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foot of page Wagon trains? | The Artillery Ground |
Wagon trains?
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Robert Horton and Ward Bond in Wagon Train |
Well, we really don't know how cricket was played before Charles Lennox, the Duke of Richmond, decided some rules must be written down. He may well have thought "enough is enough", because you can imagine all manner of local variations being imposed upon visitors, and semblance of order was desperately needed. We've seen how Lennox and Alan Brodrick achieved this for their matches in 1727 and we know Articles of Agreement were in use at many more matches after that. A concerted effort was made by the Star and Garter bods in 1744 when they coded the first Laws of Cricket. That document, however, wasn't published until 1755 and, eventually, its stipulations became moreorless universal, or so we believe.
The point is that the game was not in any sort of recognisable "era" until there was an element of stable uniformity, albeit subject to a few local exceptions. This, as much as anything, is Lennox's legacy and why he deserved to have a biography called The Duke Who Was Cricket. Before Lennox, cricket was a chaotic hodgepodge. For starters, look at all the legal and gambling issues mentioned last time. Stability enabled the sport to move forward and flourish. Lennox's wagon trains began rolling westwards to Gloucester and north to Sheffield and beyond.
The Pioneering Era had two defining factors and two key features. The first factor, as I've said, was the spread of cricket nationwide. The second is what was happening on the field, and the key element there was the underarm delivery that was bowled all along the ground, as in bowls, to a batter holding a hockey stick implement like the one below, which was owned by John Chitty in 1729.
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The oldest surviving bat from 1729. It is on display in the Member's Pavilion at The Oval. |
The first key feature was single wicket, which reached its zenith in 1748 and has never been as popular than it was in this era. The second, starting in 1730, was the Artillery Ground. No venue, not even Lord's or the MCG, has ever held such an important status as this place did from 1730 till the 1760s.
We know that William Bedle, Thomas Waymark, William Sawyer, Richard Newland, Robert Colchin, and other pioneers were great players, but what set them apart from the greats of the pre-roundarm years—John Small, Lumpy Stevens, Richard Nyren, David Harris, Billy Beldham, the horrendous Beauclerk, and others—was the 1760s evolution from bowled to pitched, and from curved to straight. I think it's entirely possible the evolution began at Hambledon. The famous Hampshire village is known erroneously as the "Cradle of Cricket", but perhaps it was the cradle of a new kind of cricket?
I would date the Pioneering Era from about 1726, when cricket largely escaped all those legal controversies and began introducing Laws of its own, until about 1763, when the Seven Years War ended and the Hambledon Era began. I'll have much more to say about all of this in future instalments but, for now, the wagon wheels are turning.
The Artillery Ground
The first port of call for cricket as it began its journey of expansion, from a regional sport to a national one, was Finsbury. Recorded as far back as the 13th century, Finsbury is immediately north of the City of London. It used to be a Metropolitan Borough in its own right till it merged with Islington in 1965 to form the London Borough of Islington. Finsbury today is the southern part of Islington, and has a long-held military tradition. This began in 1641, when the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) became resident just off the City Road, at a site called the Artillery Ground between Chiswell Street and the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground.
The HAC has always used the Artillery Ground for its own displays, parades, training, and so on, but was often willing to allow outside parties to stage other events. From the time of its earliest known major cricket match in 1730, the ground was for over thirty years the main centre of cricket in London. Having been an almost rural location for much of its history, it is nowadays surrounded by the Company's headquarters and numerous office buildings.
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A Game of Cricket as played in the Artillery Ground. This engraving by Antoine Benoist replicates a lost 1743 oil painting by Francis Hayman. The title can be misleading because the venue is not the Artillery Ground itself—emphasis is on the words "as played". |
The Artillery Ground is best known as a historic cricket venue and especially as the home of the original London Cricket Club, which was probably formed in the 1720s. For many years before the creation of the Hambledon Club in the 1760s, it was the feature venue for not only London but all English cricket. It eventually fell into disrepute because of uncontrolled gambling and crowd disturbances. Its use declined in the aftermath of the Seven Years War, and the last known matches of any significance were played in 1778, some years after the London Club had already disbanded.
In the 18th century, the venue was referred to in contemporary reports as the old Artillery Ground, but this may be because it was used frequently for other forms of sport or entertainment. Its earliest definite use for a cricket match was on Monday, 10 August 1730 when Middlesex played Surrey. Middlesex won but no other details are known. Three weeks later, London hosted two matches there against Surrey, and the ground quickly became London's first choice home venue with five matches recorded in 1731: three against Dartford and two against Croydon. By the 1740s, the Artillery Ground had become the sport's feature venue and, for the next twenty or so years, it had a social status that only Lord's has subsequently challenged. Single wicket was especially popular in the 1740s and huge crowds gambling huge sums of money were attracted to the ground whenever these contests took place.
The history of the ground is coloured by references to its keepers, or lessees. The first known reference is in The Craftsman dated Saturday, 26 February 1732 re Mr Christopher Jones, Master of the Artillery Ground, at the Pyed Horse public house in Chiswell Street. The keepers were responsible for maintaining order at the ground. For example, Jones posted a notice in the newspapers that advertised a London v Kent match on 5 July 1733 as "for one guinea each man with wickets to be pitched at one o'clock and the spectators to keep outside the line round the ground. If any persons get on the Walls (sic), they will be prosecuted as the Law directs; and the Company are desired to come through the Py'd Horse Yard, Chiswell Street". Obviously, by coming through the pub, many customers might well stop to buy a drink and Jones, as the landlord, would have no objection to that!
The most charismatic keeper was George Smith who had frequent disputes with the HAC during his tenure in the 1740s. He also had money problems and there are surviving reports of his attempts to pay off his debts by raising the ground admission and then being forced to reduce it again.
On 15 September 1784, Vincent Lunardi flew a balloon from the Artillery Ground, the first such flight in England.
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