Contents
General
The Slindon Cricket team (in the Arun district of Sussex) enjoyed its heyday in the 1740s when it claimed to have the best team in England. The team was built around the Newland brothers, among whom Richard was outstanding. He was an all-rounder who batted left-handed and became one of the greatest early cricketers, and was famous throughout the 1740s. His brothers, about whom comparatively little is known, were Adam (born 1714) and John (born 1717). Another notable player in the village was the notorious smuggler “Cuddy”, whose real name was Edward Aburrow (senior); his son became a regular in the Hambledon team of the 1770s.
The emergence of the club around 1740 was connected with the Duke of Richmond, who had been active as a player and patron since the 1720s and lent his benevolence to the little woodland club near Arundel in the late 1730s when he became aware that its residents included several fine players.
The information that has survived about the great era of Slindon Cricket is patchy in the extreme, consisting of some references in the Duke of Richmond’s papers and some press reports and notices about matches the team played at the Artillery Ground in London. Trying to reproduce the club’s history from these meagre sources is like trying to assemble a 500-piece jigsaw when only 25 pieces remain. In particular, we have only one scorecard, no substantial accounts of matches, no analysis of the skills of their players and most disappointing of all, there is no surviving record of those cricket matches which took place in Slindon itself. One hint as the extent of missing information is a report in the London press in 1742 that the club had only lost one of its previous 43 matches. Sadly, though only four matches involving Slindon are known of before this notice, none of which took place in 1742. This, in a way, is indicative of the Slindon story as we know it. The late 1730s are the silent years when the team must have established itself as a major force in the Sussex game, no doubt winning a great many local matches and attracting the attention of the Duke of Richmond. Then there are the better-known years, after 1740, when the players started to earn money from their skills by playing at the Artillery Ground in front of large audiences, many of whom were focused on the gambling side of the game.
Cradle of Cricket?
Unfortunately, when Slindon cricket is remembered, it often crops up as a kind of rival with Hambledon for the title cradle of cricket, when, in fact, in neither case is the title remotely appropriate; cricket was widely played as a folk game well over 100 years before the glory days of either club. It is valid, though, to see Slindon as a forerunner to Hambledon. They, too, are a small village which had a golden generation of players, and there is an important family link. One of Richard Newland’s sisters, Susan, married Richard Nyren of Eartham, and their eldest son, Richard, became the famous captain of Hambledon in the 1770s and landlord of the Inn at Broadhalfpenny Down. John Nyren (the son of the younger Richard Nyren) in Cricketers of Our Time says that Newland taught his nephew to play cricket. Slindon’s story, however, lacks a little lustre, as there is no record of matches at Slindon’s ground, and they had no hagiographer like John Nyren to immortalise their glory days. Nevertheless, in the 1740s, they must have been a strong contender for the title of finest team in the land, and their history is greatly to be celebrated.
Early days – up to 1740
The modern club claims a founding date of 1731, and though this may well be true, it is based more on speculation than any particular item of evidence. Certainly, Important Matches were being played in Sussex at this time, and the Newland brothers would be approaching adulthood, so it isn’t hard to believe the village team was active. However, teams from Mitcham and Croydon were playing matches more than twenty years before then, so the oldest club claims are not substantiated; also, I do not think that the continuous existence of a Slindon cricket team since the great days of the 1740s has been demonstrated to be the case, though I may be wrong.
Known matches in the 1740s
Below are details of all matches involving Slindon players in the heyday of the team, that is to say, the Richard Newland era. In all, there are only nine double-wicket matches where Slindon appeared as a team. In addition, there are three matches where Slindon players appeared in an amalgamated team and eight single-wicket matches. Twenty matches in total, sixteen of which were at the Artillery Ground and none of which were at Slindon itself. As mentioned above, this list is just the tip of the iceberg; records of most Slindon matches have not survived.
June 1741 – Match against Portsmounth
The first recorded Slindon cricket match took place on 15 June 1741 when they played against Portsmouth at Stansted Park, Rowlands Castle, near Havant in Hampshire, when the reputation of the team appears to have already been established. Evidence about cricket in this period largely emerges from correspondence. The Duke of Richmond, in a letter around the date of the match, said that “above 5000 people” were present, and in a second letter, he gives the result as being a Slindon victory by 9 wickets.
July 1741 – Match against East Dean
We know of this match from a letter from the Duchess of Richmond to her husband. The letter also includes the first recorded mention of any of the Newland family, Richard’s brother, John.
