Ridgeway (Sussex cricketer)
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Ridgeway (first name and dates of birth and death unknown) was a noted English cricketer of the mid-18th century who played for Sussex and All-England.
He is first recorded in 1743 when he was reported to be one of the six best players in England. This was when he was due to play in a big "threes" match at the Artillery Ground that attracted high stakes and a crowd in excess of 10,000 (according to the London Evening Post). Ridgeway did not play in the match, however, probably due to injury, and he was replaced by John Cutbush.
In 1744, Ridgeway played for Slindon against London Cricket Club in the match from which the earliest known scorecard has survived.
In 1745, after Sussex lost to Surrey at Arundel, Lord John Philip Sackville in a letter dated 14 September to the Duke of Richmond, Sussex's patron said: I wish you had let Ridgeway play instead of your stopper behind it might have turned the match in our favour.
That is the last we hear of this considerable player, whose career probably began in the 1720s or 1730s when match reports did not include much detail.
[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)
- 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)
