1895 English cricket season

The 1895 English cricket season was the inaugural season in which official first-class cricket was played, following the 1894 ruling.

Surrey won the County Championship title for the fifth time in six years, despite increased competition, as the tournament was expanded from nine to fourteen teams. The points system for the Championship was changed, as the teams played differing amount of games, and this new system involved dividing the number of points by the number of matches that ended in either a win or a loss. Draws were thus completely disregarded, as they gave zero points. Derbyshire was the best debutant team, taking 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 caused 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. However, after this point, rain returned and most pitches from 20 July onwards were sticky, with the result that bowlers dominanted the latter part of the season. Charlie Townsend got an amazing amount of spin on the ball on these treacherous pitches - taking 122 wickets in the last 11 county games - whilst established bowlers like Peel, Richardson, Mold and Briggs were also very difficult.

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

Honours

County Championship - Surrey
Minor Counties Championship - Durham, Norfolk, Worcestershire (shared title)
Wisden - WG Grace

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, 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, 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, MCC, South of England	23	6034	179	14.55
George Herbert Hirst	North of England, Yorkshire	32	6312	150	17.06

Annual reviews

James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1896
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1896

External links

Cricket in England in 1895

English cricket seasons

Historic era

1597 to 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759 1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769 1770 1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824

Pre-County Championship era

1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889

County Championship era

1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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