1885 was the 99th 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 striki ...

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). It was the third in succession in which Nottinghamshire was proclaimed the champion county.

Champion County

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 traditi ...

Playing record (by county)

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

Notable events

* 1 June – Kent captain Lord Harris writes a letter to Lancashire concerning the "unfair" bowling of Nash and Crossland and decides not to play Lancashire unless they refrain from employing those two bowlers – the refusal is maintained even when the pair drop out. * On 17 July, Johnny Briggs and

Dick Pilling Richard Pilling (11 August 1855 – 28 March 1891) was an English professional cricketer who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club from 1877 to 1889, and in eight Test matches for England from 1881 to 1888. He was born at Old Warden, Bedford ...

playing for Lancashire against Surrey set a record stand for the tenth wicket of 173, which stands until

1899 Events January 1899 * January 1 ** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. ** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City. * January 2 – **Bolivia sets up a c ...

.Webber, Roy; ''The Playfair Book of Cricket Records''; p. 127. Published 1951 by Playfair Books.

Notes

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

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 return match between Kent and Lancashire was cancelled because Lord Harris objected to the bowling of two Lancashire players

References

Annual reviews

* ''James Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Annual'' (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1886 * ''

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 ...

'' 1886

External links

CricketArchive – season summaries
{{English cricket seasons 1885 in English cricket English cricket seasons in the 19th century