1799 English cricket season

1799 English cricket season

Cricket formats	major, including single wicket

In the 1799 English cricket season, Surrey again beat All-England three times. As in the previous year, the number of matches may have declined due to the effect of the Napoleonic War. Fewer were reported but there was loose censorship in place.

A cricket club was formed at Seringapatam in south India after the successful British siege.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Source	Result
10–11 June (M-Tu)	MCC v Thursday Club ^	Lord’s (Dorset Square)	SB252	Thursday Club won by 54 runs
17–18 June (M-Tu)	Montpelier v Richmond & Brentford #	Montpelier Gardens	SB253	Montpelier won by 91 runs
24–26 June (M-W)	MCC v Thursday Club ^	Lord’s (Dorset Square)	SB254	MCC won by 41 runs
^ The two MCC games against its own Thursday Club are major fixtures as the majority of players on each side are recognised. The Thursday Club is effectively Middlesex.
27–28 June (Th-F)	Richmond & Brentford v Montpelier #	Richmond Green	SB254	Montpelier won by 148 runs
# The Montpelier v Richmond and Brentford games in S&B (p. 253-255) present a real difficulty because both teams are reasonable, indeed Montpelier are quite strong, but against each other and without "given men" they are not easily a major match. There are unknowns in the Richmond & Brentford sides and the results went convincingly in favour of Montpelier. The dilemma is almost solved by MCC games against similar sides since 1797. Thus, if a good quality town club with given men or at any rate a full team of recognised players competes against a good quality MCC side (or against All-England or a recognised county team), that is a major match. But, where it is a case of two such town clubs playing each other without a good number of noted given men, the game is not major. The Montpelier v Richmond & Brentford games seem to fail the given men test and, in any case, Richmond & Brentford did have some unrecognised players.
30 July - 1 Aug (Tu-Th)	All-England v Surrey	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB259	Surrey won by 8 wkts
1-3 Aug (Th-S)	R Whitehead v Lord Yarmouth	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB259	Yarmouth's XI won by 4 wkts
Evidently the Whitehead v Yarmouth game was arranged ad hoc on 1 Aug as the All-England v Surrey game finished on the same day (most of the players took part in both games)
13-16 Aug (Tu-F)	All-England v Surrey	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB262	Surrey won by 143 runs
16-17 Aug (F-S)	All-England v Surrey	Lord's (Dorset Square)	SB263	Surrey won by innings & 117 runs
Another case of an extra game starting immediately that the first one finished. There is some doubt about the exact date of the second game which ACS have on the 15th as S&B states that the first game carried over to the 16th.
16-17 Sept (M-Tu)	Waltham & Herts v Middlesex	Waltham Abbey	WDC	drawn
23-24 Sept (M-Tu)	Middlesex v Waltham & Herts	Lord's (Dorset Square)	FL18	Middlesex won by 3 runs
In both these two games, Waltham & Herts was a minor team. Herts played several games in late C18 but needed given men.

First mentions

• Hockley (Surrey cricketer) (Surrey/Hampshire) – played 8 matches from 1799 to 1805
• Woodroffe (Surrey cricketer) (MCC and Surrey; amateur) – played 4 matches in 1799 & 1800
• Stephen Lushington (cricketer) (Surrey; amateur) – played 3 matches in 1799

Leading batsmen

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so it is impossible to provide a complete analysis of batting performances: e.g., the missing not outs prevent computation of batting averages. The "runs scored" are in fact the runs known.

With few matches being played, only six batsmen exceeded 150 runs:

Tom Walker – 239

Jack Small – 235

John Wells – 231

Robert Robinson – 227

John Hammond – 192

William Beldham – 179

Leading bowlers

Note that the wickets credited to an 18th-century bowler were only those where he bowled the batsman out. The bowler was not credited with the wickets of batsmen who were caught out, even if it was "caught and bowled". In addition, the runs conceded by each bowler were not recorded so no analyses or averages can be computed.

The leading wicket-taker was Thomas Lord with 16

Other top bowlers were John Wells 15; Thomas Boxall 13; Charles Cumberland 11; John Hammond 9

Leading fielders

Note that many scorecards in the 18th century are unknown or have missing details and so the totals are of the known catches and stumpings only. Stumpings were not always recorded as such and sometimes the name of the wicket-keeper was not given. Generally, a catch was given the same status as "bowled" with credit being awarded to the fielder only and not the bowler. There is never a record of "caught and bowled": the bowler would be credited with the catch, not with the wicket.

John Wells with 10 ct, 5 st was the leading performer in the field

Thomas Ray took 10 ct and other good fielders were Charles Warren 2 ct, 6 st; John Hammond 4 ct, 3 st; Thomas Burgoyne 7 ct; William Barton 7 ct

Additional reading

• Britcher, Samuel, A list of all the principal Matches of Cricket that have been played (1790 to 1805), annual series

External links

• Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825
• CricketArchive – 1799 first-class matches list
• CricketArchive – 1799 other matches list