Chislehurst Common

Chislehurst Common is an open space in Chislehurst in the London Borough of Bromley, in southeast London, England. It is jointly managed with St Paul's Cray Common. The common was used for cricket matches in the 18th century. It was the home venue of Chislehurst Cricket Club which played several known matches against London Cricket Club from 1738 to 1741. Cricket is still played on Chislehurst Common as the Chislehurst and West Kent Cricket Club has its ground in the southwest corner on the appropriately named Cricket Ground Road.Cricket venueThe earliest known use of Chislehurst Common for top-class cricket was in July 1738 when Chislehurst played London in a game that "turned several times" until finally being won by London.The venue was subsequently used in June 1740 for another Chislehurst v. London match, again won by London. It was the intended venue for a Kent v. London match on 26 June 1741 that was rained off. An interesting comment about the Kent team was that it was "eleven out of three parishes for the county". Expectations were high but the whole day was ruined by the rain.The Chislehurst club declined after 1741 and the Common is only mentioned once more in the sources. That was on 17 June 1752 when Kent played Surrey.Further reading F S Ashley-Cooper, At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742-1751, Cricket Magazine, 1900 F S Ashley-Cooper, Kent Cricket Matches 1719-1880, Gibbs & Sons, 1929 G B Buckley, Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket, Cotterell, 1935 H T Waghorn, Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773), Blackwood, 1899 H T Waghorn, The Dawn of Cricket, Electric Press, 1906 David Underdown, Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000