Gentlemen of England

Cricket, and hence English amateur cricket, probably began in England during the medieval period but the earliest known reference concerns the game being played c.1550 by children on a plot of land at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, Surrey. It is generally believed that cricket was originally a children's game as it is not until the beginning of the 17th century that reports can be found of adult participation.

Originally, all cricketers were amateurs in the literal sense of the word. Village cricket developed through the 17th century and teams typically comprised players who were all resident in the same village or parish. There is no evidence of professionalism before the English Civil War or during the Commonwealth but legal cases of the period have shown that cricket was played jointly by gentry and workers.

In the great upsurge of sport after the Restoration in 1660, cricket flourished because so many people had encountered it as children, especially at school. Although the sport was popular, its evolution into a major sport was accelerated by gambling because, along with horse racing and prizefighting, cricket soon attracted the attention of those who were seeking to make wagers.

To boost their chances of winning, some gamblers formed their own county-class teams such as Kent and Surrey who played each other in 1709. Patrons like Edwin Stead, the Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage captained their teams and it was gentlemen like these, and the friends whom they invited to play, who began cricket's amateur tradition, while some players were paid a fee for taking part and this was the beginning of professionalism. Thus, a Sussex team of the 1720s might be captained by Richmond and include not only additional gentlemen like Gage but also professionals like Thomas Waymark; and this was the pattern of first-class English teams for a period of 300 years from the 1660s to the 1960s. Waymark, for example, was employed by the Duke of Richmond as a groom and this became a common arrangement between patron and professional. Later in the 18th century, professionals like Edward "Lumpy" Stevens and John Minshull were employed by their patrons as gardeners or gamekeepers. But in the longer term, the professional became an employee of his club and the beginnings of this trend could be observed in the 1770s when Hambledon paid match fees to its players.

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Wikipedia