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William Bedle (1680 – 1768)
William Bedle played for Dartford Cricket Club and Kent county cricket teams in the first quarter of the 18th century. His obituary in Lloyd’s Evening Post dated 10 June 1768 said that he was “formerly accounted the most expert cricket player in England”. Few details of cricket matches from the early eighteenth century have survived, and so very little is known about Bedle’s career. His presence in this listing is partly as representative of many other fine players of very early cricket who are lost to history.
Val Romney (1711 – 1773)
He played during the 1740s as a specialist batsman, mainly associated with Kent sides but also played for England sides. He is known to have made 11 single wicket matches, including a single wicket three-a-side match at the Artillery Ground in 1743, and 14 eleven-a-side appearances between 1743 and 1751.
In the single wicket three-a-side match at the Artillery Ground in 1743, the six players taking part were stated to be “the best in England”. They were Hodsoll, John Cutbush and Val Romney playing as Three of Kent; and Richard Newland, William Sawyer and John Bryant playing as Three of All-England. Hodsoll and Newland were the captains, Kent won by 2 runs. The London Evening Post says the crowd was around 10,000. He was employed as a gardener by cricket patron, Lionel Sackville, the First Duke of Dorset and worked on the ‘cricketing place’ at Knole which was to become The Vine Cricket Ground.
He was mentioned in the poem, Cricket, An Heroic Poem, about between Kent and England that took place on 18 June 1744 at The Artillery Ground:-
Bold Romney first, before the Kentish Band
God-like appear'd, and seiz'd the chief Command.
Judicious Swain! whose quick-discerning Soul
Observes the various Seasons as they roll.
Well-skill'd to spread the thriving Plant around;
And paint with fragrant Flow'rs th' enamell'd Ground.
Conscious of Worth, with Front erect he moves,
And poises in his Hand the Bat he loves.
He played in nearly all of the great matches of his era. His last known season was 1751 although he may have continued after that day. Romney’s family ran the pub in Meopham, near Gravesend; originally called the The Harrow, they changed its name to Ye Eleven Cricketers, in honour of its cricket team who successes were occasionally reported in the Kentish Gazette. There is still a pub in the village of that name, sadly not the same one as Romney’s family kept. His obituary in that paper referred to him as ‘the best player in the world’. The villagers were so proud of him that they allocated his widow a pension of 1s 6d per week.
Richard Newland (1713 -1778)
Richard Newland was an English cricketer of the mid-Georgian period who played for the famous Slindon Club (cricket monument pictured) and Sussex under the patronage of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond. He also represented various England teams and, in some matches, led his own select team. The eldest of three cricketing brothers, during the 1740s, he was arguably the best and most famous player in England. and has been called a pioneer of the sport.
One of his 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. It is said that Newland taught his nephew to play cricket.
Newland was an all-rounder who batted left-handed, the earliest known left-handed player in cricket’s history.
Robert Colchin (1713 – 1750)
Colchin lived in Bromley for several years and was associated with the local Bromley Cricket Club, which was prominent through the 1740s. Widely known as “Long Robin” because he was tall, he was considered to have been one of the best batters of his day. Cochlin’s fame caused him to be invited to London for several big money contests in London. For example in 1748, Colchin and Thomas Waymark played two doubles matches against Tom Faulkner and Joe Harris at the Artillery Ground. At the time, these four were amongst the best players in England; the matches were played for very large prizes of fifty guineas each. Colchin and Waymark won them both, the first by 12 runs and the second by an unrecorded margin.
In addition to his appearances in single wicket cricket, Colchin played for Kent in eleven-a-side matches, including a match against England at the Artillery Ground in July 1744 celebrated in Cricket, An Heroic Poem. Colchin played many times at the Artillery Ground and often fielding his own team.
Richard Nyren (1734 – 1797)
Described by Ashley Mote as “The greatest of them all… the driving force behind all that happened at Broadhalfpenny Down between the late 1750s and 1791″, his contribution to cricket in the Eighteenth Century was immense.
Nyren came from West Sussex and was a nephew of the great Slindon player Richard Newland who coached him as a boy in the 1740s. Richard moved to Hambledon soon after getting married in 1758. He took over the Inn known as the Hutt (later The Bat and Ball – pictured) soon afterwards, probably in 1762. He also took over responsibility for the care of Broadhalfpenny Down, something he was to continue to be involved in until he left the area in 1791.
