John Bell (Kent cricketer)
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John Bell (born in 1718 at Dartford in Kent; died at Dartford in January 1774) was a noted English cricketer of the mid-Georgian period at a time when the single wicket version of the game was popular.
John Bell was an accomplished wicket-keeper with Dartford and Kent who also played many times for All-England teams.
John Bell's occupation was probably shoemaker, a trade known to have been followed by several of his family. But in 1760 he took over the Eleven Cricketers public house on East Hill in Dartford, remaining there till his death in January 1774 at the age of fifty-five. A few days later the newspaper Bingley's London Journal referred to him as "the most noted cricketer in England".
Thomas Bell, brother of John, also played for Dartford and All-England. In 1762, Thomas Bell was condemned to death at Maidstone Assizes for highway robbery, but was later reprieved. Nothing more is known of him.
[edit] References
- At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742 – 1751 by F S Ashley-Cooper in Cricket Magazine (1900) (ASW)
- Cricket Scores 1730 - 1773 by H T Waghorn (WCS)
- Early Kent Cricketers by John Goulstone (EKC)
- Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G B Buckley (FL18)
- Fresh Light on Pre-Victorian Cricket by G B Buckley (FLPV)
- From the Weald to the World by Peter Wynne-Thomas (PWT)
- The Dawn of Cricket by H T Waghorn (WDC)
