 | The topic of this articlemay not meet Wikipedia'snotability guideline for sports and athletics. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citingreliable secondary sources that areindependent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to bemerged,redirected, ordeleted. Find sources: "William Sawyer" cricketer – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | c.(1712-12-03)3 December 1712 Richmond, Surrey |
| Died | c. 2 April 1761(1761-04-02) (aged 48) Richmond, Surrey |
Source:CricketArchive,5 April 2022 | |
William Sawyer (c. 3 December 1712 – c. 2 April 1761) was an Englishcricketer who played during the 1730s and 1740s. He was mainly associated withRichmond andSurrey. Although information about his career is limited by a lack of surviving data, he is known to have made twosingle wicket and four other appearances between 1736 and 1747. He spent his whole life in Richmond and was an innkeeper there.[1]
In June 1736, there was a majorsingle wicket match onKennington Common and the report names Wakeland and George Oldner ofLondon Cricket Club playing together against two "famous" Richmond players who are "esteemed the best two in England". Unfortunately the esteemed pair are not named, though one of them suffered serious facial injuries in this game when the ball came off his bat and hit his nose. The report rails against "human brutes" who insisted he should play on despite his injuries, the money they had staked being of much greater importance to them.[2] It is believed that one of the Richmond players was William Sawyer, who was certainly active in the 1730s and who, in 1743, was acclaimed by name as "one of the best six players in England".
Sawyer is first definitely mentioned in a contemporary report of a celebrated single wicket "threes" game played at theArtillery Ground on 11 July 1743. TheDaily Advertiser declared that the six players involved were the "best in England". They wereWilliam Hodsoll (Dartford),Val Romney (Sevenoaks) and John Cutbush (Maidstone) (replacing Ridgeway ofSussex) who played as Three of Kent; andRichard Newland (Slindon), John Bryant (Bromley) and Sawyer, who played as Three of All-England.[1] Kent won by 2 runs. TheLondon Evening Post says the crowd was computed to be 10,000. A return match was arranged at Sevenoaks Vine on Wed 27 July but it did not come off.[1]
On 25 July 1743, Sawyer played as agiven man for London againstAddington at the Artillery Ground, but Addington won by an innings and 4 runs having scored 110 while London could only manage 32 and 74.[1]
In 1744, Sawyer played in both of the matches from which scorecards have survived. When London metSlindon at the Artillery Ground on 2 June, Sawyer was in the London team, possibly batting third, and scored 4 in each innings as Slindon won by 55 runs.[3] On 18 June, he was a given man in theKent team that playedAll-England at the Artillery Ground, scoring 0 and 5 as Kent won a low-scoring game by 1 wicket.[4]
Sawyer's last known appearance was on 31 August 1747, when he played in a first-class match for All-England v Kent at the Artillery Ground. The result is unknown but the match had been postponed earlier in the season because of a parliamentary election.[1]