| 1726 English Cricket Season |
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Details remain few but the reports seem to widening in scope because at last we begin to read the names of players as well as patrons. With a name we can envisage a person and with a few more details we can understand something of the character, background and achievements of that person. The first players we know of are '''Perry''' of '''London''' and '''Piper''' of '''Hampton'''. They played a single-wicket match and they must have been good players or it would not have been reported. The main story of the year, as in some earlier seasons, concerns cricket's relationship with the law, though once again the issue was non-payment of gambling debts. MAJOR MATCHES The ''London Evening Post'' dated 27 August carried an advertisement for a single wicket match between players called Perry (of London ) and '''Piper''' (of '''Hampton''', Middlesex). The venue was Moulsey Hurst , near '''Molesey''' in Surrey. This is the earliest reference we have of Cricket being played there. It was famous for various sporting activities, especially prizefighting, and was often used for cricket throughout the 18th Century . The match on 29 August was ''for 25 guineas between the men belonging to Edward Stead, Esq. of Maidstone and the men of London and Surrey.'' The second game is the conclusion of the 1724 match which was unfinished at that time and became the subject of a lawsuit. Lord Chief Justice Pratt ordered it to be played out. It is not known if Dartford Brent was the original venue but it seems certain the match was concluded there. On the subject of legal matters, Mr G B Buckley recounts a letter written by an Essex resident. The writer complained that a local Justice of the Peace had seen fit to literally ''read the Riot Act'', as it were, to some people who were playing cricket on Saturday 10 September . He had a constable with him who dispersed the players. It seems the JP considered any game or sport as a pretence covering the gathering of disaffected people in order to raise a rebellion! Given the ruling by Lord Chief Justice Pratt, who in effect ordered the game to be played in Dartford, the issue raised was that it was apparently lawful to play cricket in Kent but not in Essex. FOCUS Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke Of Richmond (Sussex) Although we have no details of his 1726 matches, there can be little doubt that Charles Lennox (1701 - 1750), the 2nd Duke Of Richmond , was the mainstay of cricket in this crucially formative era and was perhaps the sport’s greatest patron. He is therefore a worthy first subject for this section of each season summary which focuses on a particular participant of the time. He is forever associated with Sussex; he was born at Goodwood , lived and died at Godalming and is buried in Chichester Cathedral . He captained his own XI and his players included some of the earliest known professionals such as his own groom Thomas Waymark , who was the game's foremost all-rounder in the first half of the 18th Century . ARTICLE & MATCH SOURCES The above information is essentially driven out of various historical notes that have been accumulated over many years and so sources used originally may have been overlooked for the moment. But the sources certainly include:
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