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.
Cricket scoring before 1802 had been haphazard. Bentley's scorebook and its 1823 publication transformed the historical record.
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).
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
Bentley died three years later in 1826. The book remained in occasional reprint and is held in major cricket libraries.
The single most important reference work in nineteenth-century cricket scholarship.
Almost every modern reference to a Regency-era statistic — every score, every wicket, every match result — is traceable through Bentley's 1823 volume.
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1811-07-04
The 1811 Lord's season was the leanest of the Middle Ground years. With the Napoleonic blockade at its tightest, willow scarce, professionals diverted to militia service and the betting public's purses thin, only fourteen major matches were played at Lord's all summer. The 1811 season is the clearest measure of cricket's wartime contraction.
Officers vs Civilians
1812-12-15
By the close of 1812 cricket was being played regularly in both Madras and Bombay — the earliest documented fixtures in either Presidency. Garrison officers and civilian East India Company servants ran the matches; the Madras Gazette and Bombay Courier preserved the earliest scoresheets. The Calcutta game (documented 1804) had been joined by all three Presidency capitals.
Kent vs MCC
1813-09-09
On 9-10 September 1813 Kent played the MCC at the Vine, Sevenoaks — the first post-war major match at the historic Kent ground and the start of the Vine's revival as a regular major venue. The Vine had hosted little major cricket since 1808; the September 1813 fixture marked its return to the front rank.