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