Hambledon Club

The Hambledon Club was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England.

Foundation

The origin of the club, based near Hambledon in rural Hampshire, is shrouded in mystery and legend but it had certainly been founded by 1768.

Its basis was a local parish cricket team that was in existence before 1750 and achieved prominence in 1756 when it played a series of three matches versus Dartford, which had itself been a major club for at least 30 years. At this time, the parish team was sometimes referred to as "Squire Land's Club", after Squire Thomas Land who was apparently the main organiser of cricket teams in the village before the foundation of the club proper.

Growth

From the mid-1760s, Hambledon's stature grew till by the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England ^[1]. In spite of its relative remoteness, it had developed into a private club of noblemen and country gentry, for whom one of cricket's attractions was the opportunity it offered for betting. Although some of these occasionally played in matches, professional players were mainly employed ^[2]. The club produced several famous players, for example: John Small, Thomas Brett, Richard Nyren, David Harris, Tom Taylor and Tom Walker. It was also the inspiration for the first significant cricket book: The Cricketers of My Time by John Nyren, the son of Richard Nyren ^[3].

County teams

The Hambledon Club was essentially social and, as it was multi-functional, not really a cricket club as such. Rather it is seen as an organiser of matches. Arguments have taken place among historians about whether its teams should be termed Hampshire or Hambledon. A study of the sources indicates that the nomenclature changed frequently and both terms were applicable ^[4].

The subject is complicated by a reference to the Kent versus Hampshire & Sussex match at Guildford Bason on 26 & 28 August 1772 ^[5]. According to the source, "Hampshire & Sussex" was synonymous with "Hambledon Club". It is interesting that Sussex cricket was not very prominent during the Hambledon period and this could have been because Hambledon operated a team effectively representing two counties. Certainly there were Sussex connections at Hambledon such as Bayton, Richard Nyren, William Barber and Noah Mann.

The move from Broadhalfpenny Down to Windmill Down

In 1782 the club moved from its original ground at Broadhalfpenny Down to Windmill Down, about half a mile away towards the village of Hambledon. Richard Nyren, the club's captain, had moved from the Bat and Ball Inn to the George Hotel, the headquarters of the club moving with him, and the new ground was more conveniently located in relation to the new HQ ^[6].

The move from Hambledon to Marylebone

Hambledon's great days ended in the 1780s with a shift in focus from the rural counties of Kent, Sussex and Hampshire to metropolitan London where Lord's was established as the home of the new Marylebone Cricket Club in 1787.

Membership declined during the 1790s. On 29 August 1796, fifteen people attended a meeting and amongst them, according to the official minutes, was "Mr Thos Pain, Authour of the rights of Man"! It was probably a joke for Thomas Paine was then under sentence of death for treason and exiled in revolutionary Paris. The last meeting was held on 21 September 1796 where the minutes read only that "No Gentlemen were present" ^[7].

Club toast

The enigmatic "Madge" is a "what", not a "who". Indeed, it is believed to be a common, but crude, contemporary reference to the vagina ^[8].

New beginning

A description of the revival and, indeed, the whole history of the Hambledon Club can be read in The Glory Days of Cricket by Ashley Mote ^[4].

The current Hambledon Cricket Club ground is nearer Hambledon village at Ridge Meadow, just off the road to Broadhalfpenny Down, about half a mile from the village. On Saturday 8th September, 2007 the clubhouse was burnt to the ground ^[9].

References

^ According to In the Mists of Time (3rd ed., 2005), the Artillery Ground, home of "the original London Club" from 1730 or earlier, "became the featured venue of all London cricket until about 1765, after which the focus shifted to Hambledon and the London Club disbanded".
^ In 1782 it was decided that those who played for the County XI should receive "on the practice days, four shillings if winners and three shillings if losers, provided they attended by twelve of the clock". Barclays World of Cricket, Collins, 1980, ISBN 0 00 216349 7, p5.
^ reissued by Ashley Mote, John Nyren's "The Cricketers of my Time", Robson, 1998
^ ^a ^b Ashley Mote, The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997
^ G B Buckley, Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket, Cotterell, 1937
^ Hambledon village website
^ Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
^ The meaning of "Madge" is explained by Rowland Bowen in his Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, pp. 63–64. According to John Arlott, the meaning of "Madge" was uncovered in the 1950s, from Francis Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785), to be "the private parts of a woman". (Arlott on Cricket, edited by David Rayvern Allen, Fontana/Collins, 1985 edition, ISBN 0-00-637007-1, p10.)
^ Portsmouth Evening News – Monday 10th September 2007

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