No . 133
The Trusty Servant
‘ The pious keeping ’: Winchester College and Broadhalfpenny Down
Adam Jay ( I , 89-94 ) explores the connection between Win Coll and the cradle of cricket :
2022 marks the 250 th anniversary of the match that has a good claim to be the first recorded first-class game of cricket . The match was played at Broadhalfpenny Down in Hambledon in June 1772 , between a Hambledon XI ( as we claim in Hambledon ) or a Hampshire XI ( preferred by Wisden ) and an England XI .
In 1925 Winchester College acquired Broadhalfpenny Down , ‘ the cradle of cricket ’, a purchase which combined its concern for the legacy and future of the ground with its knack for shrewd purchases of agricultural land in Hampshire . Enthusiasts don ’ t have long to wait , then , until the next anniversary .
There is absolutely no reason to believe that the game of cricket was invented in Hambledon or Hampshire , and cricketing historians claim to have unearthed the roots of the game in Kent , France , Flanders , Iceland , Punjab and the Middle East .
Closer to home , the Royal Household budget of 1300 made provision for Prince Edward ’ s cricket costs , and in 1647 Winchester boys are reported to have staged a game on St Catherine ’ s Hill . In 1656 Thomas Ken , later the Bishop of Bath and Wells and one of the fathers of modern English hymnody , was sanctioned as a Winchester boy for ‘ attempting to wield a cricket bat ’, an indiscretion still common on Broadhalfpenny Down .
Even if the claim to be the cradle of cricket is not without controversy , there is no doubt that it was at Hambledon that the game took a large stride in its evolution from rural curiosity to national obsession , and that Hambledon in effect governed the sport until the founding of the MCC in 1787 .
Cricket had been played on Broadhalfpenny Down since at least 1753 . In 1769-70 , the Hambledon Cricket Club was all but dissolved after a string of disappointing results , but recovered to become the foremost cricket club in England , beating an England XI on 29 occasions between 1772 and 1781 , a feat perhaps more impressive than it sounds following England ’ s recent Ashes tour of Australia .
Much of the history and character of the club and its players were preserved in The Cricketers of My Time , reminiscences of John Nyren , the son of Richard Nyren , landlord of The Bat and Ball pub and de facto Hambledon club house . John Arlott described the book , not published until 1832 , as ‘ the finest study of cricket and cricketers ever written .’
The misty-eyed purist may be disappointed to note a mercenary strain in the game even then . The Club was a private club for noblemen and the gentry , who often acted as patrons to professional players . The matches were played for decent stakes , and crowds as large as 20,000 would turn up from all over the South of England to enjoy a combination of the pleasures of spectacle , casino , pub , point-to-point and county show , washed down with Richard Nyren ’ s beer – ‘ ale that would flare like turpentine , genuine Boniface , that would put the souls of three butchers into one weaver .’
A misreading of the flight , 2022
The first match satisfying the later definition of a first-class match - a two-innings match played over three days – took place on Broadhalfpenny
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