1887 English cricket season


1887 was the 101st season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club. Surrey was the leading county for the first time in over twenty years, a status they would retain until 1892.

Champion County

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

Notable events

The driest English cricket season since 1870, combined with improvements to pitches from the heavy roller, allowed for a large number of notable batting feats:
  1. Five batsmen with twenty or more innings averaged over 40. Before 1887, no more than two had ever done so in one season.
  2. W.G. Grace for the third time reached 2,000 runs; an aggregate not reached by any other batsman until 1893.
  3. 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.
  4. Shrewsbury’s innings of 267 against Middlesex, at 615 minutes, remains the longest innings ever played in a county match.
  5. Walter Read became the first batsman to play two consecutive innings of over 200, scoring 247 against Lancashire and 244 against Cambridge University