Edmund Chapman was an early English cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er who played for Chertsey Cricket Club

Chertsey Cricket Club

Chertsey Cricket Club in Surrey is one of the oldest in England. Its own website dates its founding as 1737 but in fact matches involving a Chertsey team date from 1736....

 and 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:...

 during the 1720s and 1730s.

Career

Chapman is one of the earliest cricketers whose name has survived in 18th century records. In 1763, a newspaper report announced his death and said of him that he was "an eminent master bricklayer" and "accounted one of the most dextrous cricket players in England".

There is no earlier reference to him than his obituary notice but, given his age, he must have been an active player from c.1715 to c.1740, presumably playing for Chertsey, or perhaps Croydon Cricket Club

Croydon Cricket Club

The original Croydon Cricket Club was one of the oldest in England with origins going back to the early 18th century and perhaps earlier. It played most of its matches at Duppas Hill. The earliest record of the club is in the 1707 season when it played two matches against London Cricket...

, and for Surrey as a county.

External links

• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787

Further reading

• 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....
  
  , The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906