably the oldest club with a continuous existence. Dartford players were reckoned by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, writing in his diary in 1723, to "lay claim to the greatest excellence" among English cricketers. The club played a number of big matches against the London Cricket Club and, in 1756, was involved in a tri-series against the sport's rising power, Hambledon. Dartford produced several famous players in the 18th century including cricket's earliest known great player William Bedle. Later Dartford players included William Hodsoll, John Bell, John Frame and Ned Wenman.

The club had a famous venue on Dartford Brent which was an extensive area of common land on the outskirts of the town. Historically, it was the scene of a confrontation between King Henry VI and Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, in 1452; and in 1555 thousands of spectators assembled there to witness the execution of Christopher Ward, a Dartford linen weaver, who was burned to death at the stake for his Protestant faith. Dartford Brent has a better association as a famous cricket venue. It was in use through the 18th century having almost certainly been used during the 17th century. It was noted for the quality of its turf, which was said to be "as smooth as a bowling green" (see Dartford CC website).

Numerous match references have survived from 1709 to 1795. The earliest definitely known inter-county match took place there on 29 June 1709 when Kent played Surrey. The All-England v Hampshire match played on 27, 28 and 29 August 1795 was the last time Dartford Brent is known to have been used for a major match (Hampshire won by 4 wickets). Games in Dartford after 1795 were played at Bowman’s Lodge on nearby Dartford Heath.

According to the club's website, an unsuccessful campaign was waged against the Brent's enclosure during the 1870s and the townspeople presented a petition to the Court of Common Council. Among other things, the petition held that a portion of the Brent had been used as the town cricket ground throughout the whole period of living memory; while the whole area had been "constantly resorted to for all sorts of past times and has been looked upon as the recreation ground of Dartford". The cricket ground at that time lay near the top of Brent Lane, somewhere across the road which passes alongside Hesketh Park.

Today, Dartford Cricket Club still plays in the Kent League and its present ground at Hesketh Park is almost all that is left of the old Brent.

Sources include:

• H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
• F S Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751, ''Cricket'' Magazine, 1900
• G B Buckley, Fresh Light on Eighteenth Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
• Dartford Cricket Club
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300–1787
• Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744-1826), Lillywhite, 1862
• H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773), Blackwood, 1899
• H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906

William Bedle: the first great cricketer

William Bedle (22 February 1679 (Julian) – 3 June 1768) played for Dartford Cricket Club and Kent county teams in the first quarter of the 18th century. He is the sport's earliest known accomplished player. He was born in Bromley but lived most of his life near Dartford, where he was a wealthy farmer and grazier.

Bedle's obituary in Lloyd's Evening Post dated 10 June 1768 states that he was "formerly accounted the most expert cricket player in England" (GB18, p.48). Rowland Bowen comments in his history (Bowen, p.48) that Bedle is the first known cricketer "who achieved great prominence in the game" and was thus "the first in a long line (of the best players in England) that must include Fuller Pilch, W G Grace, Jack Hobbs and Walter Hammond". As Bowen points out, this means that three things can be deduced: Bedle was a great player; the means of judging a player's prowess were then available; and Bedle's reputation lasted at least a generation after his playing career ended.

Given Bedle's date of birth, I tentatively give his career dates as 1697 to 1730. Dartford was "the greatest Kent team of the first half of the eighteenth century" (Underdown, p.43) and was often representative of Kent as a county. The Dartford club's website records that Bedle was "the first great player in cricketing annals" and "the earliest Dartford cricketer whose name has come down to posterity".

Few details of cricket matches in the 17th and early 18th centuries have survived and so what is known about Bedle's career has been pieced together by historical analysis, for the few contemporary newspaper reports rarely mentioned a player by name. The reason for this lack of surviving data is that freedom of the press was not allowed in England until 1696, when Bedle was 16, and the infant newspaper industry gradually introduced coverage of sporting events, though for many years their emphasis was on betting rather than on the matches themselves. During Bedle's career, cricket reports were not only brief but few and far between.