Nyren arrived at the time when Hambledon cricket was established and the club was beginning to field a strong team. Nyren had the cricket skills to establish himself in this side as an all-rounder and soon as captain as well. It was in this later role that he was noted to excel having a astute grasp of the tactics of the game couple with outstanding leadership abilities – he was known as The General. As a batter, his highest score was 98, achieved in 1775 in an Important Match against Surrey when his team were in trouble. As a bowler he is one of the first to experiment with the length ball as opposed to the delivery skimmed or rolled across the ground.
The story of Nyren’s cricket career is inextricably linked with that of his career as an Innkeeper. As long as the cricket was going well, the Inn thrived, not just during the matches, but over the famous dinners afterwards. His tenure at the Inn though, was relatively short-lived; he sold it the Inn to fellow player William Barber in 1771 and took over the George in the village itself. He did however, continue to supply the ground with refreshments on match days.
In 1791, he left Hambledon for London and continued to play occasional games of cricket. He died only five years later; his widow then moved back to Hambledon to live with their son John.
Edward ‘Lumpy’ Stevens (1735 – 1819)
Lumpy Stevens was born in Waltham-on Thames, Surrey and is often thought to be the first great bowler of the game. He was at the forefront of the move to develop the length ball as opposed to the skimmed delivery. A thick, round-shouldered man, Lumpy Stevens was one of the great bowlers of the 18th century, able, according to John Nyren, of bowling “the greatest number of length balls in succession” and all at brisk medium pace.
The beginning of Stevensâ career was before scorecards began to be kept on a regular basis from the 1772 season so details of his early career are not known. He probably began playing in Important Matches around the mid-1750s. It is not known if Stevens was the first to bowl a length delivery, what is known is that Stevens was the bowler who made the most careful study of flight and worked out all the implications of variations in pace, length and direction mentioned above. He became a master of his craft.
He was given a job as gardener by Lord Tankerville, a cricket patron who lived at Walton in Surrey, who was, in all probability, more interested in ensuring Stephens was available for hi steams. In a sense then, Stevens was the first full-time cricket pro. Stevens once won a ÂŁ100 wager for his employer by hitting a feather once in every four balls while bowling at Laleham.
Unlike the Hambledon players who tended to represent their club (or county) only, Stevens made appearances for many teams, including Hambledon – in some ways, he was virtually freelance. Nonetheless, he is normally associated with Surrey teams in general and with the famous Chertsey team in particular.
The most famous incident he was involved in occurred in 1775, at The Artillery Ground. He bowled John Small three times, the ball passing through the two stumps on each occasion – this led to the introduction of the third stump.
How he came by his legendary nickname is uncertain but it may have been because he was adept at choosing a pitch to suit his very subtle variations of pace, length and direction. In the 18th century, choice of pitch was granted to one team according to the rules in situ and it was generally the leading bowler on that team who chose the place where the wickets would be pitched. According to the verse quoted by Haygarth1:
For honest Lumpy did allow
He neâer would pitch but oâer a brow
He continued as a player until he was 50 and played his last match in 1789 for All-England v Hampshire at Sevenoaks Vine. It is not known what took place in his career following this game, but it is suspected that Stevens enlisted in the British Army. On 20 May 1793 a letter signed by âA Kentish Cricketerâ written to Sporting Magazine describes an incident where an Ensign Hamilton, a member of the Sevenoaks Vine Club, had a cannonball deflected away from his head by a Sergeant. The magazine and the Maidstone Journal both linked the story to Stevens. He died in 1821 and is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church, Walton-upon-Thames. His tombstone was paid for by Lord Tankerville and bears the following inscription:
To THE MEMORY OF
MR. EDWARD STEVENS,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
THE 7TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1819,
AGED 84.
John Small Senior (1737 – 1826)
John Small was a right-hand batsman who was a leading cricketer for two decades from the 1760s. Many of his feats predated the keeping of accurate records, but in 1775 he made 136 not out for Hambledon against Surrey, adding 85 not out in the same fixture the next year. He was still playing for MCC at the age of 60. In 1775 he was bowled three times by “Lumpy” Stevens, the ball passing between the two stumps on each occasion – a third stump was added soon afterwards as a result.
