1895 English cricket season

1895 English cricket season

1895 was the sixth season of County Championship cricket in England. It was the first season in which the official definition of first-class cricket was activated, following the 1894 ruling.[note 1] Surrey won the championship for the fifth time in six years, despite increased competition, as the tournament was expanded from nine to fourteen teams. The points system was changed as the teams played differing numbers of matches and the new system involved division of the number of points gained by the number of matches that had ended in either a win or a loss. Draws were thus completely disregarded, as they gave zero points. Derbyshire was the best of the rookie teams, finishing in fifth place.

Another championship made its bow as this season was the first to stage the Minor Counties Championship. The inaugural title was shared by three teams: Durham, Norfolk and Worcestershire.

In the early part of the season, improved batting conditions and long spells of dry weather enabled much heavier scoring than in previous seasons. There were a number of very large scores up until mid-July, when Archie MacLaren played his famous innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton. After that, rain returned and most pitches from 20 July onwards were "sticky wickets", with the result that bowlers dominated the latter part of the season. Charlie Townsend in particular was able to generate prodigious spin of the ball on these treacherous pitches and took 122 wickets in the last 11 county games. Other established bowlers like Peel, Richardson, Mold and Briggs were very difficult to bat against.

At the age of 46 (when the season began), W. G. Grace enjoyed a remarkable career revival and was the leading run-scorer in all first-class matches, averaging over 50. He became the first player ever to score 1,000 runs during the month of May and also the first to reach the career landmark of one hundred first-class centuries.

Honours

County Championship

Main article: 1895 County Championship

Final table

County Championship 1895 - Final Standings
Team P W L D A Pts GC1 Pts/GC (as %)
1 Surrey 26 17 4 5 1 13 21 61.90
2 Lancashire 22 14 4 3 1 10 18 55.56
3 Yorkshire 26 14 7 5 0 7 21 33.33
4 Gloucestershire 18 8 6 4 2 0 14 14.29
5 Derbyshire 16 5 4 7 0 1 9 11.11
6 Middlesex 18 6 6 6 0 0 12 0.00
6 Warwickshire 18 6 6 6 0 0 12 0.00
8 Somerset 18 6 8 3 1 -2 14 -14.29
9 Essex 16 5 7 4 0 -2 12 -16.67
10 Hampshire 16 6 9 1 0 -3 15 -20.00
11 Sussex 18 5 9 4 0 -4 14 28.57
12 Leicestershire 16 3 10 3 0 -7 13 -53.85
12 Nottinghamshire 18 3 10 5 0 -7 13 -53.85
14 Kent 18 3 11 4 0 -8 14 -57.14
  • 1 Games completed

Points system:

  • 1 for a win
  • 0 for a draw, a tie or an abandoned match
  • -1 for a loss

Most runs in the County Championship

1895 County Championship - leading batsmen
Name Team Matches Runs Average 100s 50s
Bobby Abel Surrey 26 1787 51.05 4 6
Albert Ward Lancashire 21 1446 43.81 1 11
WG Grace Gloucestershire 18 1424 50.85 4 3
Ranjitsinhji Sussex 18 1364 41.33 2 10
John Tunnicliffe Yorkshire 26 1167 27.13 2 6

Most wickets in the County Championship

1895 County Championship - leading bowlers
Name Team Matches Balls bowled Wickets taken Average
Tom Richardson Surrey 25 6773 239 13.78
Arthur Mold Lancashire 21 6484 182 13.71
Bobby Peel Yorkshire 24 6884 136 14.80
George Herbert Hirst Yorkshire 26 5516 130 16.93
Charlie Townsend Gloucestershire 12 3376 124 12.58

Overall first-class statistics

Leading batsmen

1895 English cricket season - leading batsmen
Name Team(s) Matches Runs Average 100s 50s
WG Grace England, Gentlemen, Gloucestershire, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), South of England 29 2346 51.00 9 5
Bobby Abel Players, South of England, Surrey 32 2057 44.71 5 6
Albert Ward England, Lancashire, North of England, Players 27 1790 42.61 2 12
Ranjitsinhji England, Sussex 21 1775 49.30 4 11
Andrew Stoddart Gentlemen, I Zingari, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Middlesex, South of England 25 1622 37.72 2 11

Leading bowlers

1895 English cricket season - leading bowlers
Name Team(s) Matches Balls bowled Wickets taken Average
Tom Richardson Players, South of England Surrey 31 8456 290 14.37
Arthur Mold England, Lancashire, North of England, Players 27 8143 213 15.96
Bobby Peel North of England, Players, Yorkshire 32 8509 180 14.97
Walter Mead England, Essex, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), South of England 23 6034 179 14.55
George Herbert Hirst North of England, Yorkshire 32 6312 150 17.06

Notes

  1. ^ 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.

References

  1. ^ "First-Class matches in England in 1772". CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
  2. ^ Wisden (1948). Preston, Hubert (ed.). Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (85th ed.). London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd. p. 813. OCLC 851705816.
  3. ^ ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
  4. ^ ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.

Bibliography

Annual reviews

Further reading

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