The 1876 English cricket season was the 13th since the legalisation of overarm bowling. Gloucestershire reclaimed the unofficial "Champion County" title. A relatively dry summerEngland and Wales seasonal Precipitation and improvements to pitches via the heavy roller"The Memorial biography of Dr. W.G. Grace" saw several batting records broken.
Champion County
Gloucestershire
Playing record (by county) County Played Won Lost Tied Drawn Derbyshire 6 2 4 0 0 Gloucestershire 8 5 0 0 3 Hampshire 4 3 1 0 0 Kent 10 4 6 0 0 Lancashire 10 5 5 0 0 Middlesex 6 1 1 1 3 Nottinghamshire 10 4 3 0 3 Surrey 12 2 8 1 1 Sussex 8 3 4 0 1 Yorkshire 10 5 2 0 3 Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 53
Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings) 1876 English season leading batsmenFirst Class Batting in England in 1876 Name Team Matches Innings Not outs Runs Highest score Average 100s 50sWG Grace GloucestershireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 26 46 4 2622 344 62.42 7 10Walter Gilbert Gloucestershire 17 27 2 907 205 not out 36.28 2 1Richard Daft NottinghamshireAll England Eleven 18 30 2 976 99 34.85 0 6Ephraim Lockwood YorkshireAll England Eleven 25 44 5 1261 108 not out 32.33 1 9Lord Harris KentMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 17 30 1 916 154 31.58 1 4
Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls) 1876 English season leading bowlersFirst Class Bowling in England in 1876 Name Team Balls bowled Runs conceded Wickets taken Average Best bowling 5 wicketsin innings 10 wicketsin matchWilliam McIntyre Lancashire 2752 1016 89 11.41 7/33 9 1Alec Watson Lancashire 2161 640 51 12.54 7/61 3 2William Mycroft DerbyshireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC)All England Eleven 3091 1211 95 12.74 9/25 9 2Arthur Ridley HampshireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 1885 705 53 13.30 6/36 6 3Alfred Shaw NottinghamshireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC)All England Eleven 10526 2601 191 13.61 8/37 21 8
Events 14 January: Formation of Essex County Cricket Club at a meeting in the Shire Hall, Chelmsford. There had been previous county organisations in Essex going back to the 18th century, mainly around the famous Hornchurch club. 20 June: At the soon-to-be-built-on Prince's Cricket Ground, Oxford University made the first total of 600 in a first-class matchWebber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 18. Published 1951 by Playfair Books when they scored 612 against Middlesex with William Game top scoring with 141. 27 June: Game became the first Oxonian to score a century against Cambridge, scoring 109Caine, C. Stewart (editor); John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack; Seventieth Edition (1933); pp. 245–246 In August, W.G. Grace made his highest first-class score of 344, for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) v Kent at Canterbury in August. Two days later he made 177 for Gloucestershire v Notts, and two days after that scored 318 not out for Gloucestershire v Yorkshire, the latter two innings against counties with exceptionally strong bowling attacks. Thus in three consecutive innings Grace scored 839 runs, and was only out twice. Grace's 344 was the first triple century scored in first class cricket. William Ward's 278 scored in 1820 had stood as a record for 56 years; within a week Grace had bettered it twice. Grace also become the first player to score 2000 runs and take 100 wickets in a season: 2622 runs and 130 wickets in 26 matches. His feat was not equalled until Charlie Townsend in 1899. Alfred Shaw became the first bowler to bowl 10,000 balls in a season, a feat he was to repeat in 1878 but was not equalled again until J.T. Hearne in 1896. His actual total of 10,526 balls was not bettered until Tich Freeman's record season in 1928.
Labels 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.
Notes
References
Bibliography
Annual reviews John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1877 James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1877 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1877
Further reading