He was renowned for running quick singles – John Nyren said he was “as active as a hare” and effectively invented doing so, as well as a more upright stance. He was also an excellent fielder at “middle wicket”.
Away from cricket he was a gamekeeper, draper, violinist and, for 75 years, a chorister at Petersfield where he was buried. He was originally a cobbler but he later expanded his business to the manufacture of cricket bats and balls. It is sometimes said that he introduced the modern-shaped bat, instead of the curved version, after bowlers started pitching the ball instead of skimming or trundling it. It is more likely that he was simply the first batsman to master the use of the modern bat and that he subsequently made them.
He featured as number 61 in John Woodcock’s list of 100 Greatest Cricketers, one of only two cricketers who played in the Eighteenth Century to be included. His son, John Small Junior, was also a fine player for Hambledon. An anecdote about has him placating an angry bull he encountered by playing a tune on his bass violin. Maybe.
He is buried at St Peter’s Church, Petersfield. Pierce Egan (1772-1849) wrote the following epitaph about him:
Here lies, bowled out by death's unerring ball,
A cricketer renowned, by name John Small.
But though his name was Small, yet great his fame,
For nobly did he play the noble game;
His life was like his innings, long and good,
Full ninety summers he had death withstood.
At length the ninetieth winter came, when (fate
Not leaving him one solitary mate)
The last of Hambledonians, Old John Small,
Gave up his bat and ball, his leather wax and all.
He is also remembered in a display at Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery
James Aylward (1741 – 1827)
A left-handed batsman, remembered for what was arguably the greatest innings of the Eighteenth Century. He scored 167 for Hambledon against all-England in a three day game in June 1777. Hambledon scored a monumental 403 and England lost by an innings and 168 runs.
After his great feat, Aylward was tempted away from Hambledon by Sir Horace Mann in 1779 who offered him a post in Kent where he could play in Sir Horace’s sides, as well as captain All England on future occasions. In a six-a-side match where he was playing for Kent against Hambledon, he was last man in with two needed to win – he took 94 balls to achieve this, but got there in the end.
He played his last game in 1802 and, when he died in 1827, was buried in St John’s Wood churchyard, very near the current Lord’s Ground.
Thomas Brett (1747 – 1809)
Thomas Brett Brett was born at Catherington in Hampshire. One feature of his career at a time when players often swapped sides as given men was that he always played for Hambledon / Hampshire. As he continued to live at Catherington, he was ineligible to represent Hambledon’s Parish or Town XI and so played only in games where a wider selection criteria was applied.
His name is associated with fast bowling, this arising from Nyren’s comments:
Brett was, beyond all comparison, the fastest as well as straightest bowler that was ever known: he was neither a thrower nor a jerker, but a legitimate downright bowler, delivering his ball fairly, high, and very quickly, quite as strongly as the jerkers, and with the force of a point blank shot. He was a well-grown, dark-looking man, remarkably strong, and with rather a short arm.
Brett’s last recorded match was for Hampshire against Surrey at Laleham Burway in October 1778 when he was still only 31. It seems he went to live in Portsmouth so a change of occupation may have been the reason for his apparently early retirement.
George Lear ( 1748 – 1812)
George Lear was born in Hambledon in 1748 and played many matches for the club and for Hampshire as part of the first generation of players, those who played at Broadhalfpenny Down. He was known as an excellent long stop, fielding behind the wicket-keeper and it is this aspect of his play that has earned him lasting fame. John Nyren said of him:
So firm and steady was he, that I have known him stand through a whole match against Brettâs bowling, and not lose more than two runs. The ball seemed to go into him, and he was as sure of it as if he had been a sand bank. His activity was so great, and, besides, he had so good a judgement in running to cover the ball, that he would stop many that were hit in the slip, and this, be it remembered, from the swiftest bowling ever known. The portion of ground that man would cover was quite extraordinary.
The role of the long-stop fielder is something that has disappeared from the game – it is considered further here.
Lear was also a fine singer and often entertained in the post-match get-togethers. When he retired as a cricketer, he moved to Petersfield where he became a brewer. He died on 1 February 1812 and, in accordance with his wish, he was buried at Hambledon.
