Jasper Vinall (born c. 1590; died 28 August 1624 at Horsted Keynes, East Sussex) was the first cricketer known to have been killed while playing the game.

Incident

The fatality occurred when Vinall, a fielder, was struck on the head by the batsman who was trying to hit the ball a second time to avoid being caught. Mr Vinall is thus the earliest recorded cricketing fatality. The matter was recorded in a coroner’s court, which returned a verdict of misadventure .

An interesting point arising from the court record is that both Jasper Vinall and the batsman Edward Tye came from West Hoathly , another village, which indicates that games involving teams from different parishes were already being played at this early time in the sport's history .

The tragedy was repeated in 1647 when Henry Brand was killed at Selsey, West Sussex .

Laws of Cricket changed

When the first known Laws of cricket were coded in the 1744 season, it was illegal to hit the ball twice. It is not known when the measure was introduced .

References

External sources

• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787
• The official laws of cricket

Bibliography

• 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