Harris (Surrey cricketer)
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The brothers John Harris (dates of birth and death unknown) and Joseph Harris (dates of birth and death unknown) were famous English cricketers in the 1740s and 1750s. They both played for the Addington Cricket Club which had one of the strongest teams in England at the time.
With the Harris brothers playing, the Addington club first came to prominence on 25 July 1743 when its team defeated London Cricket Club at the Artillery Ground by an innings & 4 runs (see ASW). London made 32 & 74; Addington 110.
Addington is in Surrey, about 3 miles south-east of Croydon, and that was the club's first game in London. They had a very strong eleven for some years at this time and the club immediately accepted the Slindon challenge, in 1744, to play against "any parish in England".
John Harris top scored with 47 for Slindon against London in the famous 1744 match from which the earliest known scorecard has survived. Later that season, the Harrises played for All-England against Kent in the second match that has a surviving scorecard (see S&B, page1).
The single wicket form of the game was very popular in the 1740s and the Harris brothers were frequently involved in matches that attracted high stakes, which underlines what good players they were. They continued playing into the 1750s but unfortunately very little is known about them outside contemporary match reports.
[edit] References
- Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - various publications
- F S Ashley-Cooper: At the Sign of the Wicket - 1742 to 1751 (ASW)
- Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G B Buckley (FL18)
- Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket by G B Buckley (FLPV)
- Scores & Biographies, Volume 1 by Arthur Haygarth (SBnnn)
- Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century by Timothy J McCann (TJM)
- The Dawn of Cricket by H T Waghorn (WDC)
