Richard Newland (bapt.Tooltip baptised 11 September 1713 – February 1778)[1][2] was an English cricketer of the mid-Georgian period who played for Slindon and Sussex under the patronage of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond.

[note 1] The actual length of Newland's career is unknown and has been the subject of speculation by some writers, but there were 21 senior matches between 1743 and 1751 in which he definitely appeared: 14 eleven-a-side and seven under single wicket rules.

She mentions a conversation with John Newland about a Slindon versus East Dean match played a week earlier at Long Down, near Eartham.

[13] The first definite mention of Richard Newland in surviving sources is as captain of an England team playing against Kent in a single wicket three-a-side match at the Artillery Ground on 11 July 1743, when he was 29 or 30 years old.

[14][15][note 3] According to David Underdown, an ancestor called John Newland was a steward in the local manor house at the end of the sixteenth century.

[16] Richard Newland Sr was a churchwarden, a position of respectability in Georgian times which meant he was, as Underdown puts it, "a solid member of the village community".

[7] Despite this apparent respectability, Underdown points out that Slindon was, like most Sussex villages, a violent place with smuggling connections.

The Slindon team included Edward Aburrow Sr (alias "Cuddy"), who played as a bowler and was the village tailor.

He gained a reputation for smuggling, though it is more accurate to say that he was jailed in 1745 for bearing arms whilst landing "prohibited goods" at Elmer's Sluice on the Sussex coast.

[7] In 1749, Newland himself and his brother John were among a group of men indicted for assaulting one Griffith Hughes, though all were discharged, and this incident too may have been connected with smuggling.

[7] Newland relied for his cricketing opportunities on the 2nd Duke of Richmond, who had captained his own team for many years until he broke a leg in 1733.

On 28 July, Richmond sent two letters telling Newcastle about a match that day which had resulted in a brawl with "hearty blows" and "broken heads".

[6] Newland was a popular choice for a wager among the gamblers who frequented matches and bets were always laid on his potential score.

[22] There are references in 1742 to "the Sussex Man from Slending" and "the noted bowler from Slendon", although it is not certain that Newland was either of these famous players as he was a batting all-rounder.

[24][7] At the end of the 1742 season, Slindon played two matches against London at the Artillery Ground but lost them both, the second by the huge margin of 184 runs.

[25] In the first, several wagers were laid that one Slindon batsman, perhaps Newland, would obtain forty runs from his own bat – a feat he failed to perform.

[26][27][28] There is no surviving report of the second match except for the result but Ashley-Cooper in a brief description of Slindon says it was most famous for its cricket, "its chief players being the Messrs. Newland – Adam, John and Richard – and Cuddy".

The Kent players were William Hodsoll of Dartford, Val Romney of Sevenoaks and John Cutbush of Maidstone.

[38][39][note 4] Kent captain Lord John Sackville is reported to have held a remarkable catch in the second innings to dismiss Newland, who made the top two scores in the match with 18* and 15.

On 24 June 1745, Newland was a member of a three-a-side team led by William Hodsoll and including Val Romney.

[51] On 5 July, the Artillery Ground hosted a fixture called Sevenoaks, Bromley & Addington v. Slindon, Horsmonden, Chiselhurst & London.

This is the highest individual innings on record until the 1760s and, in the context of 1740s cricket when pitch preparation was little more than rudimentary, an outstanding performance.

[51] It is cricket's earliest known half-century as the previous highest score on record was 47 by John Harris for Surrey & Sussex on 2 June 1744.

Richmond orchestrated the fervour and his Slindon five-a-side and three-a-side teams were a regular feature of the "great matches" at the Artillery Ground.

There was a three-a-side match on 6 September in which he was again opposed by his rival Colchin, but the captaincy of his side had again been given to Dingate, who was a regular fixture in Richmond's teams at this time.

[53] Newland had played for England against Kent in two eleven-a-side matches at the Artillery Ground on 31 August and at Bromley Common on 2 September.

Newland had issued a challenge through a notice in the Daily Advertiser that Slindon would play against "five of any parish in England".

Cricket suffered a double blow with the deaths of Colchin (end of April) and Richmond (8 August) as they were two of the main match organisers.

[60] Now 38, it seems that, like Sussex cricket in general after the death of Richmond, Newland faded from the scene and returned to his family's farm.

[62] Newland's wife Mary died in 1747, aged 24, possibly in childbirth as the grave holding her infant daughter and herself is in Slindon's parish church cemetery.