1766 English cricket season

The 1766 English cricket season is a season about which little is known.

On Thurs 6 February, Robert Bartholomew died G B Buckley, "Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket", Cotterell, 1937] . He had played for Surrey in the 1750s and may well have been related to the Bartholomews who played for Chertsey in the 1770s. He was the master of the "Angel Inn" at Islington and also of White Conduit House.

Perhaps another nail in the coffin of the Artillery Ground when its latest keeper Mr Read died on Thurs 25 September . Like George Smith before him, he was also the landlord of the "Pyed Horse Inn".

Australia and New Zealand

It was in 1766 that the Royal Society commissioned Captain James Cook (1728 – 1779) to lead an astronomical expedition to the Pacific Ocean for the primary purpose of charting a transit of Venus. He had a second purpose which was to search for a southern continent called "Terra Australis", and to establish if this had a connection with the lands visited by Abel Tasman in the 1640s.

Captain Cook left England in 1768. He sailed south and around Cape Horn to reach Tahiti in April 1769, where the astronomical survey was concluded. He then sailed west to try and find New Zealand. He did so and, apart from a few minor errors, mapped the complete coastline. He discovered the Cook Strait between the two main islands, which Tasman had missed.

In April 1770, the expedition sailed westward from New Zealand and they became the first Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia at a place called Point Hicks on the coast of Victoria. Cook sailed northwards, following the coast, and charted some famous landmarks including Botany Bay, which would soon earn notoriety. In June, he encountered, rather than found, the Great Barrier Reef when his ship, HM Bark "Endeavour", ran aground on one of its shoals. During repairs near modern Cooktown, his men made contact with Aboriginals and saw kangaroos. Cook continued the voyage around the northeast coast and through the Torres Strait to Batavia before returning to England in 1771.

Cook’s voyages were a highly significant precursor to the worldwide spread of cricket. It was to be some years before colonisation of Australia (from 1788) and New Zealand (after 1800) began but cricket soon arrived there too and the first definite references to the sport in Australia is in 1804 and in New Zealand is in 1832. Incidentally, the first cricket reference in the West Indies (Barbados to be exact) is in 1806 and in South Africa it is in 1808. The game had already been introduced to India and North America.

Honours

* Champion County [An unofficial seasonal title proclaimed by media or historians prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship was constituted] – Hambledon/Hampshire [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/cricket/histories/champions.html Champion counties from 1728] ]

Matches

References

External sources

* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/1766_ENG.html CricketArchive match lists]
* [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/cricket/main.html From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787]

Further reading

* H S Altham, "A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914)", George Allen & Unwin, 1962
* Derek Birley, "A Social History of English Cricket", Aurum, 1999
* Rowland Bowen, "Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development", Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
* Ashley Mote, "The Glory Days of Cricket", Robson, 1997
* David Underdown, "Start of Play", Allen Lane, 2000