History of English cricket (1751–1775)
The mid-century deaths of some of the game's leading patrons reduced investment and the sport seems to have regressed during the period of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), but it underwent an evolutionary change around 1760 with the introduction of pitched delivery bowling and the consequent invention of the straight bat.
[citation needed] The origin of the Hambledon Club has not been fully established but it had certainly been founded by 1764 as three matches against Chertsey are listed that season.
[4][page needed] Given the uncertainty about when the Hambledon Club was founded, it is possible that some kind of parish organisation was operating in 1756, perhaps led by a patron.
[citation needed] Following the death of the Duke of Richmond in 1750, cricket lost another key supporter when Frederick, Prince of Wales died on March 31, 1751.
[16] That cricket can be a dangerous game was evident in August 1755 when a player on Kennington Common lost his right eye after being hit by the ball.
[4][page needed] Details of two Middlesex v Surrey games have survived from the 1763 season, which began shortly after the war ended.
William Cole 1765-67' (edited by F.G Stokes) includes a reference to a cricket match in the diary's entry for Thursday 30 October 1766.
While it is true that 30 October is an unusually late time of year to be playing cricket, this is still significant in showing how popular the game was outside its early strongholds of the south-east counties and London.
In 1768, the earliest references to patrons John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, and Sir Horatio Mann have been found in a cricketing context.
[7][23] A partial score has survived of a game between the Duke of Dorset's XI and Wrotham, played at Sevenoaks Vine in August 1769.
John Minshull (aka Minchin) scored 107 for Dorset's XI in the second innings and this is the earliest century in any class of cricket that has definitely been recorded.
This is the first time Berkshire is recorded as a county team and it became a strong centre of the game in the late 18th century, producing numerous players good enough to take part in major matches.
[citation needed] On 28 September, Hambledon defeated Surrey by an innings and 41 runs after their opening batsmen, Tom Sueter and George Leer shared a century partnership of 128 for the first wicket; this was apparently a rare occurrence at the time.
[17][page needed] On Thursday, 29 June 1770, the Middlesex Journal reported the death of a Mr Johnson, who was a goldsmith at London Wall.
[27] Little is known of the 1770 season but there was a county match at the Artillery Ground in August when a combined London and Middlesex team played against Surrey.
[9] Rowland Bowen, writing in the 1965 edition of Wisden, mentions the rise of cricket in the industrial cities of Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield.
