William Sawyer (cricketer)

William Sawyer (born 3 December 1712 at Richmond, Surrey; died 2 April 1761 at Richmond) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket during the 1730s and 1740s. He was mainly associated with Richmond Cricket Club and Surrey. Although information about his career is limited by a lack of surviving data, he is known to have made 2 single wicket and 4 first-class appearances between 1736 and 1747. He spent his whole life in Richmond and was an innkeeper there.

In June 1736, there was a major single wicket match on Kennington Common and the report names Wakeland and George Oldner of London Cricket Club playing together against two "famous" Richmond players who are "esteemed the best two in England". Unfortunately the esteemed pair are not named, though one of them suffered serious facial injuries in this game when the ball came off his bat and hit his nose. The report rails against "human brutes" who insisted he should play on despite his injuries, the money they had staked being of much greater importance to them. It is believed that one of the Richmond players was William Sawyer, who was certainly active in the 1730s and who, in 1743, was acclaimed by name as "one of the best six players in England".

Sawyer is first definitely mentioned in a contemporary report of a celebrated single wicket "threes" game played at the Artillery Ground on Monday, 11 July 1743. The Daily Advertiser declared that the six players involved were the "best in England". They were William Hodsoll (Dartford), Val Romney (Sevenoaks) and John Cutbush (Maidstone) (replacing Ridgeway of Sussex) who played as Three of Kent; and Richard Newland (Slindon), John Bryant (Bromley) and Sawyer, who played as Three of All-England. Kent won by 2 runs. The London Evening Post says the crowd was computed (sic) to be 10,000. A return match was arranged at Sevenoaks Vine on Wed 27 July but it did not come off.