Tom Sueter (1750 – 1827)
Sueter was a left-handed batsman and the Hambledon wicket-keeper in first of the two great teams. He began playing in the 1760s and made 67 known first-class appearances from the 1772 season to the 1790 season. Nyren says of him:
Nothing went by him; and for coolness and nerve in this trying and responsible post, I never saw his equal. As a proof of his quickness and skill, I have numberless times seen him stump a man out with Brettâs tremendous bowling. Add to this valuable accomplishment, he was one of the manliest and most graceful of hitters. Few would cut a ball harder at the point of the bat, and he was, moreover, an excellent short runner. He had an eye like an eagleârapid and comprehensive. He was the first who departed from the custom of the old players before him, who deemed it a heresy to leave the crease for the ball; he would get in at it, and hit it straight off and straight on; and, egad! it went as if it had been fired.
Sueter was a carpenter and builder by trade and, like George Leer, a fine singer. When he died, according to Haygarth, he left behind him a sovereign in order that an anthem should be sung in the Hambledon church over his coffin; and this was done.
Thomas Taylor (1753 – 1806)
A player who straddled the two generations of Hambledon players. homas (Tom) Taylor (18 October 1753 at Ropley, Hampshire â April 1806 at Alresford, Hampshire) was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club. A famous all-rounder, he made his debut in 1775 and played till 1798. He played mainly for Hampshire but also made a number of appearances for Berkshire at a time when the county had a first-class team.
As a batsman, he was a great hitter but “didnât guard his wicket well enough” and had a tendency to cut at straight balls “like Beauclerk later”. He was also an effective bowler and took many wickets, though we don’t know what his pace was. Nyren commends Taylor on his fielding and says he was one of the best ever seen.
In August 1786, Taylor and Tom Walker scored the third and fourth known first-class centuries in the same innings for White Conduit Club v Kent at Bourne Paddock. Taylor made 117, his highest known career score. Thomas Taylor made 105 known first-class appearances from 1775 to 1798. Staggeringly, notwithstanding his reputation, he only averaged 10.26 in matches since designated as First Class.
Thomas Lord (1755 – 1832)
Thomas Lord was a fine bowler – slow and quick according to the two accounts we have – and took 148 wickets 59 matches. The two lower pictures show him in batting and bowling action.
However, his major mark on the game was not as a player but as the founder and operator of the world’s most famous cricket ground. His once-wealthy Yorkshire family had forfeited their possessions for supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 and it was in Diss in Norfolk that he was educated and where he learned his cricket. He moved to London and worked as a bowler and general attendant at the White Conduit Ground; while there he was asked by the Earl of Winchilsea to find a new place for the club to play. With such powerful backing, he secured land at Dorset Square and opened his first ground in 1787, and the newly-formed MCC played there. Lord enclosed the land and charged sixpence for entry.
For 20 years the venture thrived, but the area declined and became the haunt of cut-throats, and so Lord literally took his turf and moved to the nearby St John’s Wood estate in 1811. That venue was not nearly so successful, and it was no bad thing when the government passed an act for the construction of the Regent’s Canal through the land. He again moved his turf, this time a few hundred yards to the present venue, which he opened in 1814.
David Harris (1755 – 1803)
David Harris was a right-arm fast bowler of renown, described by John Nyren as “masculine, erect and appalling”, who changed the game almost single handed. He practiced bowling on a length and got balls to spit at batsmen – cricket until that time had been largely played on the ground – leaving victims’ fingers “ground to dust against bat, his bones pulverised, and his blood scattered over the field.” The result was that the old curved bats soon gave way to the modern-style flat-faced types. Beldham says of his impact on batting all improvement was “owing to David Harris’s bowling. His bowling rose almost perpendicular: it was once pronounced a jerk; it was altogether most extraordinary.”
The other change was that forward defensive shots became necessary to counter the bowling, and the new types of bats were more suited to that as well.
His tally of wickets was immense, and would have been greater had catches been credited to bowlers in those days. In later years he suffered terribly from gout, and he brought an armchair onto the field and sat down between deliveries. When the gout was severe, there are accounts of him using crutches. “He was of strict principle,” wrote Nyren, “high honour, inflexible integrity, a character on which scandal or calumny never dared to breathe.”
