1793 English cricket season

In the 1793 English cricket season, Surrey teams defeated All-England three times.

The secondary sources are sometimes confusing on the subject of the Oldfield Cricket Club at Bray, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. The team featured in several major matches during the late 18th century and was a top-class side at this time as it had a high playing standard and numerous recognised players. The team is sometimes referred to as the Oldfield Club or as Maidenhead, but the Oldfield Club presented itself as representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex, so its team might be styled Berkshire.

In the ACS Guide, this match is shown as taking place in 1793 after references in WDC and Britcher; but S&B and Bentley both have it played in 1792 as quoted in MCC records. It is a case of one source’s word against another’s but the clincher seems to be a report of the game in The Sportsman magazine which did not start publication until Oct 1792.

S&B calls this game MCC v The Oldfield Club but Oldfield was representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex. ACS Guide says the game should be called MCC v Maidenhead yet in several other fixtures they use Oldfield. The Oldfield club played at Oldfield Bray, near Maidenhead. Berkshire had a high standard in the late C18.

The so-called Kent v Essex game reported in SB153 was a minor fixture. The Kent side was probably a local club or, as Haygarth himself calls it, a "scratch" team.

The game was quickly arranged when the previous one finished and started on 28 June.

The Assheton Smith v Earl of Winchilsea game in Wiltshire on 15 July is in both SB155 and the ACS list. Apart from Earl of Winchilsea and Assheton Smith themselves, hardly anyone involved was a recognised player and the game is decidedly a minor fixture.

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