1887 English cricket season

Last updated December 18, 2022

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

^[a]

Surrey

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"

Related Research Articles

Arthur Shrewsbury was an English cricketer and rugby football administrator. He was widely rated as competing with W. G. Grace for the accolade of best batsman of the 1880s; Grace himself, when asked whom he would most like in his side, replied simply, "Give me Arthur". An opening batsman, Shrewsbury played his cricket for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and played 23 Test matches for England, captaining them in 7 games, with a record of won 5, lost 2. He was the last professional to be England captain until Len Hutton was chosen in 1952. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1890. He also organised the first British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888.

Henry Jupp was an English professional cricketer who was the opening batsman for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1862 to 1881. He played in the first-ever Test match, scoring England's first Test fifty.

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1864 was the 78th season of cricket in England. 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.

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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.

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1880 was the 94th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The second tour by a representative Australian team was undertaken and they took part in the (retrospective) first Test match to be played in England. County cricket was dominated by the Nottinghamshire bowlers Alfred Shaw and Fred Morley.

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1886 was the 100th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Poor results caused the temporary relegation of both Hampshire and Somerset from first-class status. England beat Australia three-nil in the Test series.

Two English cricket teams toured Australia in 1887–88. They are generally known as A. Shrewsbury's XI and G. F. Vernon's XI. Shrewsbury's XI also visited New Zealand in March.

References

1 2 3 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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[rigby-1] 1 2 3 Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 54 ISBN 072701868X

[2] First Class Batting in England in 1887

[3] First Class Bowling in England in 1887

[4] Hadley Centre England and Wales Precipitation

[rigby2-5] Wynne-Thomas; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; pp. 17–20

[6] Nottinghamshire v Middlesex in 1887

[7] Webber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 43. Published 1951 by Playfair Books.

[8] Lancashire v Surrey in 1887

[9] Surrey v Cambridge University in 1887

[10] Preston, Norman (editor); Wisden , 108th Edition (1971); p. 278

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