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Addington
Addington fielded one of the strongest cricket teams in England from about the 1743 season to the 1752 season although the village of Addington is a very small place in Surrey about three miles south-east of Croydon. The team was of county strength and featured the noted players Tom Faulkner, Joe Harris, John Harris, George Jackson and Durling. The team immediately accepted the Slindon Challenge, in 1744, to play against any parish in England. The only other club to accept was Robert Colchin’s Bromley. It is not known when the Addington team started but it played its earliest known game, in London, in 1743. At the Artillery Ground on 25 July, Addington defeated the London Cricket Club by an innings & 4 runs. London scored 32 & 74; Addington 110. Kent players Robert Colchin, aka “Long Robin”, and Tom Peake played for Addington as given men while Surrey’s William Sawyer was given to London.
It was after Slindon defeated London in September 1744 that it issued its challenge to the rest of England. Addington and Slindon met at the Artillery Ground on 12 and 13 September but it rained and the matches could not be concluded.
Addington and London won a home game each against each other in 1745. The best Addington players were frequently involved in single wicket contests, which were hugely popular throughout the 1740s. They also played often in representative teams. Tom Faulkner in particular was one of the most influential figures in the sport. In 1746, Addington beat Bromley “with great difficulty” on Bromley Common but a return match at the Artillery Ground was inconclusive. In 1747, Addington joined forces with nearby Croydon to play three matches against London: they won one, lost one and one had an unknown result. In 1748, the “best five” Addington players took part in a big single wicket contest against “The Rest of England”. One of the Addington five was described as “the shoemaker that lately came out of Kent”. It is possible that this shoemaker was Durling, who first made his presence felt that season. Durling’s origins are otherwise unknown.
Signs of Addington’s decline can be seen at the end of the 1740s. On 10 July 1749, “Five of All-England” defeated “Five of Addington” at the Artillery Ground. The match was played for fifty guineas a side and was the result of a challenge by the Addington players to meet any other five in England. Betting was 8–1 in favour of Addington but the team of Faulkner, Joe Harris, John Harris, George Jackson and Durling was beaten by Colchin, John Bryant, Robert Eures, John Bell and Thomas Waymark. On 17 July, in a return match, the same Addington five beat the same All-England five for fifty guineas. But on 26 July in a deciding match, All-England won by 2 runs, scoring 11 and 12; Addington replied with 16 and 5. The prize this time was 100 guineas. All-England made two changes to its team with James Bryant and Val Romney replacing Bell and Waymark. Addington’s five were unchanged.
On 17 July 1750, Addington lost a sensational match to the re-emerging Dartford by 6 runs on Dartford Brent. Dartford scored 46 and 34; Addington replied with 39 and 35. William Hodsoll and the two Bryants all played for Dartford as given men. According to the London Evening Post on Thursday 19 July, Dartford lost its last five second innings wickets in five successive deliveries by a mixture of caught and bowled, but still won.
There are more Addington games in the records until the end of the 1752 season but then there is just occasional mentions of Faulkner and Durling who played into the 1760s. The Addington cricket ground is still in use and is held to be one of the oldest in England.
Bromley
Bromley was one of the strongest English cricket teams in the mid-18th century when its team was led by Robert Colchin known as “Long Robin”.
Cricket almost certainly originated in Kent and Sussex so it must have been played in and around Bromley since time immemorial. The first definite mention of the area in a cricket connection is a 1735 match on Bromley Common between a Kent side and London Cricket Club. The report of this match states that “a large crowd attended and a great deal of mischief was done. It seems that horses panicked and riders were thrown while some members of the crowd were ridden over. One man was carried off for dead as HRH passed by at the entrance to the Common”. “HRH” was Frederick, Prince of Wales.
Apart from Colchin, Bromley also produced noted players like John Bowra, his son William Bowra and the brothers James and John Bryant. A match took place in June 1742 between London and Bromley at the Artillery Ground which is the second known instance of a match finishing as a tie. The club probably reached its peak in September 1744, a time when Colchin was also at the pinnacle of his career. Following the victory over London by Richard Newland’s Slindon at the Artillery Ground, the “Slindon Challenge” was issued to “play any parish in England”. They received immediate acceptances from Addington Cricket Club and from Bromley who were due to play Slindon in the same month but it rained and the matches could not be concluded.
