1741 English cricket season

The 1741 cricket season was the 144th in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style – 1598 New Style). Details have survived of twelve important matches. They include the first appearance in surviving match records of the soon-to-be-famous Slindon Cricket Club. The Surrey v London match on Richmond Green resulted in the earliest known tie in an important match.

Among primary sources for the season are letters written by the Duke and Duchess of Richmond to each other and to the Duke of Newcastle. One example is a gloating letter from Richmond to Newcastle after "poor little Slyndon (sic)" beat "almost your whole county of Surrey". Meanwhile, the spread of cricket from the southeastern counties had continued into the south Midlands with three counties mentioned for the first time in surviving records.

The following matches are classified as important:

The report of this match announced a return fixture (see below) a fortnight later.

This was the return to the match on Monday, 1 June, pre-announced in the report of that match. F. S. Ashley-Cooper noted in his personal copy of Waghorn that "London won" but his source has not been rediscovered.

A comment about the Kent team was that it was "eleven out of three parishes for the county". Expectations were high but the whole day was ruined by the rain. The date is deduced from a newspaper report on Thursday, 2 July, which says the match took place "yesterday se'ennight". "Se'ennight" was a common contemporary expression used for "a week ago (on)" or "a week (ahead) on"; therefore, as "yesterday" was Wednesday, 1 July, "se'ennight" was a week earlier on Wednesday, 24 June.

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