1744.1 "How Is It, Umpire?" The 1744 Laws of Cricket and Their Influence on the Development of Baseball in America

Abstract

Last Monday afternoon, a match at cricket was play'd on our Common for a considerable Wager, by eleven Londoners, against eleven New Yorkers: game was play'd according to the London Method; and those who got most notches in two Hands, to be the Winners.1The earliest surviving laws of cricket are preserved on the edge of a handkerchief titled The Laws of the Game of Cricket. In small crowded text, the laws frame a picturesque scene of an early cricket match. batsmen wield archaic curved bats in front of two-stump wickets, the bowler is poised to release an underhand delivery, and two umpires stand on the field.2 Clearly modeled after one of cricket's most enduring paintings, Francis Hayman's Cricket in the Mary-le-bone Fields,3 the handkerchief also shows scorers with their tally sticks in the foreground.4 Eight and a half years later in November 1752, these same laws were typeset for the first time in the New Universal Magazine as The Game at Cricket, as settled by the Cricket-Club, in 1744, and play'd at the Artillery Ground, London. And finally, these same laws were printed in pamphlet form in 1755 as Game at Cricket, as Settled by the Several Cricket-Clubs, Particularly That of the Star and Garter in Pall-Mall.5From 1744-1755 the wording of the laws remained largely the same, apart from modernizing ye to the, and dropping the older practice of referring to the ball as she. Thus all three versions represent the first recognized laws of the game. While the laws themselves may not have altered, other changes are telling. titles, for instance, show a progressive adoption of this code, at least among London clubs. three different formats-from decorative handkerchief to London periodical to portable printed pamphlet- also reflect a growing desire to standardize the competitive game. 1755 pamphlet was clearly produced for distribution to those interested in a more regulated and formal game.These developments are of most interest to a baseball readership when compared to equivalent measures in baseball a century or so later. There are similarities. most obvious and fundamental is that the earliest laws of cricket, like their counterparts in baseball, are nowhere near sufficient to play the game from scratch; they simply prescribe a few elements (probably the ones most disputed) of an otherwise known custom of play.In September 1743, London's widely read Gentleman's Magazine was sourly critical of the increasing popularity of cricket, observing that noblemen, gentlemen and clergy had made butchers, coblers [sic] or tinkers their companions in the game.6 Newspaper references to the game are plentiful around this time even before its first laws were formalized. For example, in a great Cricket- Match, attended by the Prince of Wales in 1733, Surrey Men and 11 of Middlesex ... were very hard match'd: the Surrey Men beat only by three Notches.7 In another example, a great Cricket-Match in July 1740 between the Gentlemen of London and the Gentlemen of Chislehurst took place at the popular Artillery-Grounds.8 game was sufficiently familiar in 1738 for the London Daily Post and General Advertiser to describe Balls of Fat in a butchered sheep's caul as round like a Cricket-Ball.9In general, cricket in southeast England in the 1740s was far more uniform and more widely played than baseball was in America in the 1840s. Indeed it had been played by commonly accepted rules for decades. Why then did it take so long to codify the game formally?The signed Articles of Agreement by & between His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Mr. Brodrick for two cricket matches in 1727 provide a partial answer. This was a time when formally organized cricket matches, as opposed to village matches, were played on private enclosed fields. Wealthy patrons fielded a mix of gentlemen and paid talent (employees or recruits from local villages) and indulged in large wagers on the matches. …