1911 English cricket season

Last updated August 28, 2025

1911 was the 22nd season of County Championship cricket in England. Warwickshire were champions for the first time.

Honours

County Championship – Warwickshire
Minor Counties Championship – Staffordshire
Wisden (Five Members of the MCC's Team in Australia) – Frank Foster, J. W. Hearne, Sep Kinneir, Phil Mead, Herbert Strudwick

County Championship

The experimental point scoring system adopted for 1910 on the recommendation of Lancashire was generally regarded as unsatisfactory. Several alternative proposals were put forward by counties such as Yorkshire^[1] Sussex, and Surrey.^[2] Ultimately Somerset in February 1911 put forward a scheme in which, for the first time, points were awarded for a win on the first innings, and this was accepted by the MCC in the final week of that month.^[2]

	County	Played	Won	Lost	First Innings			Points		%
	County	Played	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	No result	Poss	Obtd	%
1	Warwickshire	20	13	4	3	0	0	100	74	74.00
2	Kent	26	17	4	3	2	0	130	96	73.84
3	Middlesex	22	14	5	3	0	0	110	79	71.81
4	Lancashire	30	15	7	5	3	0	150	93	62.00
5	Surrey	30	15	7	4	4	0	150	91	60.66
6	Essex	18	8	5	4	1	0	90	53	58.88
7	Yorkshire	28	14	8	1	4	1	135	77	57.03
8	Nottinghamshire	20	9	5	3	3	0	100	57	57.00
9	Worcestershire	24	12	11	0	1	0	120	61	50.83
10	Northamptonshire	18	8	9	0	0	1	85	40	47.05
11	Hampshire	24	7	10	4	3	0	120	50	41.66
12	Gloucestershire	20	5	12	0	3	0	100	38	38.00
13	Sussex	24	4	16	2	2	0	120	28	23.33
14	Derbyshire	18	2	13	0	3	0	90	13	14.44
15	Leicestershire	22	1	16	2	3	0	110	14	12.72
16	Somerset	16	1	13	0	2	0	80	7	8.75
Details as recorded in John Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack ^[3]

Five points were awarded for a win.
Three points were awarded for "winning" the first innings of a drawn match.
One point was awarded for "losing" the first innings of a drawn match.
Matches in which no result was achieved on the first innings were not included in calculating maximum possible points.
Final placings were decided by calculating the percentage of possible points.

Minor Counties Championship

For this season, the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Second Elevens withdrew from the competition due to their counties' financial difficulties;^[4] however, Kent Second Eleven joined the South and West division and Hertfordshire moved to the North and East.^[5]

North and East

	County	Played	Won	First Innings			Points^[6]		%
	County	Played	Won	Won	Lost	No Result	Possible	Obtained	%
1	Staffordshire	8	7	0	0	0	40	35	87.50
2	Durham	10	7	0	1	0	50	36	72.00
3	Bedfordshire	8	3	3	0	0	40	24	60.00
4	Hertfordshire	10	5	0	2	0	50	27	54.00
5	Cambridgeshire	10	3	2	3	0	50	24	48.00
6	Northumberland	8	3	1	0	0	40	18	45.00
7	Suffolk	8	2	2	0	0	40	16	40.00
8	Lincolnshire	10	3	1	0	0	50	16	36.00
9	Norfolk	12	2	1	3	0	60	16	26.66
10	Cheshire	8	1	0	1	0	40	6	15.00

South and West

	County	Played	Won	First Innings			Points^[6]		%
	County	Played	Won	Won	Lost	No Result	Possible	Obtained	%
1	Berkshire	10	9	0	0	1	45	45	100.00
2	Surrey Second Eleven	8	6	1	0	0	40	33	82.50
3	Kent Second Eleven	10	8	0	0	0	50	40	80.00
4	Glamorgan	10	7	1	0	0	50	38	76.00
5	Monmouthshire	8	4	1	1	0	40	24	60.00
6	Dorset	8	1	3	1	0	40	15	37.50
7	Buckinghamshire	10	2	1	2	0	50	15	30.00
8	Devon	10	2	0	3	0	50	13	26.00
9	Cornwall	8	2	0	0	0	40	10	25.00
10	Wiltshire	10	0	1	1	0	50	4	8.00
11	Carmarthenshire	8	0	0	0	1	35	0	0.00

South and West Challenge Match

Because Berkshire had not played Surrey Second Eleven, the new rules required a challenge match.^[6]

23 August 1911
^[7]

Berkshire	v	Surrey Second Eleven
87		80
210		219/5 Harrison 68, G.W. Palmer 64

Surrey Second Eleven won by five wickets
Reading

Berkshire won the toss and decided to bat

Final

30 August 1911
^[8]

Staffordshire	v	Surrey Second Eleven
289 Nichols 61, B. Meakin 50, Hollywood 45 Abel 4/99		83 Barnes 4/31, Nicholls 3/31
255 B. Meakin 133 Abel 5/65		127 Spring 34 Barnes 6/43

