Stephen Amherst or Amhurst (1750 – 6 May 1814), was an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and organiser of cricket matches. Amherst was born in 1750.Stephen Amherst

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2022-04-08. He is most associated with organising matches involving Kent teams towards the end of the 18th century. Ranjitsinhji KS ed. (1897) ''The Jubilee Book of Cricket'', p. 394. London: William Blackwood and Sons.
Available online
at Wikisource. Retrieved 2022-04-09. Pycroft J The Hambledon Club and the Old Players, in Lucas EV ed (1907) ''The Hambledon Men'', p. 136, p. 142. London: Henry Frowde.
Available online
at Wikisource. Retrieved 2022-03-20.) Amherst employed cricketers such as

Thomas Boxall Thomas Boxall (dates unknown) was a noted English cricketer who played during the late 18th century. He is considered to have been "one of the finest professional cricketers" of his day. Boxall was a noted bowler and is believed to be the firs ...

, a noted bowler who is believed to have been the first player to bowl

legbreak Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called a leg spinner. Leg spinners bowl with their right-arm and a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery is called a leg break, which spins from ...

s, Rajan A (2011) ''Twirlymen: The Unlikely History of Cricket's Greatest Spin Bowlers'', p. 24. London: Yellow Jersey Press. and John Crawte, who he persuaded to move from the

Hambledon Club The Hambledon Club was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England. Foundation The origin of the club, based near Hambledon in rural Hampshire, ...

in Hampshire. Arlott LTJ (1978
Alresford's Famous Cricketers
Alresford Historical and Literary Society. Retrieved 2022-03-21. Both men played for Kent sides whilst employed by Amherst who built an indoor training centre in a converted barn for Boxall to use. As well as organising matches, Amherst played in 31 first-class matches between 1783 and 1795.Stephen Amherst
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-04-10. He played most frequently for Kent sides, making 18 appearances for teams using the name Kent as well as three for

West Kent Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation. Prehistoric Kent Recent excavations and radiometric dating at a Lower Palaeolithic site at the West Gravel Pit, Fordwich, near Canterbury confirmed the ...

and one for both East Kent and for the

Gentlemen of Kent Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent. ...

. He is known to have played non-first-class matches until at least 1800, including for the Gentlemen of Kent and the Rochester, Kent, Rochester club. Amherst died at West Farleigh near Maidstone in Kent in 1814. Arthur Haygarth quoted from a tablet in the parish church at West Farleigh to confirm his view that the spelling of Amherst's name was correct, rather than Amhurst which is used in a number of other sources.West Kent vs East Kent, Jun 25–26 1783
– scorecard,

. Retrieved 2022-03-21. A Stephen Amhurst is recorded as the owner of Court Lodge in the village in 1798, a house his family had lived in since the 17th century,East Farleigh: a brief history
p. 19, p. 27. East Farleigh Parish Council (2016). and it is possible that both spellings of the name were used by the same family.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amherst, Stephen English cricketers Kent cricketers English cricketers of 1701 to 1786 English cricketers of 1787 to 1825 1750 births 1814 deaths Middlesex cricketers English amateur cricketers Non-international England cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Gentlemen of Kent cricketers Cricket patrons Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers West Kent cricketers East Kent cricketers Place of birth missing