1741 English cricket season - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 1741 English cricket season was notable for the first appearance in recorded matches of the famous Slindon Cricket Club

Slindon Cricket Club

Slindon Cricket Club was famous in the middle part of the 18th century when it claimed to have the best team in England. It was located at Slindon, a village in the Arun district of Sussex....

.

Much of our knowledge is based on letters written by the Duke

Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond

The 2nd Duke of Richmond has been described as early cricket's greatest patron. Although he had played cricket as a boy, his real involvement began after he succeeded to the dukedom...

and Duchess of Richmond to each other and to the Duke of Newcastle. The gloating letter by the Duchess after "little Slindon" beat "almost your whole county of Surrey" is particularly interesting.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result
1 June (M)	Surrey Surrey county cricket teams Surrey county cricket teams have been traced back to the 17th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. The first definite mention of cricket anywhere in the world is dated c.1550 in Guildford.-17th century:... v London London Cricket Club The original London Cricket Club was formed by 1722 and was one of the foremost clubs in English cricket over the next four decades. It is closely associated with the Artillery Ground, where it played most of its home matches.-Early history of London cricket:...	Charlwood, Surrey	Surrey won
15 June (M)	London v Surrey	Artillery Ground Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is one of London's most centrally located cricket grounds, situated just off the City Road immediately north of the City of London...	result unknown
The second match was announced in the report of the first.
15 June (M)	Slindon Slindon Cricket Club Slindon Cricket Club was famous in the middle part of the 18th century when it claimed to have the best team in England. It was located at Slindon, a village in the Arun district of Sussex.... v Portsmouth	Stansted Park	Slindon won by 9 wkts
This is the earliest report of a match involving Slindon Slindon Slindon is a small village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, nestling in woodlands on the southern edge of the South Downs. Slindon lies approximately seven miles north-east of Chichester... , though the club must have been playing for some time beforehand. The Duke of Richmond in a letter said that "above 5000 people" were present. In a second letter, he gives the result.
c.26 June (F)	Kent Kent county cricket teams Kent county cricket teams have been traced back to the 17th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. Kent, jointly with Sussex, is the birthplace of the sport... v London	Chislehurst	rained off
An interesting comment about the Kent team was that it was "eleven out of three parishes for the county". Expectations were high but the whole day was ruined by the rain.
3 July (F)	London v Chislehurst	Artillery Ground Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is one of London's most centrally located cricket grounds, situated just off the City Road immediately north of the City of London...	Chislehurst won by 60 runs
"One of the best matches that has been played these many years"; however, Chislehurst seem to have won it easily enough by quite a large margin.
22 July (W)	Surrey v London	Richmond Green Richmond Green Richmond Green is a recreation area located near the centre of Richmond, which is a town of about twenty thousand inhabitants situated in south west London. The green is essentially square in shape and its open grassland, framed with broadleaf trees, extends to roughly twelve acres...	tied
This is the earliest known instance of a game being tied. Unfortunately the scores are not recorded but "the bets (were) drawn on both sides"! .
c.31 July (F)	London v Surrey	Artillery Ground Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is one of London's most centrally located cricket grounds, situated just off the City Road immediately north of the City of London...	result unknown
Interest in this match must have been high after the previous one was tied but surprisingly there is no report.
7 September (M)	Surrey v Slindon	Merrow Down, Guildford	Slindon won
The Duke of Richmond in a letter to Newcastle before the game spoke of "poor little Slyndon (sic) against almost your whole county of Surrey". Next day he wrote again, saying that "wee (sic) have beat Surrey almost in one innings". The Duchess of Richmond wrote to her husband on Wed 9 September and said she "wish’d..... that the Sussex mobb (sic) had thrash’d the Surrey mob". She had "a grudge to those fellows ever since they mob’d you" (apparently a reference to the Richmond Green Richmond Green Richmond Green is a recreation area located near the centre of Richmond, which is a town of about twenty thousand inhabitants situated in south west London. The green is essentially square in shape and its open grassland, framed with broadleaf trees, extends to roughly twelve acres... fiasco in August 1731). She then said she wished the Duke "had won more of their moneys".
14 September (M)	London v Surrey	Artillery Ground Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is one of London's most centrally located cricket grounds, situated just off the City Road immediately north of the City of London...	result unknown
"Wickets to pitched at half an hour past 11 o’clock".

Other events

Thu 9 July. In a letter to her husband, the Duchess of Richmond mentioned a conversation with John Newland re a Slindon v East Dean match at Long Down, near Eartham, a week earlier. This seems to be the first recorded mention of any of the Newland family.

Tues 28 July. In two subsequent letters to the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke of Richmond spoke about a game on this date which resulted in a brawl with "hearty blows" and "broken heads"! The game was at Portslade between Slindon and unnamed opponents. Apparently, Slindon won the battle but the result of the match is unknown!

Tues 18 August. A match played on the Cow Meadow near Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

between two teams of amateurs from Northants and Bucks is the earliest known instance of cricket in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

.

Mon 10 August. A match was at Woburn Park

Woburn Abbey

Woburn Abbey , near Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the seat of the Duke of Bedford and the location of the Woburn Safari Park.- Pre-20th century :...

between a Bedfordshire XI and a combined Northants and Huntingdonshire XI. Woburn Cricket Club under the leadership of the Duke of Bedford was on the point of becoming a well known club (see 1742 English cricket season

1742 English cricket season

The 1742 English cricket season is notable for the two great London versus Slindon matches in September.- Matches :-External sources:* * -Further reading:* H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 , George Allen & Unwin, 1962...

The Duke and Duchess of Richmond

Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond

The 2nd Duke of Richmond has been described as early cricket's greatest patron. Although he had played cricket as a boy, his real involvement began after he succeeded to the dukedom...

(1701 - 1750) married Lady Sarah Cadogan (1706 - 1751), daughter of William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan

William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan

William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan KT PC was a noted military officer in the army of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough during the War of the Spanish Succession...

, on 4 December 1719 at The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. They had eight children including Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond

Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond

Field Marshal Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 3rd Duke of Lennox, 3rd Duke of Aubigny, KG, PC, FRS , styled Earl of March until 1750, was a British politician and office holder noteworthy for his advanced views on the issue of parliamentary reform...

(1733 - 1806).

It seems that the marriage of Richmond to Duchess Sarah was a success and that was not always the case among the Georgian aristocracy. The Duchess took a keen interest in all the Duke's doings including his cricket. Several references and letters written by her, including some financial accounts, have survived.