July 1741 – Match against unnamed opponents at Portslade
In two letters to his friend, the Duke of Newcastle, (a future Prime Minister), the Duke of Richmond spoke about a game on Tuesday, 28 July, which resulted in a brawl with “hearty blows and broken heads”! The game was at Portslade between Slindon and unnamed opponents. Apparently, Slindon won the fight, but the result of the match is unknown.
September 1741 – Match against Surrey – the ‘poor little Slindon’ match
Richmond, in a letter before the game against Surrey at Merrow Down on 7 September 1741, spoke of “poor little Slyndon against almost your whole county of Surrey”. The next day he wrote again, saying that “wee (sic) have beat Surrey almost in one innings”. Soon afterwards, Richmond’s wife Sarah wrote to him and said she “wish’d….. that the Sussex mob had thrash’d the Surrey mob”. She had “a grudge to those fellows ever since they mob’d you” (apparently a reference to an incident on Richmond Green in August 1731). She then said she wished the Duke “had won more of their money”. Poor little Slindon was to become a phrase associated with the great days of the team.
Astonishingly, this is the last record (as far as I am aware) of a cricket match involving Slindon or any of its players that was anywhere other than the Artillery Ground.
August 1742 – Guest appearance of Slindon player
The fame of Slindon and the Newlands was established after the defeat of Surrey. In August 1742, the report of a London v Croydon game at the Artillery Ground says that “the noted bowler from Slendon (sic) assisted Croydon”. This was probably Richard Newland, although he was an all-rounder, not just a bowler.
September 1742 – two matches against London
In September, the Slindon team came to the Artillery Ground for probably the first time. A newspaper report stated that Slindon arrived “having played 43 games and lost but one”. London Cricket Club was pre-eminent in the game at that time and had dominated the 1730s. In the two matches on 6 and 10 September, London prevailed. They won the first game “with great difficulty” and then, apparently having been assisted by the weather, which made the pitch difficult, they won the second by 184 runs. The enthusiasm generated by these matches was immense. Large crowds attended, and fortunes were gambled on the results and individual performances. Richard Newland was heavily backed to score 40 runs off his own bat: a feat he failed to accomplish.
This report states: “At the conclusion of the above (i.e., second) match Slindon offered to play another match against London either at Guildford or on the South Downs for £100, but the challenge was not accepted”. This was the precursor of what, in 1744, would become known as the Slindon challenge. It shows the ambition of the Sussex players to use their sporting prowess to achieve financial advantage.
July 1743 – three-a-side single-wicket match
On 11 July 1743, a three-a-side match took place at the Artillery Ground between three of Slindon (headed by Richard Newland) and three of Dartford (headed by William Hodsall of Dartford).
June 1744 – appearances for joint Surrey and Sussex team against London
In 1744, though, the club reappeared as a force in the elite cricket world of London. The London “Daily Advertiser” carried various notices from which announced that two untitled sides would play in the Artillery Ground on Saturday, 2 June. On 31 May, the paper said that the teams would consist of “four gentlemen from Slindon, one from Eastbourne, two from Hamilton (sic) in Sussex, one from Addington and three from Lingfield in Surrey” against “four gentlemen of London, one from Richmond, one from Reigate, three from Addington in Surrey, one from Bray Wick in Berkshire and one from Arundel in Sussex”.
The Duke of Richmond’s papers, which are now in the possession of the West Sussex Records Office, include a scorecard of the match – the earliest known in which individual and team scores are recorded.
Of the three Newland brothers, it was John who did not play. The match included a declaration by the Surrey and Sussex team in their second innings at 102-6. They made 102 & 102-6d against London’s scores of 79 & 70. Surrey and Sussex won by 55 runs.
September 1744 – match against London
In September, Slindon again played London at the Artillery Ground and won, but details, including the margin of victory, have not survived.
September 1744 – the Slindon Challenge matches against Addington and against Bromley
Having now defeated London twice, the team issued a press notice saying they would play any parish in England. This has become known as the Slindon Challenge. Two teams, Addington and Bromley, accepted, and matches against these teams were arranged at the Artillery Ground: against Addington on 12 and 13 September; and against Bromley on 14 September. We know that rain intervened and no result or match report has survived of either game, but they did create considerable press interest.
