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1883 English cricket season
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1882 1882 English cricket season 1884 1884 English cricket season
The 1883 English cricket season was the 20th since the legalisation of overarm bowling. There was the first of four successive titles won by Notts, and the beginning of the "Great Revival" of Surrey,Pardon, Sydney H. (editor); John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack; Forty-Seventh Edition (1905), pp. 173–174 who had been among the weaker counties since 1866.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
Nottinghamshire
Playing record (by county)
County Played Won Lost Drawn Derbyshire 8 2 5 1 Gloucestershire 12 3 6 3 Hampshire 6 2 3 1 Kent 10 2 6 2 Lancashire 12 6 5 1 Middlesex 10 4 2 4 Nottinghamshire 12 4 1 7 Somerset 6 1 5 0 Surrey 20 10 5 5 Sussex 12 4 7 1 Yorkshire 16 9 2 5
Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 54 072701868X
Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)
1883 English season leading batsmenFirst Class Batting in England in 1883 Name Team Matches Innings Not outs Runs Highest score Average 100s 50sWalter Read Surrey 22 39 6 1573 168 47.66 2 13CT Studd MiddlesexMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 20 34 5 1193 175 not out 41.13 2 4WG Grace GloucestershireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 22 41 2 1352 112 34.66 1 9Louis Hall Yorkshire 26 44 9 1180 127 33.73 2 3Bunny Lucas MiddlesexMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 12 23 3 664 97 33.23 0 4
Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)
1883 English season leading bowlersFirst Class Bowling in England in 1883 Name Team Balls bowled Runs conceded Wickets taken Average Best bowling 5 wicketsin innings 10 wicketsin matchAlec Watson Lancashire 3762 1135 96 11.82 7/36 9 2Alfred Shaw Nottinghamshire 4247 840 67 12.53 7/22 7 0John Crossland Lancashire 2191 934 72 12.97 8/57 6 0George Harrison Yorkshire 3143 1326 100 13.26 7/43 6 1George Robinson Oxford University 1015 471 35 13.45 6/38 2 0
Notable events
30 January – England won the deciding match of the scheduled three-Test series in Melbourne (although an additional match was arranged later). Some ladies burned the bails and placed the resultant ashes in a small urn. This was presented to England's captain, Ivo Bligh, who had promised to "recover those ashes". The urn is kept in a glass case at Lord's but England and Australia have been playing for the Ashes ever since.
25 May – Surrey, in a season that marked their revival from a lowly position since 1866 to the champion eleven of the late 1880s and early 1890s, break the record highest team total in county cricket by scoring 650 against Hampshire.Webber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 18. Published 1951 by Playfair Books.
George Harrison became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in the season in which he made his debut in first-class cricket.Webber; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; pp. 176–177
George Ulyett scored 1,562 runs with a highest score of 84. Not until Charles Harris in 1935 did a player scoring no centuries score more runs in a season.
Ulyett's feat of getting within eleven runs of the leading scorer with no centuries has been approached since only by David Green in 1965.First Class Batting in England in 1883 (by Runs)First Class Batting in England in 1965 (by Runs)
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.
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, 1884
James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1884
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1884
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:1883 in English cricket
Category:English cricket seasons in the 19th century