But, even without written record of his exploits, Bedle's reputation was known and shared by a public that was growing increasingly interested in cricket. As Bowen says, it is significant that he was remembered as the best player in England some forty years after his career ended.

It seems that Bedle was a gentleman farmer and therefore I assume he was a gentleman aka amateur cricketer. Perhaps he was the first of cricket's great amateur batsmen in a line that stretches through Beauclerk and Fry to May and Dexter. The bat he wielded was shaped like a modern hockey stick, this being the ideal shape for addressing a ball that was "trundled" along the ground, as in lawn bowls, and given that he was "the most expert player", he was certainly effective in the timing and variety of his strokes. He must have been proficient in the drive, which is the natural stroke to play using such a bat, and perhaps it was not only the timing but the placement of his shots that drew the admiration of his contemporaries. Bowlers in the 18th century used the underarm style exclusively but at varying pace and it is unknown if Bedle was a fast or a slow bowler; or if he bowled at all. The ball was either rolled along the ground or, by a fast bowler, skimmed across the surface; pitching was not introduced until about 1760.

Dartford was one of the two most successful clubs in England, its only rival being the London Cricket Club. Dartford's prowess is borne out by a 1723 journal entry recorded by the prominent Tory politician Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford:

''At Dartford upon the Heath (i.e., Dartford Brent) as we came out of the town, the men of Tonbridge and the Dartford men were warmly engaged at the sport of cricket, which of all the people of England the Kentish folk are the most renowned for, and of all the Kentish men, the men of Dartford lay claim to the greatest excellence.''

Records have survived of five matches involving Dartford or Kent teams against London or Surrey county teams between 1709 and 1724, the period in which Bedle was an active player. The earliest known inter-county match took place in the 1709 season between Kent and Surrey on Dartford Brent. The result is unknown. London hosted Kent at White Conduit Fields in August 1719 and July 1720, Kent winning the first and London the second. There were London v Dartford fixtures in July 1722 and June 1724. The former, played in Islington was the subject of a letter in The Weekly Journal dated 21 July 1722; the latter was the earliest known match at Kennington Common, near where The Oval is now sited. The results of these two matches are unknown.

According to the Dartford club site, Bedle lived near Dartford for most of his life and he was a wealthy farmer and grazier. His name, also spelled Beddel, is recorded on a tablet in Dartford Parish Church listing the bellringers of 1749. He died at his home near Dartford on 3 June 1768, aged 88.

Sources used:

• Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
  
• G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935 (GB18)
  
• Dartford Cricket Club, 2008
  
• From Lads to Lord's, 2007
  
• David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000
  
• H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
  

The Origins of Cricket

The most widely accepted theory of cricket's origin is that it developed in early medieval times among the farming and metalworking communities of the Weald, which lies across part of Kent and Sussex. These counties and neighbouring Surrey were the earliest centres of excellence and it was from there that the game quickly reached London, where its lasting popularity was ensured, and other southern counties like Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire and Middlesex.

Cricket was probably devised by children and survived for many generations as essentially a children's game. Possibly it was derived from bowls, assuming that is the older sport, by the intervention of a batsman trying to stop the ball reaching its target by hitting it away. Until the 1760s when bowlers began to pitch the ball, it was always rolled or skimmed towards the wicket. Playing on sheep-grazed land or in clearings, the original implements may have been a matted lump of sheep's wool (or even a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat; and a gate (e.g., a wicket gate), a stool or a tree stump as the wicket. The invention of the game could have happened in Norman or Plantagenet times anytime before 1300; or even in Saxon times before 1066.

On Thursday, 10 March 1300 (Julian Calendar), wardrobe accounts of King Edward I included refunds to one John de Leek of monies that he had paid out to enable Prince Edward to play "creag and other games" at both Westminster and Newenden. Prince Edward, the future Prince of Wales, was then aged 15. It has been suggested that "creag" was an early form of cricket. There is no evidence to support this view and creag could have been something quite different. It has been plausibly suggested that creag is an early spelling of the Gaelic word ''craic'' that has been rendered into modern English as ''crack'' (craic) and means simply "fun, enjoyment, abandonment, or lighthearted mischief; often in the context of drinking or music". This sense of the word ''crack'' is found in Irish English, Scottish English and Geordie (North East England). In Ireland the spelling ''craic'' is now more common than ''crack''.

