1878 English cricket season

Cricket season review March 2015 August 2020 1877 1877 English cricket season 1879 1879 English cricket season The 1878 English cricket season was the 15th since the legalisation of overarm bowling. The first official tour by an Australian team was undertaken, although it played no Test matches. A match at Old Trafford inspired a famous poem.note status Some eleven-a-side matches played from 1772 to 1863 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources.https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1772_f_Match_List.html First-Class matches in England in 1772 CricketArchive 29 November 2025 subscription However, the term only came into common use around 1864, when overarm bowling was legalised. It was formally defined as a standard by a meeting at Lord's, in May 1894, of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the county clubs which were then competing in the County Championship. The ruling was effective from the beginning of the 1895 season, but pre-1895 matches of the same standard have no official definition of status because the ruling is not retrospective.Wisden Preston Hubert Hubert Preston Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 85th Sporting Handbooks Ltd London 1948 813 851705816 Matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status.ACS 1982 4–5 Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as top-class or, at least, historically significant.ACS 1981 1–40 For further information, see First-class cricket. Champion County unofficial a a UndecidedWynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 53 072701868Xundecided b b Playing record (by county) County Played Won Lost Drawn Derbyshire 10 3 6 1 Gloucestershire 10 4 2 4Hampshire 4 0 3 1 Kent 12 6 4 2 Lancashire 10 5 3 2 Middlesex 6 3 0 3 Nottinghamshire 14 7 3 4 Surrey 12 3 6 3 Sussex 8 1 7 0 Yorkshire 14 7 5 2 Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings) 1878 English season leading batsmenFirst Class Batting in England in 1878 Name Team Matches Innings Not outs Runs Highest score Average 100s 50sJohn Selby Nottinghamshire 21 31 1 938 107 31.26 1 8Edward Lyttelton Cambridge UniversityMiddlesexMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 16 26 0 779 113 29.96 1 3WG Grace GloucestershireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 24 42 2 1151 116 28.77 1 5Frank Penn KentMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 12 20 1 534 160 28.10 1 3George Ulyett Yorkshire 28 51 4 1270 109 27.02 1 9 Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls) 1878 English season leading bowlersFirst Class Bowling in England in 1878 Name Team Balls bowled Runs conceded Wickets taken Average Best bowling 5 wicketsin innings 10 wicketsin matchArnold Rylott Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 1944 451 53 8.50 8/15 6 3Allan Steel Cambridge UniversityLancashire 4493 1547 164 9.43 9/63 19 9Harry Boyle Australians 1443 483 51 9.47 7/48 4 0Tom Garrett Australians 1042 318 32 9.93 7/38 2 1William Mycroft DerbyshireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 4185 1196 116 10.31 8/36 11 5 Notable events Australian cricket team in England in 1878 Australia made the inaugural first-class tour of England by an overseas team. 25 – 27 July: Lancashire versus Gloucestershire at Old Trafford. This was the first time Gloucestershire visited Old Trafford and it caused ground records to be established. The match was drawn after rain interruptions. It has a special place because it ultimately formed the nostalgic inspiration for the famous poem At Lord's by Francis Thompson. In the second innings, the famed "run-stealers" A. N. Hornby and Dick Barlow shared an opening stand of 108, with Hornby going on to score 100. He also became involved in a ferocious argument with WG when a contentious "run-out" was claimed after the batsmen had stopped running because the ball had crossed the boundary. The run-out was finally overruled after WG even went so far as to ask the (Lancashire home) crowd if it had been a four after all. He knew all along that a four had been scored. 4 July: Allan Steel becomes the first bowlerWebber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 177. Published 1951 by Playfair Books. to take 100 wicketsGentlemen v Players at the Oval in 1878 in his first full season of first-class cricket. He played one match in 1877. 31 July: Official formation of Northants County Cricket Club at a meeting in the George Hotel, Kettering. Alfred Shaw and Fred Morley bowl unchanged through five matches during the season. No other pair has ever managed more than three.Frindall, Bill (editor); The Wisden Book of Cricket Records (Fourth edition); pp. 285–289. 0747222037 Shaw becomes the second bowler after James Southerton in 1870 to top 200 wickets in a season. Labels unofficial a aAn 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. undecided b bMiddlesex, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire were all seen as having some claims to the "Championship", but the general consensus was that none of these teams could claim superiority Notes note References Bibliography ACS Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863 1981 ACS Nottingham https://archive.acscricket.com/online_library/match_guides/bi_imp_match_guide/index.html 85045528 ACS 1982 A Guide to First-class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles ACS Nottingham https://archive.acscricket.com/online_library/match_guides/bi_match_guide/index.html 10586869 Warner Pelham Pelham Warner Lords: 1787–1945 1946 Harrap London 877106024 Annual reviews John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1879 James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1879 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1879 Further reading Altham H. S. Harry Altham E. W. Swanton E. W. Swanton A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914) 5th 1962 George Allen & Unwin London 894274808 Birley Derek Derek Birley A Social History of English Cricket 1999 Aurum Press London 978-18-54107-10-7 https://archive.org/details/socialhistoryofe0000birl_d1n5 Internet Archive Bowen Rowland Rowland Bowen Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development 1970 Eyre & Spottiswoode London 978-04-13278-60-9 Major John John Major More Than A Game 2007 HarperCollins London 978-00-07183-64-7 https://archive.org/details/morethangamestor0000majo_b8t0 Internet Archive Category:1878 in English cricket Category:English cricket seasons in the 19th century