<P> The 1744 cricket season was the 147th in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 (i.e., Old Style--1598 New Style). Details have survived of 22 important eleven - a-side and three single wicket matches . It was a pivotal season in English cricket history because the earliest known codification of the Laws of Cricket was written by a group calling themselves the "Noblemen and Gentlemen" of the London Cricket Club . </P> <P> The season is also notable for the two earliest known surviving match scorecards, although they are nothing like as comprehensive as modern ones . The first, containing individual scores but no details of dismissal, has survived from the London v Slindon game on Saturday, 2 June . Just over a fortnight later, Monday, 18 June, the most famous match of the 1740s was the challenge by Kent to take on a team representing the rest of England at the Artillery Ground . Kent won a dramatic contest by a single wicket despite needing several runs to win when their last pair of batsmen came together . The scorecard became the first entry in Arthur Haygarth's Scores & Biographies, though he had the date wrong . It is not until the 1772 season that any more scorecards of important matches have survived (a handful of cards from minor matches have been found). </P>

When were the first laws of cricket written