The Smalls
Hambledon, only some ten miles from Petersfield, was the premier club in England between the 1770’s and 1790’s
and quite capable of challenging an all-England team and beating them. Two
Petersfield residents were synonymous with cricket and often played for
Hambledon. These were John Smalls, father and son. They certainly played for
Petersfield as well, as two matches are recorded between a combined
Portsmouth/Hambledon team and a combined Petersfield/East Meon side which
included the two Smalls. The matches, played on Windmill Down on 29th
August and 2nd September 1796 resulted in wins for the
Petersfield/East Meon team and no doubt the Smalls featured to great effect.
John
Small Senior
John Small senior was born at Empshott in Hampshire on April 19th
1737 and when he was about six his family moved to Petersfield. When he was
twelve the family moved to No 22 High Street formerly the Half Moon. Various
verses were written about him, as this one:
‘John
Small make bat and ball
Pitch a wicket, play
at cricket
With any man in England”
His cricketing career was long and he played in a county match when he was 61.
Away from cricket he was originally a shoemaker then a gamekeeper
and draper. He was a talented violinist and for 75 years played in the
Petersfield choir. He excelled at making cricket bats and balls, the latter
being considered as matchless, and he sold the last half dozen he had made at
the age of 80.
He was involved in a controversy in 1775 when batting for V of
Hambledon versus V of kent. In this particular match, “Lumpy” Stevens, one of
the foremost bowlers of the day, three times bowled the ball between the stumps
not dislodging the bail. At that time only two stumps were used which were a8
inches apart. The game created an outcry and as a result a panel of eminent
cricketers was formed to resolve the problem. The panel decreed that a third
stump should be set between the other two so that the ball could not pass
between them without disturbing the wicket. His tombstone, which is in
Petersfield churchyard bears the inscription ‘Sacred to the memory of John Small
who died December 31 1826 aged 89 years’ with an epitaph:
“Praises on tombs are trifles vainly spent; a man’s
good name is his own monument.”
John
Small Junior
John Small junior was born in Petersfield in 1766 and lived there
all his life. While not being quite as accomplished as his father, nevertheless
he was good enough to play for the Hambledon Club when he was nineteen. His
cricketing career did not last as long as his father’s – his last recorded match
being in 1811 when he was 45. John Small junior acquired in 1802 the lease for
Lyndum House from Hylton Joliffe and he lived there until he and his family
moved to the Square. He also made cricket bats and balls as his father did and
outside cricket he was a linen draper and silk mercer. A sign outside his shop
read:
‘The said
John Small
Wishes it to be known
to all
That he doth make
both bat and ball
And will play any man
in England
For Five Pounds a
side’
The inscription on his tombstone in Petersfield churchyard
reads:
Sacred to the memory of
John Small
Who departed this life the 21st January 1836
Aged 70 years