In the 1738 English cricket season, there were a reduced number of match reports. London

London Cricket Club

The original London Cricket Club was formed by 1722 and was one of the foremost clubs in English cricket over the next four decades. It is closely associated with the Artillery Ground, where it played most of its home matches.-Early history of London cricket:...

 featured in all the games reported. Chislehurst became a prominent club.

An advertisement in the Sherborne Mercury dated Tuesday 9 May 1738 is the earliest reference for cricket in Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

. Twelve Dorchester men at Ridgway Races challenged twelve men from elsewhere to play them at cricket for the prize of twelve pairs of gloves valued at a shilling a pair.

Matches

Date	Match Title	Venue	Result
July	London London Cricket Club The original London Cricket Club was formed by 1722 and was one of the foremost clubs in English cricket over the next four decades. It is closely associated with the Artillery Ground, where it played most of its home matches.-Early history of London cricket:...  & Surrey Surrey county cricket teams Surrey county cricket teams have been traced back to the 17th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. The first definite mention of cricket anywhere in the world is dated c.1550 in Guildford.-17th century:...  v Kent Kent county cricket teams Kent county cricket teams have been traced back to the 17th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. Kent, jointly with Sussex, is the birthplace of the sport...	Kennington Common	Kent won
A return match was played, but where or with what result was not recorded.
July	Chislehurst v London	Chislehurst Common	London won
A game that “turned several times” until finally being won by London. The rematch was arranged a week hence.
July	London v Chislehurst	Artillery Ground Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is one of London's most centrally located cricket grounds, situated just off the City Road immediately north of the City of London...	Chislehurst won by 5 wkts
London scored less than 100 in their combined innings. Chislehurst had scored 73 in the first innings and won "without much difficulty".
11 August (F)	London v Mitcham Mitcham Cricket Club ]Mitcham Cricket Club is reported by The Independent to be the oldest cricket club in existence, with the club having been playing cricket on Mitcham Cricket Green since 1685. Mitcham club were also reportedly watched by Lord Nelson during his time in the area...	Artillery Ground Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is one of London's most centrally located cricket grounds, situated just off the City Road immediately north of the City of London...	London won by 1 wkt
Mitcham totalled 117-20 in two innings; London 118-19 in two innings. Strangely, the only report of this was in the Warwickshire & Staffordshire Journal dated Thursday 17 August.
September	London v Chislehurst	Artillery Ground Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is one of London's most centrally located cricket grounds, situated just off the City Road immediately north of the City of London...	London won
Betting on London at the start of the second innings was a guinea to a shilling.

External sources

• CricketArchive match lists
• From Lads to Lord's; The History of Cricket: 1300 – 1787

Further reading

• H S Altham
  Harry Altham
  Harry Surtees Altham, CBE, DSO, MC was an English cricketer who became an important figure in the game as an administrator, historian and coach. His Wisden obituary described him as "among the best known personalities in the world of cricket"...
  
  , A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
• Derek Birley
  Derek Birley
  Sir Derek Birley was an English educator and writer who had a strong interest in sport, especially cricket.He was educated at grammar school in Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, and at Queens' College, Cambridge University....
  
  , A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
• Rowland Bowen
  Rowland Bowen
  Major Rowland Francis Bowen was a cricket researcher, historian and writer....
  
  , Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
• David Underdown
  David Underdown
  David E. Underdown was a historian of 17th-century English politics and culture and Professor Emeritus at Yale University. Born at Wells, Somerset, Underdown was educated at the Blue School and Exeter College, Oxford...
  
  , Start of Play, Allen Lane, 2000