Noah Mann (1756 – 1789)
Noah Mann was an outstanding allrounder for Hambledon. A left-hand batsman and fast-medium bowler, who made 55 first-class appearances from 1777 to 1789. Mann, short and swarthy, was extremely athletic and Haygarth recounts how he “could cover an immense deal of ground, darting about like lightning”. He could also perform extraordinary feats of agility on horseback, being able to pick up from the ground handkerchiefs while going at full speed.
Mann’s early death was through a bizarre accident. Haygarth recounts that: “he had been out shooting, and on his return to the Half Moon Inn, at Northchapel, wet and tired, he had a free carouse with his companions; refusing to go to bed, he persisted in sleeping all night in his chair in front of the fire. It was and still is the custom in that part of the country to heap together all the ashes on the hearth, for the purpose of keeping the fire in till the next day. During the night, having fallen asleep, the sparks ignited his clothes (or, as stated in Nyren’s book, he fell upon the embers), and he was so severely burnt that he died the next day, not surviving 24 hours. His death took place at the early age of 33, in December, 1789”. A verdict of accidental death was returned at the inquest.
Elizabeth Burrell (1757 -1837)
The first known instance of an upper-class, womenâs cricket game was reported in The Lady and was âplayed at Seven Oaks by the Countess of Derby and other Ladies of Qualityâ, one of which was Miss Elizabeth Burrell. Of her play, the Newcastle Courant reported, âwhen she took the bat in her hand, then her Diana-like air, communicated irresistible impression. She got more notches in the 1st and 2nd innings than any lady in the gameâ. The sub-plot to this was that during the match the eighth Duke of Hamilton fell in love Miss Burrell due to her cricketing ability. They were married before the start of the coming cricket season, but the marriage did not last.
Anne Burrell has been chosen partly to represent for the many women cricketers active before 1800. Pictured is a satirical character named Miss Wicket, believed (by some) to be based on her.
Incidentally, her brother, Peter Burrell, was one of the leading cricketers of the White Conduit Club and was an important figure in the founding of MCC.
Thomas Walker (1762 â 1831)
Thomas Walker was another Hambledon player. As the club faded he played more in the revitalised London game and he later played for Surrey. He was famous for his defensive batting and obduracy at the crease. Billy Beldham said of him âhe was a tedious fellow to bowl at ⊠and the slowest runner between wickets I have ever seen.â It was said that David Harris once bowled 170 balls at him and conceded one run.
Nyren said of him:
Never sure came two such unadulterated rustics into a civilized community [as Waler and his brother]. How strongly are the figures of the men (of Tom’s in particular) brought to my mind when they first presented themselves to the club upon Windmilldown. Tom’s hard, ungain, scrag-of- mutton frame; wilted, apple-john face (he always looked twenty years older than he really was), his long spider legs, as thick at the ankles as at the hips, and perfectly straight all the way down.
In addition, John Mitford said of him:
Tom Walker would never speak to any one, or give any answer when he was in at the wicket. His tongue was tied, as his soul and body were surrendered to the struggle. But he used to give such grunt, if perchance a shooting ball was too quick for him and brought him down, as I have heard described to be very like that of a broken-winded horse, only of a deeper bass.
Nonetheless, he was formidable cricketer. In a match at Bourne Paddock on 8â12 August 1786, playing for White Conduit Club versus Kent, Walker came very close to scoring two centuries in the match and would have been the first known achiever of this feat had he scored five more runs in his first innings. He made 95* and 102. White Conduit won the game by 164 runs. In addition he scored the first century ever at the lord’s Dorset Square ground and another four centuries there making five in all. Over the course of his career, which lasted until 1816, he played a huge number of matches which have since been designated as first class – 175, a figure only exceeded at the time by Billy Beldham.
Notwithstanding his dour reputation, Walker is credited with innovation; he was the first person to experiment with round-arm bowling (though he was soon persuaded to desist) and he also was the first âlobbing slow bowlerâ according to Billy Beldham. In more orthodox style, he was able to bowl fast â Beldham said that a law was passed against âjerkingâ because of Walkerâs âfrightful paceâ. His career record also includes 6 stumpings so his versatility knew no bounds.
Robert Robinson (1765 – 1822)
Robert Robinson was an English cricketer who played for Hambledon Club and also for Surrey. He was a specialist left-handed batsman noted for powerful hitting to the off side, particularly his mastery of the cut shot. Known as ‘Long Bob, he was 6 foot one inch tall and weighed 16 stone.
