Single-Wicket Cricket
| Game | Single-Wicket Cricket |
|---|---|
| Game Family | Baseball |
| Location | |
| Regions | Britain, US |
| Eras | 1700s, 1800s, Post-1900, Predecessor |
| Invented | No |
| Tags | |
| Description | Single-wicket cricket uses teams smaller than the usual 11-player teams. All bowling is to a single wicket. There is, in effect, a foul ground behind the wicket, so unlike full-team cricket, only balls hit forward are deemed to be in play. As late at 1969 there were annual single-wicket championships at Lord’s in London. In the very early years, most cricket is believed to use a single wicket, and each references to cricket in the US usually reported very small numbers of players. Early cricket rules called for single-wicket play when team sizes were five or fewer. The Sunbury Gazette, Sept. 3, 1859 reprints an essay on cricket from the North American, and labels single-wicket a predecessor game to cricket. H. Rowell, "The Laws of Cricket for Single and Double Wicket" (Toronto, 1857) p. 17 says single wicket is for teams of 5 or less, and specifies "bounds" placed 22 yards apart in a line from the off and leg stump (which appears to give a 180 degree fair territory). The ball had to be tossed, not thrown, underhand. |
| Sources | Thorne, Baseball in the Garden of Eden, p. 79. Rowell, p. 17; wikipedia |
| Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
| Comment | The single-wicket game was often played in the U.S. See Chronologies 1845.23 and 1864.46. See also New York Herald, Sept. 12, 1844; Oct. 25, Nov. 4, 1845; May 16, 1846; Oct. 5, 1847; New York Times, May 9, 1855; Sunbury Gazette, July 30, 1859; Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Oct. 6, 1852. These games involved anywhere from 1 to 8 players a side. For other pre-1840 American mentions of the rules of single wicket, see Parley's Magazine (1838); The Boys Own Book (1834); Gentleman's Magazine vol. 5 (1839); Hoyle's Rules (1838). Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | Edit with form to add a query |
| Has Supplemental Text |
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