1887 English cricket season
← 1886 1888 → |
1887 was the 101st season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Surrey was the leading county for the first time in over twenty years,[1] a status they would retain until 1892.
Champion County
Playing record (by county)
County | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | Points[b] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Derbyshire | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0.0 |
Gloucestershire | 14 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 3.0 |
Kent | 14 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 3.5 |
Lancashire | 14 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 10.5 |
Middlesex | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 6.0 |
Nottinghamshire | 14 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 9.5 |
Surrey | 16 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 13.0 |
Sussex | 12 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 3.0 |
Yorkshire | 16 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 9.5 |
[1]
Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)
1887 English season leading batsmen[2] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Team | Matches | Innings | Not outs | Runs | Highest score | Average | 100s | 50s |
Arthur Shrewsbury | Nottinghamshire | 17 | 23 | 6 | 1653 | 267 | 78.71 | 8 | 5 |
WG Grace | Gloucestershire MCC | 24 | 46 | 8 | 2062 | 183 not out | 54.26 | 6 | 8 |
Alexander Webbe | Middlesex MCC | 18 | 31 | 5 | 1244 | 243 not out | 47.84 | 3 | 3 |
Walter Read | Surrey | 23 | 36 | 2 | 1615 | 247 | 47.50 | 5 | 5 |
Kingsmill Key | Oxford University Surrey | 24 | 44 | 5 | 1684 | 281 | 43.17 | 2 | 10 |
Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)
1887 English season leading bowlers[3] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Team | Balls bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Average | Best bowling | 5 wickets in innings | 10 wickets in match |
Henry Richardson | Nottinghamshire | 2322 | 613 | 45 | 13.62 | 6/58 | 3 | 0 |
William Attewell | Nottinghamshire | 5361 | 1238 | 89 | 13.91 | 6/24 | 6 | 1 |
Alec Watson | Lancashire | 6130 | 1482 | 100 | 14.82 | 7/20 | 9 | 3 |
John Rawlin | MCC | 2152 | 675 | 45 | 15.00 | 7/47 | 3 | 1 |
George Lohmann | Surrey | 6526 | 2404 | 154 | 15.61 | 8/36 | 16 | 6 |
Notable events
The driest English cricket season since 1870,[4] combined with improvements to pitches from the heavy roller, allowed for a large number of notable batting feats:
- Five batsmen with twenty or more innings averaged over 40. Before 1887, no more than two had ever done so in one season.[5]
- W.G. Grace for the third time reached 2,000 runs; an aggregate not reached by any other batsman until 1893.
- Arthur Shrewsbury averaged 78.71 for twenty-three innings, beating W.G. Grace's 1871 record of 78.25. This was not beaten until Robert Poore averaged 91.23 in 1899.
- Shrewsbury's innings of 267 against Middlesex, at 615 minutes,[6] remains the longest innings ever played in a county match.
- Walter Read became the first batsman to play two consecutive innings of over 200,[7] scoring 247 against Lancashire[8] and 244 against Cambridge University[9]
- For the last time until 1970,[10] no bowler took nine wickets in an innings, with the best analysis being eight for 26 by Dick Barlow.
- As a result of some extremely bad results (only three wins and twenty-nine losses from thirty-five games) and financial trouble, Derbyshire were demoted from first-class status at the end of the season, not to return until 1895.
- An unofficial points system of one point for a win and half a point for a draw[1] was devised by the "Cricket Reporting Agency" as a replacement for the former method of fewest matches lost to decide the "Champion County". Along with a more rigid schedule, it became the ancestor of the official County Championship from 1890 onwards.
Notes
a An unofficial seasonal title sometimes proclaimed by consensus of media and historians prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship was constituted. Although there are ante-dated claims prior to 1873, when residence qualifications were introduced, it is only since that ruling that any quasi-official status can be ascribed.
b The 1887 season saw an unofficial point system of 1 point for a win and 0.5 points for a draw devised by the "Cricket Reporting Agency"
References
- ^ a b c Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 54 ISBN 072701868X
- ^ First Class Batting in England in 1887
- ^ First Class Bowling in England in 1887
- ^ Hadley Centre England and Wales Precipitation
- ^ Wynne-Thomas; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; pp. 17–20
- ^ Nottinghamshire v Middlesex in 1887
- ^ Webber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 43. Published 1951 by Playfair Books.
- ^ Lancashire v Surrey in 1887
- ^ Surrey v Cambridge University in 1887
- ^ Preston, Norman (editor); Wisden, 108th Edition (1971); p. 278
Annual reviews
- James Lillywhite’s Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1888
- John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack 1888
External links
- CricketArchive – season summaries
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