Richard Simmons (1737 – 1802) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er who played during the 1770s. He is one of the earliest well-known

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. ...

s. Simmons was born and died at

Bridge, Kent Bridge is a village and civil parish near Canterbury in Kent, South East England. Bridge village is in the Nailbourne valley in a rural setting on the old Roman road, Watling Street, formerly the main road between London and Dover. The village i ...

―he was christened in the village in October 1737 and buried there in November 1802.Richard Simmons
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-12-21. The earliest definite reference to him is in 1772, when he was 34. He is known to have played in 13 eleven-a-side matches from 1772 to 1779 which have since been given

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

status. Between 1773 and 1775 he played six times for Kent sides before playing twice for Surrey sides between 1778 and 1779. He also appeared for England teams in four matches.

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* * Birley, Derek (1999) ''A Social History of English Cricket''. London: Aurum Press. * 1737 births 1802 deaths Chertsey cricketers English cricketers of 1701 to 1786 English cricketers Kent cricketers Non-international England cricketers People from Bridge, Kent Surrey cricketers Wicket-keepers {{England-cricket-bio-1730s-stub