1887 English cricket season

Champion County

• Surrey

Playing record (by county)

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

Notable events

The driest English cricket season since 1870, combined with improvements to pitches from the heavy roller, allowed for a large number of notable batting feats:

1. Five batsmen with twenty or more innings averaged over 40. Before 1887, no more than two had ever done so in one season.
2. W.G. Grace for the third time reached 2,000 runs; an aggregate not reached by any other batsman until 1893.
3. Arthur Shrewsbury averaged 78.71 for twenty-three innings, beating W.G. Grace's 1871 record of 78.25. This was not beaten until Robert Poore averaged 91.23 in 1899.
4. Shrewsbury's innings of 267 against Middlesex, at 615 minutes, remains the longest innings ever played in a county match.
5. Walter Read became the first batsman to play two consecutive innings of over 200, scoring 247 against Lancashire and 244 against Cambridge University

• For the last time until 1970, no bowler took nine wickets in an innings, with the best analysis being eight for 26 by Dick Barlow.
• As a result of some extremely bad results (only three wins and twenty-nine losses from thirty-five games) and financial trouble, Derbyshire were demoted from first-class status at the end of the season, not to return until 1895.
• An unofficial points system of one point for a win and half a point for a draw was devised by the "Cricket Reporting Agency" as a replacement for the former method of fewest matches lost to decide the "Champion County". Along with a more rigid schedule, it became the ancestor of the official County Championship from 1890 onwards.

Labels

An 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.

The 1887 season saw an unofficial point system of 1 point for a win and 0.5 points for a draw devised by the "Cricket Reporting Agency"

Notes

References

Bibliography

Annual reviews

• James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1888
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1888

References

1. Wynne-Thomas, Peter; ''The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records''; p. 54 {{ISBN. 072701868X
2. "First-Class matches in England in 1772". CricketArchive.
3. Wisden. (1948). "Wisden Cricketers' Almanack". Sporting Handbooks Ltd.
4. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1887_f_Batting_by_Average.html First Class Batting in England in 1887]
5. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/ENG/1887_f_Bowling_by_Average.html First Class Bowling in England in 1887]
6. [http://climexp.knmi.nl//plotseries.cgi?id=someone@somewhere&TYPE=p&WMO=HadEWP_monthly_qc&STATION=England-Wales&NAME=precipitation&KIND=season Hadley Centre England and Wales Precipitation]
7. Wynne-Thomas; ''The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records''; pp. 17–20
8. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/3/3257.html Nottinghamshire v Middlesex in 1887]
9. Webber, Roy; ''The Playfair Book of Cricket Records''; p. 43. Published 1951 by Playfair Books.
10. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/3/3210.html Lancashire v Surrey in 1887]
11. [https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/3/3215.html Surrey v Cambridge University in 1887]
12. Preston, Norman (editor); ''[[Wisden Cricketers' Almanac. Wisden]]'', 108th Edition (1971); p. 278