The 1887 English cricket season was the 24th since the legalisation of overarm bowling. Surrey was the leading county for the first time in over twenty years,Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; p. 54 a status they would retain until 1892.

Champion County

Surrey

Playing record (by county) County Played Won Lost Drawn Points Derbyshire 6 0 6 0 0.0 Gloucestershire 14 1 9 4 3.0 Kent 14 1 8 5 3.5 Lancashire 14 10 3 1 10.5 Middlesex 10 4 2 4 6.0 Nottinghamshire 14 8 3 3 9.5 Surrey 16 12 2 2 13.0 Sussex 12 2 8 2 3.0 Yorkshire 16 6 3 7 9.5

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings) 1887 English season leading batsmenFirst Class Batting in England in 1887 Name Team Matches Innings Not outs Runs Highest score Average 100s 50sArthur Shrewsbury Nottinghamshire 17 23 6 1653 267 78.71 8 5WG Grace GloucestershireMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 24 46 8 2062 183 not out 54.26 6 8Alexander Webbe MiddlesexMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 18 31 5 1244 243 not out 47.84 3 3Walter Read Surrey 23 36 2 1615 247 47.50 5 5Kingsmill Key Oxford UniversitySurrey 24 44 5 1684 281 43.17 2 10

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls) 1887 English season leading bowlersFirst Class Bowling in England in 1887 Name Team Balls bowled Runs conceded Wickets taken Average Best bowling 5 wicketsin innings 10 wicketsin matchHenry Richardson Nottinghamshire 2322 613 45 13.62 6/58 3 0William Attewell Nottinghamshire 5361 1238 89 13.91 6/24 6 1Alec Watson Lancashire 6130 1482 100 14.82 7/20 9 3John Rawlin Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 2152 675 45 15.00 7/47 3 1George Lohmann Surrey 6526 2404 154 15.61 8/36 16 6

Notable events The driest English cricket season since 1870,Hadley Centre England and Wales Precipitation combined with improvements to pitches from the heavy roller, allowed for a large number of notable batting feats: Five batsmen with twenty or more innings averaged over 40. Before 1887, no more than two had ever done so in one season.Wynne-Thomas; The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records; pp. 17–20 W.G. Grace for the third time reached 2,000 runs; an aggregate not reached by any other batsman until 1893. Arthur Shrewsbury averaged 78.71 for twenty-three innings, beating W.G. Grace's 1871 record of 78.25. This was not beaten until Robert Poore averaged 91.23 in 1899. Shrewsbury's innings of 267 against Middlesex, at 615 minutes,Nottinghamshire v Middlesex in 1887 remains the longest innings ever played in a county match. Walter Read became the first batsman to play two consecutive innings of over 200,Webber, Roy; The Playfair Book of Cricket Records; p. 43. Published 1951 by Playfair Books. scoring 247 against LancashireLancashire v Surrey in 1887 and 244 against Cambridge UniversitySurrey v Cambridge University in 1887 For the last time until 1970,Preston, Norman (editor); Wisden, 108th Edition (1971); p. 278 no bowler took nine wickets in an innings, with the best analysis being eight for 26 by Dick Barlow. As a result of some extremely bad results (only three wins and twenty-nine losses from thirty-five games) and financial trouble, Derbyshire were demoted from first-class status at the end of the season, not to return until 1895. An unofficial points system of one point for a win and half a point for a draw was devised by the "Cricket Reporting Agency" as a replacement for the former method of fewest matches lost to decide the "Champion County". Along with a more rigid schedule, it became the ancestor of the official County Championship from 1890 onwards.

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. The 1887 season saw an unofficial point system of 1 point for a win and 0.5 points for a draw devised by the "Cricket Reporting Agency"

Notes

References

Bibliography

Annual reviews James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1888 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1888

Further reading