1756 English cricket season

The 1756 cricket season was the 159th in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style – 1598 New Style). Details have survived of five important eleven-a-side and one single wicket matches. The season may be said to mark the beginning of the so-called "Hambledon Era". The Hambledon team, then probably run by a parish organisation rather than the famous club which is believed to have been formed in about 1765, makes its first recorded appearances in three matches against Dartford.

The Seven Years' War began in 1756 and ended in 1763. It is possible this reduced the number of "great matches", as did the Napoleonic and the two World Wars later. It is probable that cricket's first bowling revolution occurred sometime between 1756 and 1763. Bowlers were certainly pitching the ball by 1770, but there are no surviving reports to describe the reception that pitching had when it was tried and implemented.

The following matches are classified as important:

These three Dartford v Hambledon games are the earliest known references to matches involving a Hambledon team. The one on Broadhalfpenny Down is known about because of a famous advert in the Reading Mercury concerning a dog called Rover whose owner lost him at the match. He was offering five shillings for Rover’s return but it is not known if the dog was recovered. It should be said that the advert does not conclusively prove that Hambledon was playing Dartford that day, but in the light of subsequent reports it seems a more than reasonable assumption.

Nothing is known of the first match except that the last of the three on Monday 30 August was billed as "the deciding match between the two elevens" and played for £50 a side. Furthermore, in the Public Advertiser announcement which H T Waghorn recorded re the game below on Mon 6 September, Dartford is said to have beat Hampshire (sic) 3 matches successively.

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