1887 English cricket season explained

Previous Year:1886
Previous Tournament:1886 English cricket season
Next Year:1888
Next Tournament:1888 English cricket season

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
6 0 6 0 0.0
14 1 9 4 3.0
14 1 8 5 3.5
14 10 3 1 10.5
10 4 2 4 6.0
14 8 3 3 9.5
16 12 2 2 13.0
12 2 8 2 3.0
16 6 3 7 9.5
[1]

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

1887 English season leading batsmen[2]
NameTeamMatchesInningsNot outsRunsHighest scoreAverage100s50s
Nottinghamshire17 23 6 1653 267 78.71 8 5
Gloucestershire
MCC
24 46 8 2062 183 not out 54.26 6 8
Middlesex
MCC
18 31 5 1244 243 not out 47.84 3 3
Surrey23 36 2 1615 247 47.50 5 5
Oxford University
Surrey
24 44 5 1684 281 43.17 2 10

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

1887 English season leading bowlers[3]
NameTeamBalls bowledRuns concededWickets takenAverageBest bowling5 wickets
in innings
10 wickets
in match
2322 613 45 13.62 6/58 3 0
5361 1238 89 13.91 6/24 6 1
6130 1482 100 14.82 7/20 9 3
2152 675 45 15.00 7/47 3 1
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:

  1. Five batsmen with twenty or more innings averaged over 40. Before 1887, no more than two had ever done so in one season.[5]
  2. W.G. Grace for the third time reached 2,000 runs; an aggregate not reached by any other batsman until 1893.
  3. 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.
  4. Shrewsbury's innings of 267 against Middlesex, at 615 minutes,[6] remains the longest innings ever played in a county match.
  5. 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]

Notes

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.
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"

Annual reviews

External links

Notes and References

  1. Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 54
  2. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1887_f_Batting_by_Average.html First Class Batting in England in 1887
  3. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1887_f_Bowling_by_Average.html First Class Bowling in England in 1887
  4. http://climexp.knmi.nl//plotseries.cgi?id=someone@somewhere&TYPE=p&WMO=HadEWP_monthly_qc&STATION=England-Wales&NAME=precipitation&KIND=season Hadley Centre England and Wales Precipitation
  5. Wynne-Thomas; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; pp. 17–20
  6. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/3/3257.html Nottinghamshire v Middlesex in 1887
  7. Webber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 43. Published 1951 by Playfair Books.
  8. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/3/3210.html Lancashire v Surrey in 1887
  9. http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/3/3215.html Surrey v Cambridge University in 1887
  10. Preston, Norman (editor); Wisden, 108th Edition (1971); p. 278