| 1728 English Cricket Season |
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The overriding impression of this season is that teams of county strength were formed as the patrons sought stronger XIs to help them in the serious business of winning wagers. Easily the most successful this year was Mr Edward Stead whose "Kent" teams were "too expert" for those of "Sussex. Swiss traveller César de Saussure noted in his journal the frequency with which he saw cricket being played while he was making his journeys across southern England in June 1728. He referred to "county matches" as a commonplace. MATCHES The venue of the game on 5 August was very precisely reported as ''in the fields behind the Woolpack, in Islington, near Sadlers Wells , for £50 a side.'' This match is also the earliest known to have involved a team called Middlesex. The results of the first two games are surmised from the report of the game at Penshurst in August, which states that the victory of Mr Stead’s XI over Sir William Gage’s XI was ''the third time this summer that the Kent men have been too expert for those of Sussex''. In the Stead v Gage game, it seems that ''Kent'' won the game although ''Sussex'' needed just 7 in their second innings. The report clearly infers that the teams selected by Richmond, Gage and Stead were representative of the respective counties and so must have been of first-class standard. FOCUS Mr Edward Stead (Maidstone, Kent) Mr Edward Stead (''aka'' "Edwin Steed") was one of the earliest cricket patrons that we know of and he seems to have been one of the most successful, certainly in 1728 when his teams were "too expert" for those of his rival patrons. His selections, which must have drawn on the illustrious Dartford Cricket Club , are generally reckoned to have been representative of Kent as a county and so must have been first-class teams. We do not know if Mr Stead was a good player himself but it seems that he did captain his own XI as well as organise the fixtures. He was a compulsive gambler and this habit eventually overcame him. He died in reduced circumstances only a few years later. 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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