This illumination from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is dated 1344. The lady must have bowled a mean out-swinger to justify a slip cordon of four, although the manner in which the monk is holding his bat suggests that he was not a good player of fast bowling. (Taken from ‘The Glory Days of Cricket.’ by Ashley Mote.)
Some Key Moments of Early Cricket in Hambledon & Hampshire
Early Cricket
The history of cricket to 1725 traces the sport’s development from its perceived origins to the stage where it had become a major sport in England and had been introduced to other countries.
The earliest definite reference to cricket occurs in 1598 and makes clear that the sport was being played c.1550, but the true origin is a mystery. All that can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that its beginning was earlier than 1550, somewhere in southeast England within the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. Unlike other games with batsmen, bowlers, and fielders, such as stoolball and rounders, cricket can only be played on relatively short grass especially as the ball was delivered along the ground until the 1760s. Therefore, forest clearings and land where sheep had grazed would have been suitable places to play.
The sparse information available about cricket’s early years suggests that originally it may have been a children’s game. Then, at the beginning of the 17th century, it was taken up by working men. During the reign of Charles I, the gentry took an increased interest as patrons and occasionally as players. A big attraction for them was the opportunity that the game offered for gambling and this escalated in the years following the Restoration. By the time of the Hanoverian succession investment in cricket had created the professional player and the first major clubs, thus establishing the sport as a popular social activity in London and the south of England. Meanwhile, English colonists had introduced cricket to North America and the West Indies and the sailors and traders of the East India Company had taken it to the Indian subcontinent.
Read more… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampshire_county_cricket_teams
1622: An early record of ‘Cricket’ being played is in a legal case in Boxgrove. Two men were accused of playing Cricket on the church grounds. The churchwardens stated that it was “contrarie to the seventh article (Sabbath) and for that they use to breake windowes with the ball”. Their defense was that the game they were playing ‘was not cricket’, hence the origins of the phrase ‘it’s not cricket’.
1647: A Latin poem by Robert Matthew contains a reference to a cricket match involving Winchester College pupils on St Catherine’s Hill. Although cricket was certainly played earlier in the county, this is the first written record of a game in Hampshire.
1654: During Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate the playing of cricket was prohibited on the Sabbath, and in this year the penalty fine was doubled to two shillings.
1660: The Restoration of the monarchy in England lifted the sanctions although the church continued to disapprove of the playing of the game on Sundays.
Hambledon & Hampshire
1729: Combined Hampshire, Surrey & Sussex side plays (away) v Kent
1733: Married Men beat Bachelors (sic) twice at Stubbington & Titchfield, the first known reference to a match in the county
1745: Hambledon Women v Bramley Women at Guildford
1749: Portsmouth Common beat Fareham & Titchfield at Milldam, Portsmouth (now a University building near the US Ground)
1750s: First matches played by the Hambledon Club/’Hampshire’
The side that played from the 1750s-1790s at Broad-half-penny Down and Windmill Down, is popularly called Hambledon and is often described as the ‘cradle of cricket’. Although this somewhat overstates its significance, it does have an important place in the history of English cricket, while the side is often identified in contemporary reports as Hampshire. As a consequence, many modern historians prefer to call the side Hampshire but Hambledon is used here for consistency:
1764: Hambledon beat Surrey at Chertsey. Birth of John Nyren. Further matches through the 1760s
1769: Hambledon beat Surrey at Guildford – crowd believed to be 20,000
1771: Probably the first match between ‘England’ and Hambledon. England won by 10 wickets
1772: Hambledon beat England by 53 runs at Broadhalfpenny Down
1774: Hambledon beat England by an innings & 52 runs
1775: Hambledon beat Surrey by 296 runs (Small 136*, Nyren 98)
1776: Hambledon beat England by 6 wickets at Sevenoaks – ‘England’ may have been Kent.
1776: Hambledon seeking to replace Broadhalfpenny Down play England at Holt Common
1777: Hambledon beat England by innings & 168 runs at Sevenoaks – their largest victory
1778: England beat Hambledon at Itchen Stoke Down near Alresford
1780s: Some Hambledon v England matches perhaps Hampshire v Kent.
1782: Hambledon v England’s first match at Windmill Down
1783: Perhaps Hambledon’s first drawn match (poor weather)
1788: First match at Thomas Lord’s Ground, Dorset Square, London.
1789: Hambledon play at Lord’s Ground, Dorset Square, for the first time and beat England
1790: No Hambledon matches but their players play increasingly for other sides
1791: XXII of Middlesex beat XI of Hambledon – the last match by the original Hambledon side
1792: Final recorded match at Broadhalfpenny Down for 116 years
1796: “No gentlemen” recorded in Hambledon’s Minute Book for 21 September. The club ended
1797: Hampshire v MCC
1832: John Nyren’s memories of the 18th century side were published for the first time in serial form as Cricketers of My Time.
1908: First-class match between England XII v Hambledon XII and the unveiling of the monument on Broadhalfpenny Down.
Read more… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hambledon_Club
Read more… Winchester Records Office: ‘The Hambledon Club Archive’
Related article: The Original Laws of Cricket & Hambledon’s Biggest Win