Cricket essentially belongs to the same family of bat-and-ball games as stoolball, rounders and baseball but whether it evolved from any of these, or vice-versa, cannot be determined. There is a 1523 reference to stoolball at a designated field in Oxfordshire and this may have been a generic term for any game in which a ball is somehow hit with a bat or stick, but 18th century references to stoolball in conjunction with cricket clearly indicate that it was a separate activity.

A number of words used commonly in medieval England are thought to be possible sources for the name "cricket". In the earliest known reference to the sport in 1597, it is called ''creckett''. Given the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, the name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch (i.e., the language of Flanders at the time) ''krick''(''-e''), meaning a stick; or the Olde English ''cricc'' or ''cryce'' meaning a crutch or staff (see Birley, ch.1). In Samuel Johnson's ''Dictionary of the English Language'' (1755), he derived cricket from "''cryce'', Saxon, a stick". In Old French, the word ''criquet'' seems to have meant a kind of club or stick, though this may have been the origin of croquet. Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word ''krickstoel'', a long low stool used for kneeling in church, the shape of which resembled the two stump wicket used in early cricket (see Bowen, p.33). According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, ''met de krik ketsen'' (i.e., "with the stick chase").

The earliest definite reference to cricket being played anywhere is in evidence given at a 1597 court case which confirms that it was played on a certain plot of land in Guildford, Surrey, around 1550. The case concerned a dispute over the Royal Guildford Grammar School's ownership of the plot of land in question. The court in Guildford heard on Monday, 17 January 1597 (Julian date) from a coroner, John Derrick, who testified that he and his school friends had played ''creckett'' on the site fifty years earlier. John Derrick's deposition is preserved in the Constitution Book of Guildford. He bore written testimony as to a parcel of land in the parish of Holy Trinity in Guildford which, originally waste, had been appropriated and enclosed by one John Parvish to serve as a timber yard. This land, said Derrick, he had known for fifty years past and, when

"a scholler of the Ffree Schoole of Guildeford, hee and diverse of his fellowes did runne and play there at creckett and other plaies".

John Derrick was then aged 59 and his testimony confirms that cricket was being played by children in Surrey c.1550 and it is perhaps significant that cricket is the only one of the "plaies" referred to by name (see Altham, p. 21).

In 1598, there was a reference to cricket in an Italian-English dictionary by Giovanni Florio. His definition of the word ''sgillare'' was: "to make a noise as a cricket (i.e., the insect), to play cricket-a-wicket, and be merry". Florio is the first writer known to have defined "cricket" in terms of both an insect and a game. In a later edition of his dictionary in 1611, Florio infers that "to play cricket-a-wicket" has sexual associations with references to ''frittfritt'' defined: "as we say cricket a wicket, or ''gigaioggie''"; and ''dibatticare'' defined: "to thrum a wench lustily till the bed cry ''giggaioggie''"!! Cricket-a-wicket seems therefore to have been a euphemism for sex in the same way that rock 'n' roll originally was.

Also in 1611, a French-English dictionary was published by Randle Cotgrave who defined the noun ''crosse'' as "the crooked staff wherewith boys play at cricket". The verb form of the word is ''crosser'', defined as "to play at cricket". Although cricket was defined as a boys' game in Cotgrave's dictionary, as per the Guildford schoolboys above, it was at about this time that adult participation began. Our limited knowledge of early cricket depends largely on court cases and these frequently relate to instances of "breaking the Sabbath" by playing on a Sunday. The first dates to 1611 when an ecclesiastical court prosecuted two parishioners of Sidlesham, in West Sussex, who failed to attend church on Easter Sunday because they were playing cricket. They were fined twelve pence each and made to do penance.

