1885 English cricket season
Cricket season review
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1885 was the 99th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It was the third in succession in which Nottinghamshire was proclaimed the champion county.[note 1]
Champion County
Playing record (by county)
| County | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derbyshire | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Gloucestershire | 14 | 6 | 7 | 1 |
| Hampshire | 10 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
| Kent | 11[b] | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Lancashire | 11[b] | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Middlesex | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| Nottinghamshire | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Somerset | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Surrey | 20 | 12 | 4 | 4 |
| Sussex | 14 | 3 | 9 | 2 |
| Yorkshire | 16 | 7 | 2 | 7 |
Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)
| 1885 English season[6] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | Matches | Innings | Not outs | Runs | Highest score | Average | 100s | 50s |
| Arthur Shrewsbury | Nottinghamshire | 16 | 24 | 4 | 1130 | 224 not out | 56.50 | 4 | 3 |
| Walter Read | Surrey | 27 | 42 | 0 | 1880 | 163 | 44.76 | 6 | 9 |
| WG Grace | Gloucestershire | 25 | 42 | 3 | 1688 | 221 not out | 43.28 | 4 | 10 |
| William Gunn | Nottinghamshire Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) | 27 | 43 | 3 | 1451 | 203 | 36.27 | 1 | 9 |
| Maurice Read | Surrey | 24 | 35 | 2 | 1137 | 186 not out | 34.45 | 1 | 6 |
Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)
| 1885 English season[7] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | Balls bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Average | Best bowling | 5 wickets in innings |
10 wickets in match |
| Johnny Briggs | Lancashire | 2596 | 921 | 67 | 13.74 | 9/29 | 8 | 2 |
| William Attewell | Nottinghamshire Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) | 5204 | 1218 | 87 | 14.00 | 6/27 | 6 | 1 |
| George Lohmann | Surrey | 5069 | 2037 | 142 | 14.34 | 8/18 | 9 | 3 |
| Alec Hearne | Kent | 2574 | 928 | 64 | 14.50 | 8/35 | 4 | 1 |
| William Roller | Surrey | 1666 | 537 | 37 | 14.51 | 5/34 | 1 | 0 |
Notable events
- 1 June â Kent captain Lord Harris writes a letter to Lancashire concerning the "unfair" bowling of Nash and Crossland and decides not to play Lancashire unless they refrain from employing those two bowlers â the refusal is maintained even when the pair drop out.[8]
- On 17 July, Johnny Briggs and Dick Pilling playing for Lancashire against Surrey set a record stand for the tenth wicket of 173, which stands until 1899.[9]
Labels
a 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.
b The return match between Kent and Lancashire was cancelled because Lord Harris objected to the bowling of two Lancashire players
Notes
- Some eleven-a-side matches played from 1772 to 1863 have been rated "first-class" by certain sources.[1] 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.[2] Matches of a similar standard since the beginning of the 1864 season are generally considered to have an unofficial first-class status.[3] Pre-1864 matches which are included in the ACS' "Important Match Guide" may generally be regarded as top-class or, at least, historically significant.[4] For further information, see First-class cricket.