In May 1802 Henry Bentley, a Lord's professional and occasional umpire, began the systematic scorebook that he would maintain for the next twenty-one years. His ledger — eventually published in 1823 as A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches — is the single most important primary source for major cricket between 1786 and 1822 and the foundation of all later Regency-era statistics.
Cricket scoring before 1802 was haphazard. Match totals were recorded; ball-by-ball detail rarely survived; many fixtures left no written trace at all.
Bentley had begun assembling notes through the late 1790s. By 1802 he was ready to start a continuous record.
Bentley had been hired by the MCC as a ground attendant in the 1790s. He was literate, careful and obsessive about figures. From the opening of the 1802 season he began entering every major match into a calf-bound scorebook: teams, innings, batter-by-batter dismissals and totals. He did so unpaid, on his own initiative, for the next twenty-one summers. In 1823, three years before his death, he published the entire ledger as A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches Played by the Mary-Le-Bone Club. Almost every score from major cricket between 1802 and 1822 — and many before — survives only because of him.
May 1802: Bentley opens the new scorebook at Lord's
1802 season: Records every MCC match he attends
1810: Begins also recording Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex fixtures
1822: Closes the ledger after twenty-one full seasons
1823: Publishes A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches
May 1802
Bentley begins continuous scorebook
1822
Closes the ledger after twenty-one seasons
1823
Publishes A Correct Account of All the Cricket Matches
1826
Bentley dies
1862
Haygarth's Scores and Biographies built on Bentley's record
Bentley's published volume sold modestly but became the standard reference. Arthur Haygarth used it as the foundation of Scores and Biographies thirty years later.
The single most important administrative act in Regency cricket — and the foundation of the game's statistical record.
Almost every Regency-era statistic in modern reference works — every score, every wicket, every match result — is traceable through Bentley to his 1802 decision to start keeping records.
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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.