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BRITCHER, Samuel. A Complete List of All the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been played in the year 1800. London: J. Bryan for W.S. Blake, 1800. 8° (196 x 122mm). 44pp. (Title soiled at top right hand corner, some leaves cropped by the binder with partial loss of players’ names, more especially on page versos.) Modern green morocco gilt. Provenance: Roger Hancock acquired this copy from J.W. McKenzie in 1989.
ELEVENTH YEAR OF ISSUE. ONE OF ONLY FOUR COPIES RECORDED by David Rayvern Allen. The MCC holds one copy, the John Rylands Library a second, leaving only one other copy beside Roger Hancock's in private hands. For the purposes of Allen's census, Hancock used the pseudonym ‘A.N. O’Nymity’. The present issue gives the scores of 35 matches played in the year 1800 often for astonishing wagers (including two ‘single matches’ of three players a side and one where William Barton took on two others at Lord’s for 100 guineas and won the two innings game by 57 runs). Also included are The Laws of Cricket as at 1800 and 'A Song on the Game of Cricket'. The author was the official scorer to the Mary-le-bone Club, he describes himself as ‘Scorer’ on the title page, and the likelihood is that he noted down most if not all the scores himself. His decision to print the scores annually, beginning with the 1790 season, was fortunate for posterity. With the loss of MCC’s early records in the fire which engulfed the pavilion in 1825, the survival of these annual scores has been crucial to cricket history. Nevertheless, the census revealed that there are only fifty-two known copies in existence of all fifteen issues, making this by far the scarcest of all cricket annuals. They are also admirable typographically, being printed in a good-size, well-spaced Caslin type and on a crisp rag paper; their handsome style was only emulated in the 19th century by Richard Bentley. Allen 9; Allen, Britcher’s Scores pp.99-107; Padwick 869.
ELEVENTH YEAR OF ISSUE. ONE OF ONLY FOUR COPIES RECORDED by David Rayvern Allen. The MCC holds one copy, the John Rylands Library a second, leaving only one other copy beside Roger Hancock's in private hands. For the purposes of Allen's census, Hancock used the pseudonym ‘A.N. O’Nymity’. The present issue gives the scores of 35 matches played in the year 1800 often for astonishing wagers (including two ‘single matches’ of three players a side and one where William Barton took on two others at Lord’s for 100 guineas and won the two innings game by 57 runs). Also included are The Laws of Cricket as at 1800 and 'A Song on the Game of Cricket'. The author was the official scorer to the Mary-le-bone Club, he describes himself as ‘Scorer’ on the title page, and the likelihood is that he noted down most if not all the scores himself. His decision to print the scores annually, beginning with the 1790 season, was fortunate for posterity. With the loss of MCC’s early records in the fire which engulfed the pavilion in 1825, the survival of these annual scores has been crucial to cricket history. Nevertheless, the census revealed that there are only fifty-two known copies in existence of all fifteen issues, making this by far the scarcest of all cricket annuals. They are also admirable typographically, being printed in a good-size, well-spaced Caslin type and on a crisp rag paper; their handsome style was only emulated in the 19th century by Richard Bentley. Allen 9; Allen, Britcher’s Scores pp.99-107; Padwick 869.
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