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James Bray Baker (1792 – 30 January 1839) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1816 to 1828. He was born at Hailsham in Sussex and was mainly associated with Sussex cricket teams.

Baker played in 15 first-class matches, making his first-class debut for a Sussex side against Epsom at Lord's in 1816. He played seven matches for Sussex sides, making his final first-class appearance for the side in 1828 against an England XI. He played four matches for The Bs against England XIs, and four for Kent sides, all as a given man against Sussex in 1825 and 1826 in matches organised by the Hawkhurst club, the first matches played between two county sides since the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Baker was a member of the Hawkhurst side; the village is in Kent, and the cricket team was considered one of the best sides in England at the time. He scored a total of 219 runs in 27 innings with a batting average of 8.42 runs per innings.

Baker was a member of the Sussex team in two of the three roundarm trial matches against England teams in 1827 played to decide whether roundarm bowling should be legalised. He was described as a "capital but not very safe hitter and a safe field" and was originally a farmer before becoming a publican in Hailsham later in life. He died in the village in January 1839.

Notes

1. Baker played six of his 15 first-class matches against England sides. During the time he played, England sides were not representative of the country. Instead, they were sides composed of players from a range of locations brought together to play against another side.
2. A given man was a player who would not usually play for a side and was generally not qualified by either birth or residence to do so. They were either recruited to play for it or "given" by the opposition, to produce a more balanced contest and, in some cases, to attract a bigger crowd. In Baker's case, his links to the Hawkhurst side are the reason he played for the Kent XI in the four matches in question.
3. Although roundarm bowling had been used sporadically since the 18th century, it remained against the Laws of Cricket at the time Baker played. The MCC amended the Laws to allow bowlers to raise their arm to the elbow in 1828 and to the height of the shoulder in 1835 as the style gained widespread use.

References

1. ^ James Baker, CricInfo. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
2. ^ James Baker, CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 July 2009. (subscription required)
3. Birley, p. 364.
4. Moore, p. 21.
5. Carlaw, p. 325.
6. Milton, p. 22.
7. ACS, p. 10.
8. ^ Carlaw, p. 37–38.
9. Carlaw, pp. 315–317.
10. Dates in Cricket History, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1978. Retrieved via CricInfo, 17 June 2022.
11. Quoted in Carlaw, p. 38.

Bibliography

• Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) (1985) A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles, 1709–1863 (second edition). Nottingham: ACS. (Available online. Retrieved 2022-04-04.)
• Birley D (1999) A Social History of English Cricket. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978 1 78131 1769
• Carlaw D (2020) Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914 (revised edition), pp. 37–38. (Available online at the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 2020-12-21.)
• Milton H (1992) Cricket Grounds of Kent. Nottingham: The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. (Available online. Retrieved 2022-04-04.)
• Moore D (1988) The History of Kent County Cricket Club. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7470-2209-7

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