In the 1760s, they played matches against the sport's rising power, the Hambledon Club, and in September 1778, Chertsey beat the rest of England (excluding Hampshire) by an innings and 24 runs.
Chertsey produced several famous players in the 18th century including the great bowler Edward "Lumpy" Stevens and the noted wicket-keeper William Yalden.
[1][2] The Duke of Dorset (who played cricket for Chertsey) was appointed as Ambassador to France in 1784 and supposedly arranged to have the Chertsey team travel to France in 1789 to introduce cricket to the French, apparently to improve Anglo-French relations.
However, the team, on arrival at Dover, met the Ambassador returning from France at the outset of the French Revolution, and the opportunity was missed.
According to John Major in More Than A Game, "the whole story is nonsense";[3] Dorset had already warned other British residents to leave Paris so he would hardly have invited a cricket team to come to France at a time of crisis.