1754 English cricket season

In the 1754 English cricket season, Dartford was the pre-dominant club.

The Leeds Intelligencer, forerunner of the Yorkshire Post, began publication. It has always been a noted source for cricket in Yorkshire.

Honours

• Champion County – Dartford/Kent

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result
1 July (M)	London v Dartford	Artillery Ground	Dartford won by 3 wkts
London made 78 and 50; Dartford replied with 55 and 74-7. The Daily Advertiser on Fri 28 June said: Wickets pitched at Twelve, and to begin play at One.
22 July (M)	Surrey v Sussex	Guildford	result unknown
The match was advertised as: Guildford, Ripley, Thursley and the lower part of Surrey against Bolney, Brighton and the eastern part of Sussex. The stake was 20 guineas a side.
24 August (S)	Woolwich v Dartford	Barrack Field, Woolwich	Dartford won
26 August (M)	Dartford v Woolwich	Dartford Brent	Woolwich won
Both the above two games were mentioned in the same report by Read’s Weekly Journal dated Sat 31 August: Dartford won away & lost at home against Woolwich on Sat. & Mon., Aug. 24 & 26 respectively.

Other events

Fri 21 & Sat 22 June. Midhurst & Petworth v Slindon on Bowling Green, Lavington Common . The former apparently won by eight wickets and the match seems to mark the swansong of Slindon as a great team as they are not mentioned in the sources thereafter. Sussex cricket as a whole went into decline and, although a number of inter-parish games are reported over the next decade or so, it is not until 1766 that Sussex county cricket teams again take part in a major match. This temporary demise of Sussex is surely explained by the death of the Duke of Richmond in 1750. He was the greatest patron of Sussex cricket, and of Slindon in particular. His co-patron and good friend Sir William Gage, 7th Baronet died in 1744.

The Daily Advertiser on Friday 28 June announced for the same day a two-a-side game behind George Taylor’s at Deptford. The players were Tom Faulkner and Joseph Harris v Capon and Perry

Tues 24 September. A single wicket game at Brompton in Kent between the well-known Thomas Brandon of Dartford and Parr of Chatham. The stakes were five guineas each and Brandon won by 47 runs .

References

External sources

• CricketArchive match lists
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787

Further reading

• H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
• Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
• Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
• David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000