Bourne Cricket Club was based at Bishopsbourne

Bishopsbourne

Bishopsbourne is a small village in Kent, England. It lies in the Nailbourne valley some from Canterbury and about from Dover. It has a public house, The Mermaid, built in 1861, and a church, St Mary's, with 14th-century wall paintings. Author Joseph Conrad lived here and his house, "Oswalds",...

, near Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, and played several major cricket matches in the 18th century when it was effectively representative of Kent as a county. Its home venue was Bishopsbourne Paddock

Bishopsbourne Paddock

Bishopsbourne Paddock was a cricket ground at Bourne House, seat of Sir Horatio Mann, near Canterbury in Kent. It was a popular venue for first-class matches from 1766 to 1790.-Matches:...

. Bourne was patronised by Sir Horatio Mann, owner of the Bishopsbourne estate, and was in reality his own private club. When Sir Horatio relocated to Dandelion

Dandelion Paddock

Dandelion Paddock was a first-class cricket ground in Dandelion, near Margate, Kent. Sir Horatio Mann organised a number of matches there in the 1790s.-Location:...

, near Margate

Margate

-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....

, the Bourne club ceased to exist.

Major cricket

Bourne is first recorded as a cricket team on Monday 29 September 1766 when it played Dartford

Dartford Cricket Club

Dartford Cricket Club is one of the oldest in England and its origins go back to the early 18th century, perhaps earlier.See also: Dartford Brent...

 at Bishopsbourne. Details of the match, including the result, are unknown.

Bourne played 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:...

 at Bishopsbourne in August 1767 and again in August 1768. Earlier in the 1768 season, Bourne played three matches against Henry Rowett

Henry Rowett

Henry Rowett was an English amateur cricketer who played for Surrey during the 1760s. He was chiefly noted for his patronage of Caterham Cricket Club which was prominent at the time and was a close rival of the Hambledon Club...

's Caterham Cricket Club

Caterham Cricket Club

Caterham Cricket Club was based at Caterham, Surrey. Caterham at this time was effectively representative of Surrey as a county. Its home venue was on Caterham Common...

. The last match in which the Bourne club is named as a participant is Bourne v. Middlesex & Surrey at Bishopsbourne in August 1771, the combined team winning by a single run.

Sir Horatio continued to raise his own team for many years and Bishopsbourne Paddock was a regular venue for major cricket until 1790.

Further reading

• F S Ashley-Cooper, Kent Cricket Matches 1719-1880, Gibbs & Sons, 1929
• G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935
• H T Waghorn
  H T Waghorn
  Henry Thomas Waghorn , was a cricket statistician and historian. He is best known for his two classic researches into cricket's early history: The Dawn of Cricket and Cricket Scores: 1730 - 1773....
  
  , Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899
• H T Waghorn
  H T Waghorn
  Henry Thomas Waghorn , was a cricket statistician and historian. He is best known for his two classic researches into cricket's early history: The Dawn of Cricket and Cricket Scores: 1730 - 1773....
  
  , The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906
• David Underdown
  David Underdown
  David E. Underdown was a historian of 17th-century English politics and culture and Professor Emeritus at Yale University. Born at Wells, Somerset, Underdown was educated at the Blue School and Exeter College, Oxford...
  
  , Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000