1865 English cricket season

Cricket season review March 2015 May 2026 1864 1864 English cricket season 1866 1866 English cricket season The 1865 English cricket season was the second since the legalisation of overarm bowling. W. G. Grace made his debut as a first-class player and the new Lancashire County Cricket Club played its first match.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. Events 15 & 16 February: Earliest inter-colonial match in the West Indies was Barbados v. Demerara (now Guyana) at Bridgetown. This is recognised as the start of West Indian first-class cricket. 3 March: Formation of Worcestershire County Cricket Club, which became first-class in 1899.Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 182 072701868X 22 June: W. G. Grace made his first-class debut playing for Gentlemen of the South v. Players of the South. This was a two-day match which his team won by an innings and 58 runs. Amazingly, he began his career with a duck: st HH Stephenson b G Bennett. However, he made up for this disappointment by taking 5-44 and 8-40 when aged just 16! Grace played in five matches during his debut season but he was still not attached to a first-class county (Gloucestershire did not become a first-class team until 1870). His other games in 1865 were for Gentlemen v. Players (twice), England v. Surrey and Gentlemen of England v. Gentlemen of Middlesex. Grace played until 1908, and remains peerless as a player and became known to history as "The Great Cricketer". A massive personality who was the sport's supreme all-rounder, but best remembered as a master batsman who conquered the uncertain pitch conditions of his early years before the heavy roller and motor mower eliminated deadly shooters and "bumping" or "flying" balls on the head.Green, Benny; Wisden Anthology 1864-1900 p. 604 0354085557 His superiority over his contemporaries is astounding and only Don Bradman has a similar stature in the game's history. 18 July: The All England Eleven beat the three-year-old record for the highest first-class team total by scoring 524 against Yorkshire,Webber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 18. Published 1951 by Playfair Books with all eleven batsmen reaching double figures. 20 July: Lancashire County Cricket Club joined the list of teams generally accepted in the unofficial County Championship and played its initial first-class match against Middlesex at Old Trafford. 23 July: Edward Walker becomes the first bowler to twice take all ten wickets in an innings (having done so in 1859 for England against Surrey),Webber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 148 but despite this Lancashire win their inaugural first-class matchLancashire v Middlesex in 1865 (they would not win again until 1868) For the only time until 1895, multiple cases of all ten wickets in a first-class innings occur 10 August: Tom Humphrey becomes the first batsman to score 1,000 first-class runs in a season.Surrey v Hampshire in 1865 With the improvement of pitches this feat has been achieved every season since 1869 except the exceptionally cool and wet 1879 season. For the last time until 1972, no bowler took 100 first-class wickets, with James Lillywhite having the highest aggregate of 87First-Class Bowling by Wickets in 1865 Playing record (by county) County Played Won Lost Drawn Cambridgeshire 3 1 1 1 Hampshire 3 1 2 0 Kent 7 2 3 2 Lancashire 2 1 1 0 Middlesex 5 3 1 1 Nottinghamshire 7 6 1 0 Surrey 12 7 3 2 Sussex 7 1 4 2 Yorkshire 8 0 6 2 Wynne-Thomas; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 53 Leading batsmen (qualification 10 innings) 1865 English season leading batsmenFirst Class Batting in England in 1865 Name Team Matches Innings Not outs Runs Highest score Average 100s 50sWilliam Oscroft Nottinghamshire 9 13 1 518 107 43.16 1 4Richard Mitchell Oxford University 7 11 1 390 80 39.00 0 3Lord Cobham Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)Southgate 7 11 0 418 129 38.00 1 2Richard Daft NottinghamshireAll England Eleven 7 12 1 359 78 32.63 0 4George Parr NottinghamshireAll England Eleven 8 11 0 353 78 32.09 0 3 Leading bowlers (qualification 800 balls) 1865 English season leading bowlersFirst Class Bowling in England in 1865 Name Team Balls bowled Runs conceded Wickets taken Average Best bowling 5 wicketsin innings 10 wicketsin matchJem Shaw Nottinghamshire 1495 476 44 10.81 8/32 3 2John Jackson NottinghamshireAll England Eleven 1105 340 29 11.72 7/25 3 0George Wootton Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)NottinghamshireAll England Eleven 2527 977 84 11.91 10/54 8 5Thomas Hearne Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)Middlesex 1072 370 30 12.33 5/31 3 1James Lillywhite Sussex 3959 1147 87 13.18 7/30 8 2 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 Fred Lillywhite, The Guide to Cricketers, Lillywhite, 1866 John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1866 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1866 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:1865 in English cricket Category:English cricket seasons in the 19th century