Contents
Important Matches / First Class Matches
In 1988, The Association of Cricket Statisticians published a booklet entitled A Guide to Important Cricket Matches played in the British Isles 1709-1863. The aim of this publication was to provide a definitive list all matches of historic significance which had taken place before 1864. The significance 1864 was that the general consensus of statisticians agreed with Roy Webber who argued that the majority of matches prior to that year (i.e., the year in which overarm bowling was legalised) “cannot be regarded as first-class” and their records are useful only “for their historical associations”. Important Matches include those with more players than eleven a side but not single wicket matches. Later Bill Frindall proposed the introduction of roundarm bowling in 1815 as the appropriate date for the start of first class cricket and earned limited support. Of the matches listed, 845 took place before 1800.
More recently, the online databases, Cricket Archive and ESPNcricinfo, have accorded First Class status to certain matches between 1772 and 1863, including 232 matches of the Eighteenth Century. The opinion of these databases has been rejected by both Wisden (who take 1815 as the start date) and Playfair Cricket Annual (who take 1864). This website however goes along with Cricket Archive but mostly refers to Important Matches rather than First Class matches. It is worth noting that, in 2022, there was widespread celebration of the 250th anniversary of Cricket Archive’s initial first class match 24 and 25 June 1772.
Single / Double wicket matches
Double wicket matches are matches of cricket played as we would recognise now – that is to say, on a pitch with two wickets and two batsmen.
Single wicket matches were played with only one wicket, and one batsman at any one time, a now archaic form of the game. They could be between individual players but were often between teams of up to six players. There were are four principle differences from the double-wicket game. They were popular as exhibition matches bringing elite players together, largely because the transporting of complete teams in the pre-railway era was a slow and expensive matter.
1. No overs – The players did not change ends, there were no overs, and a bowler could bowl unchanged.
2. There and back scores one run – Each batsman bats alone and was safe only within the popping crease. To score one run, the batsman had to run to the bowler’s end, tap the bowling stump, and return to the wicket.
3. Strike from the crease – The batsman had to keep one foot grounded within the popping crease when striking, otherwise the umpire called “No hit,” and no run was counted.
4. Score in front of the wicket only – The ball was dead upon passing behind the wicket, so the batsman could neither be caught out behind the wicket, nor stumped. The batsman could not score from any stroke that goes behind the wicket. There were no byes or overthrows.
Only double wicket matches are categorised a Important Matches. A listing of such matches taking place before 1800 is to be found here.
A list of significant single wicket matches played before 1800 may be found here.
Number of players per team
While the basic idea that cricket was an eleven a side game, there were numerous exceptions to this. One reason was that in order to correct the imbalance between teams, the side deemed to be of lesser strength was often allowed more than eleven players, in the case of a match at Swaffham, Norfolk July 17th 1797 between XI of All England and Norfolk, Norfolk were allowed 33 players – it didn’t help though, they still lost by an innings. Also, matches would sometimes be organised between sides of different numbers – maybe 12 a side.
The current cricket laws allow for sides to consist of more than eleven players per side, but with the important rider that only eleven players can be in the field at any one time, any surplus players must sit it out. It s not clear to me how fielding arrangements were handled in the Eighteenth Century, presumably all players fielded, but I have not seen this confirmed.
Important Matches include those with various numbers of players per team but First Class matches are restricted to eleven-a-side.
Different levels of matches
- Organised by wealthy landowners – the precursor of professional and County cricket. Essentially these are the basis of the Important Match listing
- Contests between cricketing towns and their clubs – what we would now see as Club cricket
- Between local parishes – what we would now see as village cricket
- Public school cricket
- Women’s cricket – not a huge amount, but there was some
- Informal matches within parishes, colts matches etc. – the rest
League cricket and competitions
Just to be clear – there was none. The first recorded cricket league in the world was the Birmingham League, founded 1888. All matches in the Eighteenth Century were stand-alone affairs.