1889 was the 103rd season of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

in England since the foundation of

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC). The number of balls per over was increased from four to five. The four-ball over had been used since time immemorial. Earlier in the year, on 12 and 13 March, South Africa ''versus'' England at Port Elizabeth was the start of cricket in South Africa at both Test and first-class level. Domestic first-class matches began at the end of the same year. The England team, captained by future Hollywood actor C Aubrey Smith, played two Tests on the inaugural tour, at Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, winning both by comfortable margins. Lancashire spinner Johnny Briggs had match figures of 15–28 at Cape Town.

Honours

* Champion County – Surrey,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

(''shared'') * Wisden (''Nine Great Professional Batsmen'') –

Bobby Abel Robert Abel (30 November 1857 – 10 December 1936), nicknamed "The Guv'nor", was a Surrey and England opening batsman who was one of the most prolific run-getters in the early years of the County Championship. He was the first England player ...

, Billy Barnes,

Billy Gunn Monty Kip Sopp (born November 1, 1963), better known by his ring name Billy Gunn, although he is currently finding renewed popularity under the ring name Daddy Ass, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wres ...

Louis Hall Louis Hall (1 November 1852 – 19 November 1915) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Yorkshire from 1873 to 1892. Life and career Born in Batley, Yorkshire, Hall made his first-class debut in 1873, when he played a few ma ...

, Robert Henderson,

Maurice Read John Maurice Read (9 February 1859 – 17 February 1929 in Winchester, Hampshire) was an English professional cricketer. Harry Altham wrote of him in ''A History of Cricket'', "Maurice Read had been recognised as a dashing player up to Test ma ...

Arthur Shrewsbury Arthur Shrewsbury (11 April 1856 – 19 May 1903) was an English cricketer and rugby football administrator. He was widely rated as competing with W. G. Grace for the accolade of best batsman of the 1880s; Grace himself, when asked whom he wo ...

, Frank Sugg, Albert Ward

Playing record (by county)

Wynne-Thomas, Peter; ''The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records''; p. 54

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

Notable events

* In May and June, the flooding and waterlogging of Lord's caused three games to be abandoned without a ball bowled - the first recorded instance in English cricket. * Declarations of an innings were permitted for the first time on the third day of a match. The first captain to declare was John Shuter against Gloucestershire on 8 June. * 20 to 22 June – Middlesex and Yorkshire break the 1876 record for the highest aggregate of runs in a first-class match in England, totalling 1,295 over the three days to surpass the previous English record by 78 runs.Webber, Roy; ''The Playfair Book of Cricket Records''; p. 27. Published 1951 by Playfair Books. * The use of an unofficial points system by the "Cricket Reporting Agency", which had begun in 1887, reached farcical levels when Surrey, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire finished tied on 10.5 points. This led to the devising in December of the first official

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

in 1890.

Notes

An unofficial seasonal title sometimes proclaimed by consensus of media and historians prior to December 1889 when the official

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.
Between 1887 and 1889 an unofficial point system of 1 point for a win and 0.5 points for a draw, devised by the "Cricket Reporting Agency", was used to determine the unofficial "Champion County"
The match between Middlesex and Kent at Lord's was completely washed out

References

Annual reviews

* ''James Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Annual'' (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1890 * ''

John Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' 1890

External links

CricketArchive – season summaries
{{English cricket seasons 1889 in English cricket English cricket seasons in the 19th century