Nyren’s list Robinson is listed among the author’s “most eminent players in the Hambledon Club when it was in its glory”, but Nyren does not otherwise mention him. The earliest biographical information about Robinson is provided by Arthur Haygarth who says that Robinson belonged to a farming family. He was at one time a gamekeeper, for James Lawrell.
Robinson’s success as a cricketer is the more remarkable because he lost two fingers of his right hand when he was a boy. He had to have special grooves made in his bat handle because of this. Equipment seems to have been something of a preoccupation of his. He was the first player to wear leg-guards, this was towards the end of the Eighteenth Century; he wrapped thin boards around his shins for a time but was, however, ridiculed and so decided to stop.
“Silver” Billy Beldham (1766 – 1862)
“Silver Billy” Beldham was for a long time the leading batsman in the country, although was in fact an allrounder, a change bowler of moderate pace. Spanning the era when underarm bowling gave way to lobs, he was one of the first players to use his feet to attack bowlers, and so effective was he that concerns grew that the batsmen were too dominant. He played primarily for the legendary Hambledon club, a key member of the second generation, but that club’s influence declined while Beldham was still in his prime, and so also appeared for the fledgling MCC, as well as Surrey and Hampshire. In 1792 he scored 144 for MCC at the original Lord’s, and 29 years later made his final appearance for Players against Gentlemen, a match commemorating the coronation of George IV. Nyren says of him:
…the finest batter of his own, or perhaps of any age. William Beldham was a close-set, active man, standing about five feet eight inches and a half. He had light coloured hair, a fair complexion, and handsome as well as intelligent features. We used to call him ‘Silver Billy’. No one within my recollection could stop a ball better, or make more brilliant hits all over the ground. Wherever the ball was bowled, there she was hit away, and in the most severe, venomous style. Besides this, he was so remarkably safe a player; he was safer than the Bank, for no mortal ever thought of doubting Beldham’s stability.
It has been suggested that he was known as Sliver Billy owing to his flowing fair hair. You can see this is in the second image.
In 1852, when he was 86, Beldham walked seven miles from his home at Tilford in Surrey to watch Farncombe play an England XI, He was described as possessing “a perfectly upright bearing, looked to be about 70 years old, used a stick in walking, and had a profusion of white silvery hair of considerable length, dropping down to his shoulders. His complexion was remarkably fresh and ruddy and, notwithstanding his great age, he was even then a splendid specimen of a veteran athlete.”
His name is commemorated in the name of a street near the Mousley Hurst – Beldham Gardens. He featured as number 39 in John Woodcock’s list of 100 Greatest Cricketers, one of only two cricketers who played in the Eighteenth Century to be be included.
Reverend Lord Frederick Beauclerk (1773 – 1850)
Lord Frederick Beauclerk was a player who straddled the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries and established himself as, with Beldham, one of the two best batters of his time. He was to become one of the great characters from the early days of MCC. He was a descendant of King Charles II and his mistress Nell Gwynn, and although he was a cleric by profession, he also claimed to have made at least ÂŁ600 a year – a colossal sum at the time – from playing cricket for stakes. His batting style was rather scientific, in the more orthodox manner of the professionals, while his bowling was very slow, but extremely accurate – and he could get the ball to rise abruptly off a length. Lord Frederick was the second president of MCC in 1826 and one of the handful who actually played while in office. He made eight centuries on the first Lord’s ground, which was an exceptional achievement in an era of low-scoring and uneven pitches. It was Lord Frederick who persuaded MCC to call a meeting to ban round-arm bowling in 1822, even though he had been known to claim wagers when playing alongside the earliest round-armer, John Willes.
However, he was said to be a “foul-mouthed, dishonest man who was one of the most hated figures in society … he bought and sold matches as though they were lots at an auction”. So unpopular was he, that it is said that a notorious criminal once refused to travel in the same coach as him on account of his “fluent and expressive vocabulary”. Another source said he was “cruel unforgiving, cantankerous and bitter”. When he died, in 1850, The Times didn’t even give him an obituary.
A biography was published in 2017 which went a little way to restoring his personal reputation as well as emphasising his importance as a cricketer.