kennington common london 1840 London cricket england british britian
Kennington Common was one of the earliest London cricket venues and is known to have been used for major cricket matches from 1724 to 1785. Cricket on Kennington Common provided an alternative spectacle to public executions. The common was in effect the south London equivalent of Tyburn and there are records of executions all through the time of cricket's tenure. The gallows was where St. Mark's Church now stands, not far from Oval tube station. The earliest recorded use of the common for cricket was the London v Dartford match on 18 June 1724. This has been classified a first-class match given that it featured the two leading clubs of the time. In August 1726, a combined London and Surrey XI played the Kent XI of leading patron Edward Stead for a purse of 25 guineas. In 1729, the 7 August edition of the London Evening Post reported: "On Tuesday was played a great cricket match on Kennington Common between the Londoners and the Dartford men for a considerable sum of money, wager and bets, and the latter beat the former very much". There was a very close contest on the common in August 1730 when London defeated Surrey by 1 run. The report said that it was "was thought to be one of the completest matches that ever was played". The London v Sevenoaks game on 12 July 1731 is the first known to have been played in an enclosed ground. The report said "the ground will be roped round and all persons are desired to keep without side of the same". Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, began his patronage of cricket after he attended a match on Kennington CommonThe Surrey v London game on 28 September 1731 was promoted as "likely to be the best performance of this kind that has been seen for some time". The ground was again enclosed: "for the convenience of the gamesters, the ground is to be staked and roped out". It seems therefore that enclosure quickly became common practice in 1731. In addition, the advertisement refers to "the whole coun
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