Greatest Cricket Moments

Henry Bentley Publishes A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches — 1823

1823-04-15n/aPublication of Henry Bentley's A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches, April 18231 min readSeverity: Mild

Summary

In April 1823 Henry Bentley — the MCC's longstanding scorebook keeper — published A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches Played by the Mary-Le-Bone Club. The volume contained scoresheets from every MCC major fixture between 1786 and 1822. It became the foundation reference for nineteenth-century cricket history and the source from which all later Regency-era statistics were derived.

Background

Cricket scoring before 1802 had been haphazard. Bentley's scorebook and its 1823 publication transformed the historical record.

What Happened

Bentley had been keeping his scorebook since 1802. By 1822 he had twenty-one full seasons of major-match data. The April 1823 publication brought the entire ledger into print for the first time. The volume was sold by subscription at five shillings; about 400 copies were issued. The published book is the principal source for Regency cricket statistics and was extensively used by Arthur Haygarth in compiling Scores and Biographies (1862).

Timeline

1802

Bentley begins his scorebook

1822

Closes the ledger after twenty-one seasons

Apr 1823

A Correct Account published

1826

Bentley dies

1862

Haygarth's Scores and Biographies builds on Bentley

Aftermath

Bentley died three years later in 1826. The book remained in occasional reprint and is held in major cricket libraries.

⚖️ The Verdict

The single most important reference work in nineteenth-century cricket scholarship.

Legacy & Impact

Almost every modern reference to a Regency-era statistic — every score, every wicket, every match result — is traceable through Bentley's 1823 volume.

Tags

#roundarm-era#henry-bentley#scorebook#publication#1823#iconic-moment

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