Below I reproduce an article by the great cricket writer and broadcaster, John Arlott, entitled ALRESFORD’S FAMOUS CRICKETERS. I think there is little point in me trying to add to it.
Alresford’ wrote Mary Russell Mitford ‘will always be famous for two things; first for that it was my birthplace, second, for its cricketers’. When the town’s most illustrious native set down those words in the mid-nineteenth century, though, Alresford’s great days as a centre of cricket were already past. Between about 1770 and 1795, however, it stood higher in cricket than any town of its size has done in the history of the game. It saw some of the finest matches, and all the most distinguished players, of the period. Indeed, in that period, Alresford was second in Hampshire cricket only to Hambledon, and Hambledon was second to none in the world. Hambledon, though, even in its finest days, was happy to include Alresford players.
Between 1772 and 1796, the club known sometimes as Hampshire, more generally as Hambledon, met All England in 66 matches and won 38 of them. They played generally for five hundred guineas a side, and it has been estimated that Hambledon won .£22,497.10s to £10,030 in match-stakes alone. Worked out in modern values, of course, those were fortunes but in the obsessional gambling of the Regency period, many times more money than that depended on side-bets.
Hambledon lies been called ‘the birthplace of cricket’: it certainly was not. Organized, and highly skilled , cricket was played much earlier in Kent, London, Sussex and Surrey. Hambledon, though, was the first consistently great club, probably the greatest in the history of the game. It is, too, the earliest of which we have substantial knowledge, thanks to the recollections, entitled ‘The Cricketers of My Time’ which John Nyren, one of its players, set down in his old age.
It would be a mistake to think of Hambledon simply as a village cricket team. It was a private club of noblemen and country gentry. Some of them occasionally appeared in matches but, like their London successors. White Conduit and M.C.C., they employed professionals to carry out their main fixtures. That was the only possible realistic attitude when such huge slakes were involved.
The professionals were drawn from as far afield – by the standards of eighteenth century communications – as Odiham, Alresford, Northchapel (Sussex), Farnham, Alton and, even, in the case of James Bayley, Mitcham. They were recruited by one of the earliest systems of athletic talent spotting and in one of the first professional team operations, managed and trained to a high level of proficiency. They were paid travelling expenses not only for matches, but to take part in pre-season and regular weekly practice sessions. The standing of Alresford in the cricket world of Georgian and Regency times is indicated by the fact that a number of the Hambledon matches – including even major fixtures with England – were played there.
In the latter half of the eighteenth century there were four cricket grounds in Alresford. The chief was Stoke Down, reached by a sunken lane from the road junction at Abbotstone It is now part of lichen Down Farm. Another used for important games was Tichbornc Down where the ground coincided then with the racecourse, and, now, with the fifth (former fourth) hole of the golf course, and the field to the south of it. A report of 1780 refers to ‘the new laid ground’ at Alresford; that was The Nythe, on drained land between the Pond and the Bighton Road. Fourth of the old pitches was at Fob Down, now part of Fobdown farm; it, too, has been ploughed up. There was also a private ground at the Grange in Northington: but the present Old Alresford ground, in Bighton Road, is substantially later than any of the others.
Hambledon teams of the great period included seven Alresford men. Veck, Taylor and Andrew Freemantle appeared quite regularly in major Hambledon matches; John Freemantle from time to time; Cole, Hall and Thomas Skinner on a few occasions. An eighth was ‘poached’. John Crawte had the reputation, as a batsman, of playing David Harris – the outstanding bowler of the day – better than anyone else. ‘Silver Billy’ Beldham of Hamble- don related that Crawte ‘was taken away from our parish of Alresford by Mr Amherst, the gentleman who made the Kent matches.’
Tom Taylor was ranked by Nyren in the finest eleven of Hambledon cricket history. A considerable all-rounder, he constantly took useful wickets; was an attacking batsman and, at cover point, his speed in gathering, and accuracy of return, ran out many men on what appeared safe singles. He was born at Ropley, in 1753, but lived for much of his life at Alresford where he kept the Globe Inn, and regularly appeared for Alresford in matches played for stakes. A brilliant cutter, he was said to take risks – and often lose his wicket – by playing that stroke at a ball too near the stumps. Nyren, in his summing-up, thought Taylor ‘had an excellent general knowledge of the game; but of fielding, in particular, he- was perfect both in judgement and practice. He was a short, well-made man, strong and as watchful and active as a cat; but in no other instance will that comparison hold good, tour he was without guile, and was an attached friend.’ He died in 1806 and was buried at Old Alresford.
Richard Aubery Veck, born in New Alresford, played in ‘grand’ matches for only nine seasons. A highly talented cricketer, he played for Hambledon – unusually early by the standards of the time – when he was barely twenty. He was a reliable and consistent bats- man but at twenty-nine, entering the usual prime of a batsman’s career, he married, gave up the game, and moved to Bishops Waltham.
There, in Haygarth’s words, he ‘engaged in mercantile pursuits’; and became the main draper, hosier and undertaker of the town. Obviously he prospered. His son, whom he was able to send to University, entered the church and became ‘perpetual curate’ of Alverstoke Richard Veck died at Bishops Waltham but was buried, in a handsome vault, at Old Alresford.
The Freemantle brothers, Andrew and John, were born in Bishops Sutton, but they and their sons, nephews and grandsons played for Alresford for the better part of a century. The younger brother, Andrew, was, in the sporting ‘cant’ of the day, ‘one of the cracks’. As a regular player for Hambledon, he had a remarkably long – twenty-three-year – career on the highest level as a left hand batsman and safe deepfield In the days before wicket- keepers wore gloves or stood back, he often fielded long stop – so well that the Reverend James Pycroft wrote – ‘Freemantle brought the province of long stop to perfection, never suffering a ball to pass, and covering a great deal of ground.’ Nyren wrote of him ‘a shortish, well-set man, he was an uncommonly safe as well as a good hitter; and few wickets that I could name were more secure than Andrew’s. He would often get long hands, and against the best bowling, too; and once he had warmed into his hitting, it was a duced hard matter to get him out. Andrew Freemantle could be depended upon, whatever he might undertake, whether in cricket or in his worldly dealings.’
In his early thirties he moved to Easton where he took the Bat and Ball Inn; and worked as a carpenter. After he died, his elder son, Henry, took over the inn and another, George, lived in Winchester; both played for Alresford.
Andrew’s elder brother, John, early became a master builder in Alresford. Stoutly built and fairly tall, he was reckoned good enough cricketer to play at times for Hambledon.