1730 English cricket season


The 1730 English cricket season was the 34th cricket season since the earliest recorded eleven-aside match was played. Details have survived of 14 matches as well as four notable single wicket matches.
Newspaper coverage of cricket increased during 1730 and the sport seems to have become more important in metropolitan London and its surrounding areas. The first recorded match took place at the Artillery Ground in London, although cricket is thought to have been played on the ground as early as 1725.

Recorded matches

The following eleven-aside matches are recorded:

Single wicket matches

Four single wicket matches are known to have taken place in 1730. On 28 May four men of Kent played four of Brentford for £50 at Westerham Common in Kent with a return scheduled at Kew Green on 4 June. On 29 June at Mickleham Downs in Surrey a match was played between three men of Surrey and three of Sussex. The newspaper report says the players were "esteemed the best in the respective counties" but does not name them. On 26 August Edwin Stead and three colleagues played a four-a-side single wicket match against four Brentford men on Walworth Common "for a considerable wager".

Other events

During April, there were reports in a number of journals about the Duke of Richmond and other members of the nobility playing cricket in Hyde Park. One such report on 7 April, stated: "His Grace the Duke of Richmond, and several other young Noblemen and gentlemen, have begun to divert themselves each Morning at the Play of Cricket in Hide Park, and design to pursue that wholesome Exercise every fair Morning during the Spring". A further report on 22 April mentioned an intention to play a match for 100 guineas.
A twelve-a-side game was played at Tonbridge on 17 August "backed by a great many of the noblemen and gentry of that place" and on 2 October a match on Datchet Heath, near Windsor, is the first reference to cricket in the county of Buckinghamshire..

First mentions

Clubs and teams

Players