1797 English cricket season

The 1797 English cricket season marked 200 years since the earliest known definite reference to the sport in 1597. Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) enjoyed great success on the field, winning nine of their eleven known matches. Details of 21 matches are known, though only nine can be considered important/top-class.^{[note 1]}

MCC v Middlesex

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) met Middlesex twice in May, both matches being played on Lord's Old Ground (Lord's). MCC won the first by 6 wickets,^[5] and the second by 288 runs.^[6]

England v Surrey

England played Surrey twice at Lord's in June. England won both games, the first by 6 wickets,^[6] and the second by 23 runs.^[7]

MCC v Hampshire

In August, MCC won both of their two games against Hampshire. The first was played on Itchin Stoke Down, and MCC won by 113 runs.^[8] They went on to win the second at Lord's by 6 wickets.^[9]

England v MCC

At the end of August, England and MCC played each other at Moulsey Hurst and at Lord's. MCC won the first match by 6 wickets, and England the second by 8 wickets.^[10]

Other events

Woolwich played two matches against Croydon at Barrack Field. Woolwich won by 23 runs in August,^[11] and by 179 runs in September.^[12]

Colonel Charles Lennox and the Earl of Winchilsea organised four matches between their selected teams. Lennox's XI won the first game, and Winchilsea's XI won the next three.^[13]

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 top-class or, at least, historically significant.^[4] For further information, see First-class cricket.

References

^ "First-Class 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. 214.
^ ^a ^b Haygarth 1996, p. 216.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 218.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 224.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 225.
^ Haygarth 1996, p. 226.
^ Britcher 1797.
^ Waghorn 2005.
^ Haygarth 1996, pp. 214–223.

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 First-class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS. OCLC 10586869.
Britcher, Samuel (1797). A Complete List of all the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been Played (1790–1805; annual series). London: W. S. Blake. OCLC 83523010.
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.