1742 English cricket season

The 1742 English cricket season is notable for the two great London versus Slindon matches in September.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result
14 June (M)	London v Bromley	Artillery Ground	tied
This is the second known instance of a tied match, following the Surrey v London game at Richmond Green on Wed 22 July 1741.
7 July (W)	London v Richmond	Artillery Ground	result unknown
This was "played for a considerable sum". Wickets were pitched at one o’clock.
26 July (M)	London v Croydon	Artillery Ground	result unknown
This was "played for a considerable sum". Wickets were pitched at one o’clock.
2 August (M)	Kent/Surrey/Sussex v London	Duppas Hill, Croydon	result unknown
The counties team is described as "the Gentlemen of Kent and Surry (sic) and the Sussex Man from Slending (sic)".
9 August (M)	London v Bromley	Artillery Ground	result unknown
This was "played for a considerable sum". Wickets were pitched at twelve o’clock.
16 August (M)	London/Surrey v Kent/Croydon/Slindon	Artillery Ground	result unknown
It is known that two Kent players and "the noted bowler from Slendon (sic)" assisted Croydon; while two Surrey players were given men to London. Played for a "considerable sum of money" with the ground to be roped round. This was clearly a replay of the game on Monday 2 August (see above).
23 August (M)	Surrey v All-England	Moulsey Hurst	Surrey won
Mr Ashley-Cooper mentioned that the Moulsey Hurst ground was in 1900 held by the Hurst Park Racing Club.
2 September (Th)	London v Surrey	Artillery Ground	result unknown
It is known that a Kent player from Bromley assisted London as a given man. The match was originally scheduled for 6 September and was rearranged because of the visit of Slindon to London on that date.
6 September (M)	London v Slindon	Artillery Ground	London won
"London won with great difficulty. The wickets were pitched at twelve o’clock on the forfeit of 100 guineas. During the last innings of the match, the betting was as much as 20 to 1 in favour of Slindon so much praise must be given to London for winning. Before the match, the Slindon men had played forty-three games and lost but one. Several wagers were laid that one Slindon batsman, almost certainly Richard Newland, would obtain forty runs from his own bat – a feat he failed to perform. Had the match not been completed on the Monday play would have resumed on the Wednesday".
10 September (F)	London v Slindon	Artillery Ground	London won by 184 runs
"The wickets were pitched at eleven o’clock on the forfeit of 100 guineas. This match was to have been played on Wed 8 September, but was postponed to above date on account of rain. At the conclusion of the above match Slindon offered to play another match against London either at Guildford or on the South Downs for £100, but the challenge was not accepted". There has been confusion about the dates of the two London v Slindon matches and the margin of victory in the second, due to one source’s use of ambiguous reports in the London Evening Post dated 9 to 11 September. Elsewhere, the references to the second match make it clear that 6th and 10th are the correct dates for the two matches. The Daily Advertiser of Sat 11 September 1742 reports the margin in the second match as 184 notches and says it was played yesterday.

First mentions

• Richard Newland

Bibliography

• Ashley-Cooper, F. S. (1900). At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751. Cricket magazine. {{cite book}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• Buckley, G. B. (1935). Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. Cotterell.
• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.
• 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

• ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
• 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.
• Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978-1-900592-52-9.
• Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.

External links

• Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825
• CricketArchive – 1742 match list
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787