Around 1815 the Petersfield bat-maker William Small — son of the Hambledon professional John Small Senior — began producing cricket bats with a recognisable 'shoulder', tapering from a thicker blade up to a narrower handle. The design replaced the curved, club-like underarm bat that had been standard since the eighteenth century and is the immediate ancestor of the modern cricket bat shape.
Cricket bats in 1810 were still essentially the same as those of 1770: curved, heavy, without a defined shoulder. Bat-makers were small craftsmen, mostly attached to particular cricket centres.
Cricket bats through the underarm era had been broadly curved, like a hockey stick — designed for ground-level bowling. As the game moved towards lengthier deliveries and (controversially) towards roundarm, the curved bat was increasingly impractical. William Small, working from his father's old Petersfield workshop, began experimenting with a straighter blade that tapered into a defined shoulder where the handle was spliced in. The new shape gave better control of vertical strokes. By the late 1810s the shouldered bat was standard at Lord's; the curved underarm bat survived only at village level.
1770s
Curved underarm bat standardised
c. 1815
William Small introduces the shouldered bat at Petersfield
1820
Shouldered bat standard at Lord's
1825
Curved bat effectively obsolete in major cricket
The shouldered bat spread rapidly between 1815 and 1820. By 1825 the curved bat was effectively obsolete in major cricket.
The transition from the curved underarm bat to the recognisably modern cricket bat — the most important equipment change of the early nineteenth century.
Every modern cricket bat descends from William Small's 1815 design. The shouldered, splice-handled blade is the foundation of bat-making to the present day.
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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.