1781 English cricket season

1781 English cricket season

The 1781 English cricket season was the 10th in which matches have been awarded retrospective first-class cricket status. The scorecards of six first-class matches have survived. Broadhalfpenny Down in Hampshire was abandoned in favour of Windmill Down and the earliest known mention of cricket in Lancashire has been found during the season.

Matches

Six first-class match scorecards survive from 1781, all of them featuring sides from Kent.^[1][2]

Other events

Broadhalfpenny Down, which had been used by the Hambledon Club as their home venue, was used for the last time by the club as a home venue in first-class cricket.^{[citation needed]}

A match on Brinnington Moor in August is the earliest known reference about cricket being played in Lancashire. It was reported in the Manchester Journal on 1 September.^[3]

First mentions

Players

• Hogben (Kent)
• J. Martin (Essex)
• Webb (Kent)

References

1. Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) (1981) A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
2. Results, English Domestic Season 1781, CricInfo. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
3. Buckley GB (1937) Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket . Cotterell.

Further reading

• 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.
• Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. HarperCollins.
• Underdown, David (2000). Start of Play. Allen Lane.