Thomas Pattenden
Encyclopedia
Thomas Pattenden was a noted English cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er who played for 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...

 in the 1760s and 1770s. He was the elder brother of William Pattenden
William Pattenden
William Pattenden was an English professional cricketer who played for Kent. He made 7 known appearances in first-class matches. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pattenden.He played alongside his brother in a number of Kent teams from 1777 to 1781...

.

Thomas was probably the Pattenden playing for the Duke of Dorset’s XI against Wrotham in 1769 when John Minshull
John Minshull
John Minshull aka Minchin was a famous English cricketer during the 1770s...

 scored the earliest-known century in cricket history, albeit in a minor match.

"Probably" is because there are often doubts about the name "Pattenden" in the old sources. Thomas played with his brother in a number of Kent teams from 1777 to 1781. William may have played for Kent v 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:...

 in 1773 for in one account the Pattenden was William and in another it was Thomas. This is a good example of the confusion caused when initials or first names are left out of the scorecards. The same applies to various Woods, Mays, Rimmingtons, Whites, etc.

Thomas Pattenden was clearly the better player of the two brothers. His highest score was 72 for Kent v Hampshire
Hampshire county cricket teams
Hampshire county cricket teams have been traced back to the 18th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that...

 in 1775, when he so upset the odds that "more money was won and lost than ever known" . He made a number of other good scores including 52 against the bowling of Lumpy and David Harris
David Harris (Hambledon cricketer)
David Harris was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1782 to 1798....

 in 1783.

He is believed to have been an innkeeper in his native village of East Peckham, perhaps at the Rose & Crown adjoining the cricket ground .

External sources


Further reading

  • Ashley Mote
    Ashley Mote
    Ashley Mote was a non-inscrit Member of the European Parliament for South East England. An outspoken critic of fraud in the European Institutions, he himself was convicted of benefit fraud in 2007 for which he served a nine-month prison sentence and was described by the trial judge as "a truly...

    , The Glory Days of Cricket, Robson, 1997
  • 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
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