Details have survived of four eleven-a-side matches in the1754 Englishcricket season, and two notablesingle wicket matches.[note 1]Dartford was the pre-eminent club. TheLeeds Intelligencer, forerunner of theYorkshire Post, began publication; it has always been a noted source for cricket inYorkshire.
TheDaily Advertiser on Friday, 28 June, announced: "Wickets pitched at Twelve, and to begin play at One". London made 78 and 50; Dartford replied with 55 and 74/7. Dartford won by 3 wickets.[6]
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. Result unknown.[7]
Both of the Dartford v Woolwich games were mentioned in the same report byRead's Weekly Journal dated Saturday, 31 August: "Dartford won away & lost at home against Woolwich on Sat. & Mon., 24 & 26 Aug. respectively".[6]
TheDaily Advertiser on Friday, 28 June, announced for the same day a two-a-side game "behind George Taylor’s at Deptford". The players wereTom Faulkner andJoe Harris vJohn Capon andPerry.[6]
Tuesday, 24 September. A single wicket game at Brompton in Kent between the well-knownThomas Brandon of Dartford and a player called Parr ofChatham. The stakes were five guineas each and Brandon won by 47 runs.[8]
21–22 June (F–S). Midhurst & Petworth vSlindon on Bowling Green, Lavington Common.[9] 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 for many years and, although a number of inter-parish games are recorded over the next decade or so, it is not until 1766 thatSussex county cricket team (pre-1839) again take part inimportant matches. This temporary demise of Sussex is probably explained by the death of the2nd Duke of Richmond in 1750. He was the greatest patron of Sussex cricket, and of Slindon in particular. His co-patron and good friendSir William Gage, 7th Baronet, had died in 1744.[10]
^Some eleven-a-side matches played from 1772 to 1863 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources.[1] However, the term only came into common use around 1864, whenoverarm bowling was legalised. It was formally defined as a standard by a meeting atLord's, in May 1894, ofMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and thecounty clubs which were then competing in theCounty Championship. The ruling was effective from the beginning of the1895 season, but pre-1895 matches of the same standard have noofficial definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective.[2] Matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have anunofficial first-class status.[3] Pre-1864 matches which are included inthe ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as important or, at least, historically significant.[4] For further information, seeFirst-class cricket.