The earliest known "village cricket" match took place c.1610 at Chevening between two Kent teams called "Chalkhill" and "Weald and Upland". Village cricket became popular and was common in the south-eastern counties by the time of the English Civil War. In 1617, the 18-year old Oliver Cromwell was reportedly playing cricket and football in London.

The beginnings of cricket's social division between "gentlemen and players" can be traced to the reign of Charles I. In 1629, Henry Cuffin, a curate at Ruckinge in Kent, was prosecuted by an Archdeacon's Court for playing cricket on Sunday evening after prayers. He claimed that several of his fellow players were "persons of repute and fashion", this statement being the first evidence of cricket achieving popularity among the gentry. It was the gentry who introduced large-scale gambling into cricket and, eventually, some of them became patrons by forming select teams that would improve their chances of winning. The gentry were also responsible for the introduction of cricket to schools, initially as an extra-curricular activity, and it was played at Eton, Westminster and Winchester in the 17th century. During the Commonwealth, gambling was low key of political necessity as it met with severe Puritan disapproval, but village cricket continued to thrive. Unlike the theatres and other forms of entertainment, the Puritans tolerated it as long as players did not "break the Sabbath". The fact that Cromwell himself had played the game must have been a factor in its favour.

Following the death of Cromwell and the collapse of the Commonwealth, the Restoration was completed during the spring of 1660 and, in the general euphoria which both accompanied and followed it, gambling on cricket and other sports was freely pursued. The large amounts at stake led some investors to try and improve their chances of winning by forming teams that were stronger than the typical parish eleven. This was the beginning of the patronage that sustained and controlled cricket through the 18th century. It is likely that the first teams representing more than one parish were formed in the 1660s and the period saw the first "great matches" as the sport evolved from village cricket to major cricket, although this process may have taken several decades. In addition to forming strong teams, the patrons introduced professionalism by paying fees or retainers to the best of their working class players. One practice that developed was the offer by a patron of full-time employment to a professional player, often as a groom, butler, gamekeeper, gardener, etc. on condition that the player always represented his team. This was a very common arrangement in the 18th century with noted examples in Thomas Waymark and Lumpy Stevens.

The shortage of references in the latter part of the 17th century is due to the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 which imposed very stringent controls on the newspaper industry. Sport, including cricket, was not a subject to be reported and the few references found are in official records, such as court cases, or in private letters and diaries. For example, we know from a private letter that cricket was played on Richmond Green in the 1660s.

In 1695, Parliament decided against a renewal of the 1662 Licensing Act and so cleared the way for freedom of the press on the Act's expiry in 1696. Censorship had already been relaxed by the Bill of Rights in 1689. It was from this time that cricket matters could be reported in the newspapers, but it would be a very long time before the newspaper industry matured sufficiently to provide frequent, let alone comprehensive, reports. The earliest known newspaper report of a match was in the ''Foreign Post'' dated Wednesday, 7 July 1697:

"The middle of last week a great match at cricket was played in Sussex; there were eleven of a side, and they played for fifty guineas apiece".

The stakes on offer confirm the importance of the fixture and the fact that it was eleven a side suggests that two strong and well-balanced teams were assembled. No other details were given but the report provides real evidence to support the view that top class cricket in the form of "great matches" played for high stakes was in vogue in the years following the Restoration. Given the Sussex venue, one of the organisers was probably Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, whose family was famous for its patronage of cricket through the 18th century when, with the rise of great clubs like Dartford, London, Slindon, Hambledon and Marylebone, cricket became the national sport of England.

The spread of cricket overseas had already begun in the 17th century with English colonisation of India, North America and the West Indies. The game is first recorded in America in 1709 and in India in 1721, but it certainly began much earlier. Indeed, given that the earliest reference to cricket in Yorkshire is as late as 1751, it is not unlikely that it was played in America before it had reached the north of England!

Sources include:

• H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
• Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
• Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
• From Lads to Lord's, 2007
• David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000