1873 English cricket season

Cricket season review March 2015 August 2020 1872 1872 English cricket season 1874 1874 English cricket season The 1873 English cricket season was the tenth since the legalisation of overarm bowling. In only their fourth season as a first-class team, Gloucestershire was proclaimed joint Champion County by the media and went on to claim the still unofficial title four times in five seasons (1873, 1874, 1876 and 1877).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. Player qualification rules came into force, with players having to decide at the start of a season whether they would play for the county of their birth or the county of residence. Before this, it was quite common for a player to play for two counties during the course of a single season, with by far the best-known case being star slow bowler James Southerton who played for his birth county Sussex when they had a match on and otherwise for Surrey. It is only since the residence qualifications were introduced that any quasi-official status can be ascribed to the oft-claimed Champion County title.* Birley Derek Derek Birley A Social History of English Cricket 1999 Aurum; pp. 119–120 Champion County unofficial a a Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire (shared) Playing record (by county) Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 53 072701868X County Played Won Lost Drawn Derbyshire 2 0 2 0 Gloucestershire 6 4 0 2 Kentcup b b 5 3 2 0 Lancashire 7 4 3 0 Middlesex 3 2 1 0 Nottinghamshirethird c c 7 5 1 1 Surrey 14 2 10 2 Sussexcup b b 10 2 6 2 Yorkshirethird c c 12 7 4 1Hampshire d d Leading batsmen (qualification 15 innings) 1873 English season leading batsmenFirst Class Batting in England in 1873 Name Team Matches Innings Not outs Runs Highest score Average 100s 50sWG Grace GloucestershireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 20 32 7 1805 192 not out 72.20 6 8Isaac Walker Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)Middlesex 11 20 3 587 64 34.52 0 2Fred Grace Gloucestershire 15 22 3 593 165 not out 31.21 1 3William Oscroft Nottinghamshire 17 30 1 758 96 26.13 0 5Harry Jupp Surrey 24 45 3 1052 94 25.04 0 8 Leading bowlers (qualification 800 balls) 1873 English season leading bowlersFirst Class Bowling in England in 1873 Name Team Balls bowled Runs conceded Wickets taken Average Best bowling 5 wicketsin innings 10 wicketsin matchWilliam McIntyre Lancashire 1517 528 63 8.38 7/37 7 4Alec Watson Lancashire 1119 445 48 9.27 6/38 5 1Arnold Rylott Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 1772 664 69 9.62 9/30 6 4Fred Morley Nottinghamshire 1235 375 35 10.71 6/62 3 1John Maude Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)Oxford University 844 255 23 11.08 6/14 2 0 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. cup b bIncludes the "County Cup" match at Lord's between Kent and Sussex third c cIncludes a third Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire match organised privately by Nottinghamshire captain Richard Daft Hampshire d dHampshire, though regarded until 1885 as first-class, played no inter-county matches between 1868 and 1869 or 1871 and 1874 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, 1874 James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1874 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1874 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:1873 in English cricket Category:English cricket seasons in the 19th century