1879 English cricket season
1879 was the 93rd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Lancashire claimed a share of the Champion County title for the first time.
The summer was the coolest[1] and wettest[2] 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
- Lancashire, Nottinghamshire (shared)
Playing record (by county)
| 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 | 3 |
Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)
| 1879 English season leading batsmen[4] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | Matches | Innings | Not outs | Runs | Highest score | Average | 100s | 50s |
| WG Grace | Gloucestershire | 18 | 28 | 3 | 880 | 123 | 35.20 | 2 | 5 |
| A. N. Hornby | Lancashire MCC | 17 | 22 | 2 | 606 | 64 not out | 30.30 | 0 | 3 |
| Alfred Lyttelton | Cambridge University Middlesex | 16 | 27 | 3 | 688 | 102 | 28.66 | 1 | 4 |
| Allan Steel | Cambridge University Lancashire | 15 | 23 | 3 | 553 | 93 | 27.65 | 0 | 3 |
| William Oscroft | Nottinghamshire | 19 | 31 | 2 | 763 | 140 | 26.31 | 1 | 3 |
Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)
| 1879 English season leading bowlers[5] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | Balls bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Average | Best bowling | 5 wickets in innings |
10 wickets in match |
| Arnold Rylott | MCC | 1234 | 291 | 37 | 7.86 | 6/67 | 1 | 1 |
| William Mycroft | Derbyshire MCC | 3052 | 738 | 88 | 8.38 | 8/32 | 7 | 3 |
| Alfred Shaw | Nottinghamshire MCC | 6381 | 1277 | 133 | 9.60 | 8/21 | 13 | 3 |
| Tom Emmett | Yorkshire | 1901 | 622 | 63 | 9.87 | 7/54 | 6 | 1 |
| James 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.
Notes
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 Hampshire, though regarded until 1885 as first-class, played no inter-county matches
References
- Hadley Center Central England Temperature
- Hadley Center England and Wales Precipitation
- Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 53 ISBN 072701868X
- First Class Batting in England in 1879
- First Class Bowling in England in 1879
Annual reviews
- John Lillywhite’s Cricketer’s Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1880
- James Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1880
- John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack 1880