1793 English cricket season

In the 1793 English cricket season, Surrey defeated England three times. Details of 20 matches are known, but few were important.^{[note 1]}

Berkshire

The secondary sources are sometimes confusing on the subject of the Oldfield Cricket Club at Bray, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. The team featured in several major matches during the late 18th century and was an important team at this time as it had a high playing standard and numerous recognised players. The team is sometimes referred to as the Oldfield Club or as Maidenhead, but the Oldfield Club presented itself as representative of Berkshire in the same way as Hornchurch/Essex and Brighton/Sussex, so its team might be styled Berkshire.

There were two matches between MCC and Berkshire in 1793. The first, at Lord's Old Ground (Lord's), ended in a win for Berkshire by 119 runs.^[5] To further the confusion, S&B called it MCC v The Oldfield Club. The ACS Guide says the game should be called MCC v Maidenhead yet in several other fixtures they use Oldfield. The Oldfield club played at Oldfield Bray, near Maidenhead. Berkshire had a high standard at this time. The second match was on Oldfield Bray, and Berkshire won by 85 runs.^[6]

Sussex v Kent

These teams played each other in Brighton (unknown venue) at the end of August. H. T. Waghorn found only bare details of the game, and recorded it as "a grand match of cricket". It was between 9 of Kent with Ring and Beldham, against 9 of Sussex with Scott (i.e., of Hambledon) and another (unknown), for 500 guineas. Kent won by an unknown margin. Waghorn called Beldham "Baldam"^[7]

MCC matches

In May, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) defeated Middlesex by 54 runs at Lord's Old Ground (Lord's) by 54 runs,^[8] and Essex by an innings and 10 runs at Langton Park.^[9]

MCC played five matches in June. These were against Essex and Kent. They lost twice to Essex, and lost one and won two against Kent.^[10]

Notes

^ Some eleven-a-side matches played from 1772 to 1863 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources.^[1] However, the term only came into common use around 1864, when overarm bowling was legalised. It was formally defined as a standard by a meeting at Lord's, in May 1894, of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the county clubs which were then competing in the County Championship. The ruling was effective from the beginning of the 1895 season, but pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective.^[2] Matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status.^[3] Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as important or, at least, historically significant.^[4] For further information, see First-class cricket.

References

^ "FC Matches in England in 1772". CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
^ Wisden (1948). Preston, Hubert (ed.). Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (85th ed.). London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd. p. 813. OCLC 851705816.
^ ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
^ ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 150.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 157.
^ Waghorn 2005, p. 128.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 146.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 147.
^ Haygarth 1996, pp. 148–151.

Bibliography

ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863. Nottingham: ACS. OCLC 85045528.
ACS (1982). A Guide to FC Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS. OCLC 10586869.
Haygarth, Arthur (1996) [1862]. Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 (1744–1826). Kennington: Frederick Lillywhite. ISBN 978-19-00592-23-9.
Waghorn, H. T. (2005) [1906]. The Dawn of Cricket. London: J. W. McKenzie. ISBN 978-09-47821-17-3.
Warner, Pelham (1946). Lords: 1787–1945. London: Harrap. OCLC 877106024.