1864 was the 78th season of cricket in England (since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)). It was a significant year in cricket history, as it saw the legalisation of overarm bowling and the first edition of John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanac .
The first-class county teams in 1864 were: Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Notts, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire. The unofficial concept of a "champion county" took a new turn when periodicals began publishing tables of inter-county results, although there was still no formal or agreed method of deciding positions in the table. Haygarth usually refers to 'generally agreed' when announcing the Champion County. [1]
Team | P | W | L | D | Pts [3] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Surrey | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
2 | Cambridgeshire | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Sussex | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
4 | Middlesex | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
5 | Nottinghamshire | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | -1 |
6 | Yorkshire | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | -2 |
7 | Hampshire | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -4 |
8 | Kent | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | -7 |
1864 English season leading batsmen [8] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Team | Matches | Inns | Not outs | Runs | Hig score | 100s | Av | |
George Anderson | Yorkshire | 6 | 11 | 5 | 255 | 99* | 0 | 42.50 | |
Heathfield Stephenson | Surrey & All England Eleven | 15 | 25 | 4 | 824 | 119 | 2 | 39.23 | |
Will Mortlock | Surrey County Cricket Club | 18 | 25 | 0 | 855 | 105 | 1 | 34.20 | |
Tom Hayward Sr. | Cambridgeshire | 8 | 12 | 0 | 355 | 66 | 0 | 29.58 | |
Bob Carpenter | Cambridgeshire | 8 | 11 | 1 | 270 | 52 | 0 | 27.00 |
1864 English season leading bowlers [9] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Team | Balls | Runs | Wickets | Best | 5w inns | 10w match | Av |
George Tarrant | Cambridgeshire | 1610 | 590 | 67 | 7/30 | 8 | 4 | 8.80 |
James Grundy | MCC & Nottinghamshire | 3466 | 1109 | 99 | 9/19 | 10 | 2 | 11.31 |
William Fuller-Maitland | Oxford University | 1117 | 521 | 48 | 8/48 | 4 | 2 | 11.84 |
Edward Walker | Middlesex & Southgate | 1054 | 519 | 42 | 9/63 | 4 | 2 | 12.35 |
Edgar Willsher | Kent & All England Eleven | 3486 | 1065 | 79 | 7/47 | 6 | 0 | 13.48 |
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adjudged to be worthy of the status by virtue of the standard of the competing teams. Matches must allow for the teams to play two innings each, although in practice a team might play only one innings or none at all.
John Wisden was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. He is now best known for launching the eponymous Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1864, the year after he retired from first-class cricket.
William "Silver Billy" Beldham was an English professional cricketer who played for numerous teams between 1782 and 1821. He was born at Wrecclesham, near Farnham in Surrey, and died at Tilford, Surrey. In some sources, his name has been given as "Beldam" or "Beldum". A right-handed batting all-rounder, he is widely recognised as one of the greatest batsmen of cricket's underarm era. Using an underarm action, he bowled pitched deliveries at a fast medium pace. He generally fielded in close catching positions, mostly at slip and sometimes played as wicket-keeper.
Arthur Haygarth was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as well as numerous other invitational and representative teams including an England XI and a pre-county Middlesex. A right-handed bat, Haygarth played 136 games now regarded as first-class, scoring 3,042 runs and taking 19 wickets with his part-time bowling. He was educated at Harrow, which had established a rich tradition as a proving ground for cricketers. He served on many MCC committees and was elected a life member in 1864.
In English cricket, the years 1826–1845 were dominated by the roundarm bowling issue, which was resolved when the style was legalised in 1835, and by the formation of the first modern county clubs between 1839 and 1845.
1888 was the 102nd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). There was a complete contrast to the previous sunlit summer with its record-breaking run-getting: this time the summer was exceptionally cool and wet, resulting in the dominance of bowlers with many records for wicket-taking set.
1865 was the 79th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). W. G. Grace made his debut as a first-class player and the new Lancashire County Cricket Club played its first match.
1866 was the 80th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The highlight was the emergence of W. G. Grace as the game's leading batsman with the highest first-class score since William Ward's innings in 1820. James Southerton emerged as an outstanding bowler and the first known "century before lunch" was scored.
1868 was the 82nd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It featured the first organised group of Australian sportspeople to travel overseas, being an all-Aboriginal cricket team.
1869 was the 83rd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The Cambridgeshire club went into demise, though a team called Cambridgeshire later played in two specially arranged matches, in 1869 against Yorkshire and in 1871 against Surrey. After that, Cambridgeshire ceased to be a first-class team. The problem was attributed to the lack of available amateurs to back up the famous trio of Bob Carpenter, the first Tom Hayward and George Tarrant, along with the absence of useful patronage and the difficulty of obtaining membership which led to a debt deemed unpayable.
1870 was the 84th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It was in many ways a bridge between two eras of the game and, in a summer comparable for hot and dry weather to 1887, 1911, 1976 or 1995, saw W.G. Grace for the second of three successive years establish a record run aggregate, late-blooming slow bowler James Southerton become the first bowler to take 200 first-class wickets in a season and the first use of the heavy roller at Lord's. Although the heavy roller had been patented several decades earlier, its use was never seriously considered by MCC management despite many protests over the danger posed by the Lord's pitch where extremely frequent “shooters” alternated with balls that “flew” over the batsman's head. These dangerous pitches were viewed as a symbol of virility by many amateur batsmen, however; though when remembering one of W.G.’s finest innings – 66 on one of the roughest Lord’s pitches against a very strong Yorkshire attack against Yorkshire – fast bowlers Freeman and Emmett wondered how the champion was not maimed or killed outright.
1871 was the 85th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Derbyshire County Cricket Club became a first-class club and the last matches were played by Cambridgeshire, who in the days of Bob Carpenter, the first Tom Hayward and George Tarrant had been one of the leading cricket counties.
1807 was the 21st season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). John Willes of Kent first tried to revive the idea of "straight-armed" bowling, which had originated with Tom Walker in the 1790s.
Frederick William Lillywhite was an English first-class cricketer during the game's roundarm era. One of the main protagonists in the legalisation of roundarm, he was one of the most successful bowlers of his era. His status is borne out by his nickname: The Nonpareil.
Variations in published cricket statistics have come about because there is no official view of the status of cricket matches played in Great Britain prior to 1895 or in the rest of the world prior to 1947. As a result, historians and statisticians have compiled differing lists of matches that they recognise as (unofficially) first-class. The problem is significant where it touches on some of the sport's first-class records, especially in regards to the playing career of W. G. Grace.
The 1890 County Championship was the first County Championship held as an official competition, following agreement between Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the leading county clubs at a meeting in December 1889. Surrey became the first official county champions after winning nine out of fourteen games.
George Wootton (1834–1924) was an English cricketer.
Henry Maturin was an Irish first-class cricketer and physician.
Through the Napoleonic Wars, county cricket virtually died as cricket was impacted by losses of investment and manpower.
In English cricket, the years 1846–1863 were the main period of the sport's "roundarm era". Although roundarm had been legalised amid great controversy, its timespan was relatively short. By 1863, there was an increasing demand for the legalisation of overarm bowling and this was achieved on 10 June 1864.