1879 English cricket season

Cricket season review March 2015 May 2026 1878 1878 English cricket season 1880 1880 English cricket season The 1879 English cricket season was the 16th since the legalisation of overarm bowling. Lancashire claimed a share of the Champion County title for the first time.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. The summer was the coolestHadley Center Central England Temperature and wettestHadley Center England and Wales Precipitation over the two-and-a-half centuries of climatic records in England, and during the early part of the twentieth century exceptionally wet seasons such as 1903, 1912, 1924 and 1927 were very frequently compared to 1879. Champion County unofficial a a Lancashire, 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 6 2 4 0 Gloucestershire 10 1 3 6 Kent 10 2 7 1 Lancashire 10 5 1 4 Middlesex 8 2 2 4 Nottinghamshire 12 5 1 6 Surrey 10 3 4 3 Sussex 4 1 2 1 Yorkshire 14 7 4 3Hampshire b b Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings) 1879 English season leading batsmenFirst Class Batting in England in 1879 Name Team Matches Innings Not outs Runs Highest score Average 100s 50sWG Grace Gloucestershire 18 28 3 880 123 35.20 2 5A. N. Hornby LancashireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 17 22 2 606 64 not out 30.30 0 3Alfred Lyttelton Cambridge UniversityMiddlesex 16 27 3 688 102 28.66 1 4Allan Steel Cambridge UniversityLancashire 15 23 3 553 93 27.65 0 3William Oscroft Nottinghamshire 19 31 2 763 140 26.31 1 3 Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls) 1879 English season leading bowlersFirst Class Bowling in England in 1879 Name Team Balls bowled Runs conceded Wickets taken Average Best bowling 5 wicketsin innings 10 wicketsin matchArnold Rylott Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 1234 291 37 7.86 6/67 1 1William Mycroft DerbyshireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 3052 738 88 8.38 8/32 7 3Alfred Shaw NottinghamshireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 6381 1277 133 9.60 8/21 13 3Tom Emmett Yorkshire 1901 622 63 9.87 7/54 6 1James Lillywhite Sussex 1098 229 23 9.95 8/43 1 1 Notable events 25 March: Formation of Leicestershire County Cricket Club. For the last time to date, no batsman reached 1,000 runs for the 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. Hampshire b bHampshire, though regarded until 1885 as first-class, played no inter-county matches 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, 1880 James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1880 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1880 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:1879 in English cricket Category:English cricket seasons in the 19th century