1754 English cricket season

The 1754 cricket season was the 157th in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style – 1598 New Style). Details have survived of four important eleven-a-side and two single wicket matches. Dartford was the pre-eminent club. The Leeds Intelligencer, forerunner of the Yorkshire Post, began publication; it has always been a noted source for cricket in Yorkshire.

The following matches are classified as important:

London made 78 and 50; Dartford replied with 55 and 74/7. The Daily Advertiser on Friday, 28 June, announced: "Wickets pitched at Twelve, and to begin play at One".

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.

(see below)

Both the above two games were mentioned in the same report by Read's Weekly Journal dated Saturday, 31 August: "Dartford won away & lost at home against Woolwich on Sat. & Mon., 24 & 26 Aug. respectively".

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 John Capon and Perry.

Tuesday, 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.

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 important matches. 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.

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