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William Bedle (4 March 1680 – 3 June 1768) 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 striki ...
er who played for
Dartford Cricket Club and
Kent county cricket teams in the first quarter of the 18th century. With the possible exception of
Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, Bedle is the earliest known accomplished player,
[ Bowen, Rowland (1965]
Cricket in the 17th and 18th centuries
'' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1965. Retrieved 22 April 2023. certainly the earliest who is renowned solely for his expertise as a player. He was born in
Bromley but lived most of his life near
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and
is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...
, where he was a wealthy farmer and grazier.
Cricket career
Bedle is the first known cricketer "who achieved great prominence in the game".
His obituary in ''
Lloyd's Evening Post
''Lloyd's Evening Post'', also known as ''The London Packet'' and ''Lloyd's Evening Post and British Chronicle'', was a British evening newspaper published tri-weekly in London from 1757 to 1808. Founded shortly after the ''London Chronicle'' and ...
'' dated 10 June 1768 said that he was "formerly accounted the most expert cricket player in England".
wrote that Bedle was "the first in a long line that must include
Fuller Pilch,
W. G. Grace,
Jack Hobbs and
Wally Hammond".
[Bowen 1970, p. 48.]
Bedle played in the first quarter of the 18th century.
He was a member of
Dartford Cricket Club, which was "the greatest Kent team of the first half of the eighteenth century" and which was sometimes considered representative of
Kent as a county.
[Underdown, p. 43.] Few details of cricket matches from the early 18th centuries have survived, and so what is known about Bedle's career has been pieced together by historical analysis; contemporary newspaper reports rarely mentioned a player by name, with the emphasis often on betting rather than on matches.
[Birley, p. 14]
Personal life
Bedle lived near Dartford for most of his life, where he was a farmer and grazier.
His name, also spelled Beddel, is recorded on a tablet in
Dartford parish church listing the bellringers of 1749.
He died at his home near Dartford on 3 June 1768, aged 88.
[Buckley, p. 48.]
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedle, William
1680 births
1768 deaths
English cricketers
Kent cricketers
English cricketers of 1701 to 1786