Start of Play: Cricket and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England

The book concentrates primarily on the rise and fall of the Hambledon Cricket Club , the premier force in the development of cricket before the emergence of the MCC. -- John Nyren's famous account of the matches of the Hambledon club on Broadhalfpenny Down in the 1770s has passed into cricketing legend, establishing an ideal version of Hambledon at the centre of English cricket history. So, as David Underdown shows in many original and unexpected ways, it was. But Nyren's account conceals as much as it evokes. Setting Hambledon thoroughly in its historical context - social, cultural and political - is the main purpose of this book.