The English are very fond of a game they call cricket. For this purpose they go into a large open field, and knock a small ball about with a piece of wood. I will not attempt to describe this game to you, it is too complicated, but it requires agility and skill, and everyone plays it, the common people and also men of rank.
Cesar de Saussure, A Foreign View of England in the Reigns of George I and George II. 1728
To the English sports enthusiast, it may well seem like a reasonable proposition to say that the ball sports we all love were the product of the nineteenth Century. The Football Association was formed in 1863; Web-Ellis’s supposed invention of Rugby took place in 1813; Lawn Tennis traces its invention to Birmingham in the 1860’s. Cricket’s great player from Ancient History, WG Grace, was born as late as 1848, the County Championship emerged around 1871 and the first test match took place in 1877. Even Lord’s Cricket Ground in St John’s Wood, the home of cricket from ages past, came into use in 1814.
What is not always appreciated, though, it that cricket has a much longer history, not merely as a schoolboy game or casual pursuit on the village green, but as an adult organised sport. Approaching 800 major matches have been identified as taking place in the Eighteenth Century and cricket was certainly around before then. The object of this website is to provide a small insight into the cricket that was being played in England in this period. It does not pretend to offer original research in any way, rather it draws in the wonderful work that has been done by Cricket historians and statisticians over the past hundred years and more. The emphasis will be on offering the newcomer to the subject a view of how cricket was played in those days – the laws, the grounds, the players, the teams and – most elusive of all – what it may have been like to see or play a game in those days.
Firstly though, a brief overview. The historical origins of cricket lie in rural southern England, where it was widely played by both peasantry and aristocracy. The playing of cricket has actually being traced back to 1550, growing as a recreational sport in the 17th century and developing a commercial aspect at elite level and drawing large crowds in the period up to 1800.
Broadly speaking, cricket in the seventeenth century was solely a recreation, less codified and regulated. As monied sections of society became involved, often by way of patronage, it became more structured and commercial. The main sources of income for promoters were selling food and beverages, but betting on the outcome of the game was central to its appeal for English aristocratic elites as well to less elevated sections of society.
Among the first to recognise the further opportunities of cricket were pub landlords, men such as George Smith who charged admission to the Artillery Ground in Finsbury as early as the 1740s. This model would be copied by other cricket entrepreneurs, especially, towards the end of the century, Thomas Lord, of the eponymous Lord’s ground in London.
The balance of cricket between urban and rural would ebb and flow during the 18th century, and the development of clubs was part of this process. The London Cricket Club started in 1722, a club for ‘noblemen’ and ‘gentlemen’, based out of the Star and Garter Inn in the centre of London. Most of their games were played at the Artillery Ground in Finsbury. The club was multi-functional, but both socialising and gambling cultures were key to its success.
Disbanded during the Seven Years’ War (1756-63), many patrons retreated to the countryside and gathered around the renowned Hambledon cricket club in Hampshire. This became the main centre of cricket from about 1765 for the next 15 years. By the early 1780s, leading figures from the old London club were looking to reestablish themselves back to the city, commissioning Thomas Lord to find a private venue. He opened Lord’s Dorset Square Ground in 1787 in Marylebone, where, in the same year, the London Cricket Club reappeared as Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It would become the most famous, and the most powerful, cricket club in the world.
By the late 18th century, the ‘great aristocrats’ and ‘gentlemen’ were threatening the quality of the rural game by poaching the best players for urban matches, particularly for their new Marylebone club. Although the peasant and lower middle class game continued to be popular, this marked a decisive shift of the professional game towards London.
About this website
This website provides an introductory view of the story of the first 250 years of cricket history. The approach is mostly thematic rather than narrative driven, a form of presentation I believe to be particularly suited to websites. The emphasis is not on statistics and scorecards but how the game was experienced by players and spectators. The site is not compiled by an established cricket historian, rather by an unashamed cricket-lover who has followed the game for around sixty years, enjoyed every format and played and captained at every level, all the way up to the mediocre.
This page lists the eighty-five pages the site offers. A first eleven of suggested places to start is as follows:
| Page | Contents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Timeline of Cricket history | A brief cricket timeline which defines six eras of cricket history – this site deals with the first two, over half of the time period during which cricket has been played. |
| 2. | A general narrative history | An outline history of cricket before 1800. |
| 3. | Ladybird book | I have devoted a full page to considering the contents of this splendid book insofar as it relates to early cricket. Not authoritative by any means, but very colourful. |
| 4. | Gallery – The Cricket Field | See multiple illustrations of Eighteenth Century Cricket. |
| 5. | Evolution of bowling, bat and stumps | A summary account of how cricket changed in the 1800s. |
| 6. | Bats and other equipment | This page looks in detail at how equipment evolved over the Eighteenth Century. |
| 7. | Library | List and details of many of the poems, songs and books relevant to early cricket. Links to many of the texts. |
| 8. | The Cricketers of my Time – John Nyren | Read the classic of cricket. |
| 9. | Women’s Cricket | Most of this site is about men’s cricket, but this page sets out all I could find about the women’s game up to 1800. |
| 10. | Early Cricket Hall of Fame | Brief biographies of the greatest and most influential players we know about up to 1800. |
| 11. | White Conduit Fields | An account of my research into the location of a forgotten Cricket ground, one which was, in some ways, the predecessor of Lord’s. |
All of the essential blocks of of the site are now in place. I will however continue to refine and develop it, hopefully with more proofreading, cross-referencing and footnotes, together with expanded sections on such areas as general narrative, key matches and players hall of fame
If anyone has any comments or suggestions, or even wishes to offer material, I would be most pleased to hear from you. Thank you for your time.
John Price – jp@earlycricket.uk – March 2025