Staffordshire won by 334 runs
County Ground, Stoke-on-Trent

Staffordshire won the toss and decided to bat.
Staffordshire did not enforce the follow-on

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

1911 English season leading batsmen^[9]
Name	Team	Matches	Innings	Not outs	Runs	Highest score	Average	100s
C. B. Fry	Hampshire	15	26	2	1728	258 not out	72.00	7
Phil Mead	Hampshire	29	52	5	2562	223	54.51	9
Reggie Spooner	Lancashire	26	45	0	2312	224	51.37	7
Percy Perrin	Essex	15	27	2	1281	114	51.24	6
Septimus Kinneir	Warwickshire	20	36	3	1629	268 not out	49.36	6
Tom Hayward	Surrey	30	51	6	2149	202	47.75	5
Plum Warner	Middlesex MCC	31	51	5	2123	244	46.15	5
Frank Tarrant	Middlesex MCC	29	48	4	2030	207 not out	46.13	5
Joe Hardstaff senior	Nottinghamshire	21	40	6	1547	145	45.50	5
Cecil Wood	Leicestershire	23	44	7	1614	117 not out	43.62	5

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

1911 English season leading bowlers^[9]
Name	Team	Matches	Balls bowled	Runs conceded	Wickets taken	Average	Best bowling	5 wickets in innings	10 wickets in match
Punter Humphreys	Kent	29	1073	534	33	16.18	5/29	1	0
George Thompson	Northamptonshire	22	4415	1889	113	16.71	7/44	13	4
William East	Northamptonshire	17	2647	988	59	16.74	7/11	4	1
Arthur Day	Kent	12	1259	583	34	17.14	8/49	2	0
Schofield Haigh	Yorkshire	31	4047	1684	97	17.36	7/20	2	0
Harry Dean	Lancashire	28	7781	3191	183	17.43	9/109	15	3
J.T. Hearne	Middlesex MCC	24	6246	2134	122	17.49	7/33	7	0
Arthur Litteljohn	Middlesex	7	2011	904	51	17.72	8/69	5	2
Douglas Carr	Kent	9	1818	985	55	17.90	8/67	4	2
John Evans	Oxford University Hampshire	9	1308	575	32	17.96	7/50	2	1

References

↑ "County Cricket – Yorkshire Club's Suggested Scheme of Counting". Weekly Examiner. Huddersfield, Yorkshire. 8 October 1910. p. 7.
1 2 "Cricket Reform: Somerset's Proposal Carried – Five Points for a Win Outright". The Guardian . Manchester. 25 February 1911. p. 13.
↑ Pardon, Sydney H., ed. (1912). "Part II: The Leading Counties in 1911". John Wisden's Cricketer's Almanack (49th ed.). London: John Wisden & Co. p. 1.
↑ "The Cricket Season: Attempts To Awaken Interest – Prospect of the Counties". Western Daily Press . Bristol. 13 April 1911. p. 7.
↑ "Minor Counties' Association". Evening Despatch. Birmingham. 7 December 1910. p. 8.
1 2 3 Pardon, ed. (1912). "Second-Class Counties". John Wisden's Cricketer's Almanack (49th ed.). p. 386.
↑ "Minor Counties' Championship". Daily Mirror . London. 25 August 1911. p. 14.
↑ Pardon, ed. (1912). "Second-Class Counties". John Wisden's Cricketer's Almanack (49th ed.). p. 387.
1 2 Wynne-Thomas, Peter (1983). The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records. Australia: Rigby Publishers. p. 24. ISBN 072701868X.

Annual reviews

John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack, 1912

External links

CricketArchive – season summaries

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[1] "County Cricket – Yorkshire Club's Suggested Scheme of Counting". Weekly Examiner. Huddersfield, Yorkshire. 8 October 1910. p. 7.

[Reform-2] 1 2 "Cricket Reform: Somerset's Proposal Carried – Five Points for a Win Outright". The Guardian . Manchester. 25 February 1911. p. 13.

[3] Pardon, Sydney H., ed. (1912). "Part II: The Leading Counties in 1911". John Wisden's Cricketer's Almanack (49th ed.). London: John Wisden & Co. p. 1.

[4] "The Cricket Season: Attempts To Awaken Interest – Prospect of the Counties". Western Daily Press . Bristol. 13 April 1911. p. 7.

[5] "Minor Counties' Association". Evening Despatch. Birmingham. 7 December 1910. p. 8.

[Second386-6] 1 2 3 Pardon, ed. (1912). "Second-Class Counties". John Wisden's Cricketer's Almanack (49th ed.). p. 386.

[7] "Minor Counties' Championship". Daily Mirror . London. 25 August 1911. p. 14.

[8] Pardon, ed. (1912). "Second-Class Counties". John Wisden's Cricketer's Almanack (49th ed.). p. 387.

[Rigby-9] 1 2 Wynne-Thomas, Peter (1983). The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records. Australia: Rigby Publishers. p. 24. ISBN 072701868X.

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