This article is a work in progress. The 2018 version has been restored in the interests ofWP:PRESERVE. The lead section may have to be amended over time, but the main improvement will be conversion of the match table to prose. Otherwise, some copyediting may help. The article is adequately sourced.
1763 was the 67th Englishcricket season since the earliest knownimportant match was played. Details have survived of two important eleven-a-side matches.[note 1]
1763 was an important year for England and for the future of cricket as it marked the end of theSeven Years' War. French influence in India was reduced to a handful of trading posts and its hopes of an eastern Empire were no more, though Bonaparte certainly tried to revive those hopes. Great Britain expanded its interests in India and the era of the British Raj and the consequent hegemony of cricket in Indian sport began.[3]
In the short term, economic hardship at home meant little for investment in cricket and there were only a couple of historically significant matches in 1763.[3]
Wednesday, 30 July. The death of MrEdmund Chapman ofChertsey in his 69th year, which means he was born in either 1694 or 1695. Chapman was an eminent master bricklayer and "accounted one of the most dexterous cricket players in England". There are no earlier references to Edmund Chapman who must have been active c.1715 to c.1740, presumably playing forChertsey Cricket Club, or perhapsCroydon Cricket Club, and forSurrey as a county.[4]
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This was a return match announced in the report of the first. The report says Middlesex won "by a great majority".
Another source records that, during play on the Monday, a spectator lost over £20 to a pickpocket. TheArtillery Ground had by this time fallen into disrepute and it would not last much longer as a major venue.
^Some eleven-a-side matches played before 1864 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources, but there wasno such standard at the time. The term came into common use from around 1864, whenoverarm bowling was legalised, and 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. However, matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have anunofficial first-class status.[1] Pre-1864 matches which are included inthe ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as top-class or, at least, historically significant.[2] For further information, seeFirst-class cricket.
