William Yalden

William "The Yold" Yalden (1740 – January 1824) was an English cricketer and, with Tom Sueter, one of the earliest known wicketkeeper/batsmen. Yalden played mainly for Chertsey and Surrey though he was also a regular, sometimes as captain, in England XI teams, particularly in matches against Hampshire. His career began in the 1760s and he is known to have played until 1785.

Between 1772 and 1783, Yalden made 44 known appearances in matches now classified as first-class by ESPNcricinfo and CricketArchive. This is the total found in Scores & Biographies and cited by ESPNcricinfo; it is also the total that can be counted in CricketArchive's list of his matches but, on its profile page, CricketArchive says he made 45 appearances which is incorrect.CricketArchive lists seven "miscellaneous" matches in which Yalden is recorded, the last two of these in 1784 and 1785.

Fielding records are incomplete during Yalden's career but he is credited with 64 catches and one stumping in his first-class record. Stumpings are difficult to find in the eighteenth century sources because they were often recorded as run outs, though there is one scorecard in which a dismissal is recorded as "put out behind The Yold": i.e., st Yalden. Yalden's single first-class stumping was recorded in a Surrey v Hampshire match at Laleham Burway in October 1778, the victim being Henry Bonham. According to Scores & Biographies, this was the second-ever record of a stumping following one in 1744, though stumpings did occur but "it was not written down as such in the score".

Yalden's best performance with the bat was probably in September 1773 when he played for a Surrey XI versus a Hampshire XI at Broadhalfpenny Down. He scored 88 out of 225 and enabled Surrey to win the game by an innings and 60 runs. This innings was the "world record" for the highest individual score in first-class matches since the statistical record began in 1772. The previous highest was 78 by John Small in the first match of the 1772 season. Yalden's score was beaten by Joseph Miller, who made 95 at Sevenoaks Vine in August 1774.