The 1879 English cricket season was the 16th since the legalisation of overarm bowling. Lancashire claimed a share of the Champion County title for the first time.[note 1]
The summer was the coolest[5] and wettest[6] 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[8] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 Marylebone Cricket Club (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[9] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | Balls bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Average | Best bowling | 5 wickets in innings |
10 wickets in match |
| Arnold Rylott | Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) | 1234 | 291 | 37 | 7.86 | 6/67 | 1 | 1 |
| William Mycroft | Derbyshire Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) | 3052 | 738 | 88 | 8.38 | 8/32 | 7 | 3 |
| Alfred Shaw | Nottinghamshire Marylebone Cricket Club (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.
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 Hampshire, though regarded until 1885 as first-class, played no inter-county matches
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.
References
- ↑ "First-Class matches in England in 1772". CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
- ↑ Wisden (1948). Preston, Hubert (ed.). Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (85th ed.). London: Sporting Handbooks Ltd. p. 813. OCLC 851705816.
- ↑ ACS 1982, pp. 4–5.
- ↑ ACS 1981, pp. 1–40.
- ↑ 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
Bibliography
- ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709–1863. Nottingham: ACS. OCLC 85045528.
- ACS (1982). A Guide to First-class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS. OCLC 10586869.
- Warner, Pelham (1946). Lords: 1787–1945. London: Harrap. OCLC 877106024.
Annual reviews
- John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1880
- James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1880
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1880
Further reading
- Altham, H. S.; Swanton, E. W. (1962). A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914) (5th ed.). London: George Allen & Unwin. OCLC 894274808.
- Birley, Derek (1999). A Social History of English Cricket. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-18-54107-10-7 – via Internet Archive.
- Bowen, Rowland (1970). Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. ISBN 978-04-13278-60-9.
- Major, John (2007). More Than A Game. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-00-07183-64-7 – via Internet Archive.