Chertsey
The first matches of this team date to the 1730s. Three known matches were played in 1736, one against Croydon at Duppas Hill followed by a return match at the Laleham Burway. A deciding game on Richmond Green was played on 5 July. In each of the two matches, the home team won “by a great number of runs”.
The club played a number of matches against London Cricket Club and Dartford. In the 1760s, they played matches against Hambledon, and in September 1778, Chertsey beat the rest of England (excluding Hampshire) by an innings and 24 runs.
Chertsey produced several famous players in the 18th century including the great bowler Edward “Lumpy” Stevens and the noted wicket-keeper William Yalden.
Dartford
The earliest known match involving a team from Dartford took place in 1722, against London, but the modern club’s own website says it was formally established in 1727.
Dartford players were reckoned by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, writing in his diary in 1723, to “lay claim to the greatest excellence” among English cricketers. The club played a number of big matches against London and, in 1756, they were involved in a tri-series against the Hambledon Club.
Dartford produced several famous players in the 18th century including cricket’s earliest known great player William Bedle. Later players included William Hodsoll, John Bell, John Frame and Ned Wenman. The club originally used Dartford Brent, an area of common land, as its ground. A club is still in existence and now plays in the Kent Cricket League.
Croydon
The original Croydon team (then part of Surrey) played most of its matches at Duppas Hill (pictured – now a park). The earliest record of the club is in the 1707 season when it played two major matches against London. Croydon had a very strong team in the 1731 season, beating London four times. Croydon continued to be prominent through the 1730s but was less so in the 1740s and the club was barely mentioned again after that except in a few minor matches. It is believed to have disbanded in the later part of the 18th century.
Mitcham
Mitcham’s claim to to be the oldest cricket club in the world, is somewhat tenuous. Cricket in Mitcham certainly dates back to the early part of the Eighteenth Century but the club’s suggestion this could be taken further is less then convincing. Judge for yourself:
“We have it on the authority of E.A.C.Thompson, founder and secretary of the Club Cricket Conference, brought up in Mitcham, that “While my father and I were watching a match on the Green one Saturday afternoon, he talked to an old villager who was nearer 90 than 80. He said that his own grandfather had told him he remembered seeing an old print of a cricket match with the inscription underneath “Crickette on Ye Olde Meecham Green”. It was dated 1685. He said that the print was hanging on one of the walls inside a room in one of the cottages surrounding the Green. Alas! it has now disappeared.”
Early records of matches are sparse, but it is known that in 1707 the villagers of Mitcham challenged All-London to a match which was played on Lamb’s Conduit Fields. The “County Journal” of 26 June 1736 records that, “The great match which was played between the Gentlemen of London and those of Meecham in Surrey, was won by the former by a considerable number of notches”.
There is an account of a match between Mitcham and Ewell, played on the Green in October 1731: “The same day (October 2nd) a great cricket match was played on Mitcham Green, Surrey, between 11 of that town and 11 of Ewell in the same county, for 5 guineas a side; the latter went in first, and on their side was the famous Tim Coleman, who usually played on the London side, but notwithstanding a great deal of good play on both sides, the former won the match by several notches.”
Guildford
The present Guildford Cricket Club was founded in 1856, making is something of a late arrival. Guildford is however included here as it has several important connections with early cricket which has led no less an authority than David Frith to say it has a claim to the title ‘Cradle of Cricket‘.
Briefly, these are as follows:
- In 1598, during a hearing over a disputed plot of land, a Surrey coroner named John Derrick, testified that about 50 years earlier he and some school friends “did runne and play there at Creckett and other Plaies”. This entry in a Guildford Court Book is dated January 15, 1598 and was held at Guildford’s Muniment Room. That highly significant piece of wasteland, site of the boys’ primitive games of cricket, is believed to have been close to the junctions of North Street and Chertsey Street. Around the corner stands Guildford’s Royal Grammar School, where former England fast bowler and captain Bob Willis was educated.
- The great Lumpy Stevens came from Send, an outlying village near Guildford and he played a part n the introduction of the middle stump.
- Hambledon player Robert Robinson came from Ash, in between Guildford and Farnham, and he was something of a kit-innovator, experimenting with both pads and spikes, though neither caught on in his era.
- A great many of the important matches of the Eighteenth Century were staged at or near Guildford.
- The expression Test Match was coined by Will Hammersley, who, like Robinson, originated in the village of Ash.
All very interesting, but, for my money, the Cradle of Cricket claim is still something of a stretch.