EARLY CRICKET

In the mid 18th century, most villages played cricket but comparatively little of it was organised on club lines.  At that time gambling was rife in all sports, very large sums of money were wagered on prize fights and horse racing and not a few of these contests were ‘fixed’.

As cricket grew in popularity, many teams were sponsored and some of the ‘grand’ matches were also ‘sold’. 

Now the country gentlemen who lived in and around Teddington then, whilst very well to do, would not have been considered rich by the standards of the time.  The ill repute of sponsored cricket matches would not have appealed and the formation of a club might have had little attraction unless there had been a moving spirit of strong character who had perhaps been a cricketer at University and retained his enthusiasm afterwards.  Such a man as he could have been the person who might have started the village club.  There is no evidence, however, to suggest that he existed and reluctantly we must conclude that the Teddington Cricket Club does not have an 18th century origin.

Another restricting factor would have been transport.  The only form of public transport, until the railways came 80 years later, was the stage coach, which was too expensive for all but the gentry.  Unsponsored matches between villages, therefore, meant that the ‘non-gentry’ would either have to walk to away matches or be conveyed by horse transport in some form.  Thus village matches would have been very much local affairs.

There was much unfenced open land in those days and little difficulty would have been experienced in finding somewhere to play; remembering that this was before the days of ‘prepared wickets’.  In 1800, however, Parliament passed “An Act for dividing and otherwise improving all the Common Fields, Common Wastes and Commonable lands and grounds within the Manor and parish of Teddington otherwise Todington otherwise Tottington otherwise Tuddongton in the county of Middlesex”.  The purpose of an Enclosure Act was to consolidate farm plots and increase pasture land to improve agricultural efficiency.  They also established ownership of the great areas of waste land.  So far as Teddington was concerned, the effect of the 1800 Enclosure Act was to create and define three areas of common land viz. Teddington Common (north side of Hampton Road), Northfield (north side of the High Street) and Southfield (south side of the High Street).