September / October 1744 – two three-a-side single-wicket matches
On 17 September and 1 October 1744, three-a-side matches took place at the Artillery Ground between three of Slindon (headed by Richard Newland) and three of Kent (headed by Robert Colchin of Bromley).
July 1745 – Exhibition match involving Slindon players
On 5 July 1745, there was a match at the Artillery Ground between two “best elevens”, apparently organised by Robert Colchin and Richard Newland which was advertised as Sevenoaks, Bromley & Addington versus Slindon, Horsmonden, Chislehurst & London.
July 1745 – five-a-side single-wicket match
Also in July of 1745 and again at the Artillery Ground, five of Slindon played five of Dartmouth
July 1747 – four five-a-side single-wicket matches
In the 1747 season, Slindon issued further challenges in the lucrative five-a-side single-wicket version of the game. On Monday, 6 July 1747, Five of Slindon played Five of Dartford at the Artillery Ground. This was the result of a challenge by Slindon, published in the “Daily Advertiser” on Monday, 29 June, to play “five of any parish in England, for their own Sum”. The announcement advised interested parties: “If it is accepted by any, they are desir’d to go to Mr Smith, who has Orders to make Stakes for them”. The three Newland brothers all played. “Mr Smith” was George Smith, keeper of the Artillery Ground. On Saturday, 4 July, he announced in the same paper that “five of Dartford in Kent, have made Stakes with him, and will play with the above Gentlemen at the Time and Place above mentioned for twenty Pounds”.
Subsequently, more five-a-side challenges took place on Wednesday 8 July against Bromley and then two matches on 10 July and 15 July against the strong Hadlow team from Kent.
1750s
The Duke of Richmond died on Wednesday, 8 August 1750, and it could be said that Slindon cricket died with him, especially as the Newlands were by now veteran players with their best years behind them. Richmond’s death, following that of his friend Sir William Gage in 1744, had a massive impact on the game in Sussex and the game as a whole was affected only a few months later when the Prince of Wales, another key patron, also died. Following this slump, cricket was then badly impacted by the Seven Years War from 1756 to 1763.
The last Slindon match of the period we know of was a match on 21 and 22 June 1754 against Midhurst & Petworth on Bowling Green, Lavington Common. This was clearly a village match only. Slindon lost by eight wickets. Sussex cricket as a whole went into decline, and although several inter-parish games are reported over the next decade or so, it is not until 1766 that we again find a Sussex team in a major match.
Reasons for Slindon’s success
Why such a small village should have produced such a fine team has been a cause for speculation. My suggestion is that cricket was a small world in those days, and a talented family by itself were enough to generate the momentum that would propel their team towards the top of the emerging elite cricket world. Other have sough a more complex reason, one that is repeated in the newspaper article below.
The suggestion is that as Slindon Common was laid out on firm clay soil rather than soft downland turf, the ball bounced more evenly, and this encouraged the scientific, straight bat batting which was to revolutionise the game. The trouble with this theory is that the change in batting techniques lay more in the 1770s, fully a generation away from the Newlands’ era. The 1740s, though, were not without significance from a technical point of view, as this seems to have been the decade when the curved bat replaced the hockey-style bat. We know next to nothing about how this change came about, so anything is possible. I have speculated that bowling changed from being all along the ground to being skimmed, i.e. bouncing several times before arriving at the batsmen, so a different type of bat was appropriate. I doubt, though, if this had much to do with Slindon conditions, if their wickets were that much different to everyone else’s, they would have had problems in replicating their success in away matches, and that was not the case.
Article from local newspaper
The article below is from the West Sussex Gazette and South of England Advertiser, 24 July 1980. It is very interesting although it includes many statements that I can’t agree with. For instance, it does not get the Duke of Richmond’s code of regulations right, and this has nothing much to do with Slindon either. Still worth reading, though, as a valid attempt to get the Slindon cricket story out to a wider audience.
Slindon Cricket today
In 1871, as a result of the enclosure of common land, the club lost its original ground, which was at the southern end of Park Lane; the land was then planted with fir trees. The club moved to a new ground, only a short distance away, on a different part of the common, which they still occupy today.1
Also there is a monument to Early Cricket at the entrance to the village (photgraph at top of page).
Cover signed by the Sussex Team. I can spot England players David Smith, Ian Gould, Geoff Arnold, Ian Grieg and Tony Pigott.
Footnote
- A Portrait of Slindon, Josephine Duggan Rees, page 165. ↩︎