1905 was the 16th season of

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 ...

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. England defeated Australia 2–0 in the Test series and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

pipped defending champions

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 Lancashi ...

for the championship title.

Honours

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

*Wisden -

David Denton David Kipling Denton (born 5 February 1990) is a retired Zimbabwean-born Scottish rugby union player. He played in the back row, but could also play in the second row, and represented Edinburgh in the Pro12, Bath, Worcester Warriors and Leices ...

, Walter Lees, George Thompson,

Joe Vine Joseph Vine (15 May 1875 – 25 April 1946) was a professional cricketer, who played his first-class cricket for Sussex County Cricket Club and London County. Vine also played two Test matches for England and was named as one of the five Wisde ...

Levi Wright Levi George Wright (15 January 1862 – 11 January 1953) was an English footballer and first-class cricketer. He played association football for Derby County and Notts County and cricket for Derbyshire from 1883 to 1909 being captain for a seaso ...

County Championship

Yorkshire and Lancashire fought throughout the season; Lancashire were the first team to beat Yorkshire, in their ninth game, when hundreds from

Reggie Spooner Reginald Herbert Spooner (21 October 1880 – 2 October 1961) was a cricketer who played for Lancashire and England. He also played Rugby Union for England. Biography The son of the Rev. G. H. Spooner, of Woolton, Spooner was educated at ...

and

Johnny Tyldesley John Thomas Tyldesley (22 November 1873 – 27 November 1930) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Lancashire and Test cricket for England. He was a specialist professional batsman, usually third in the batting order, wh ...

helped Lancashire to an innings victory at Old Trafford. Lancashire went unbeaten until July, their fifteenth game, when Surrey overcame them at

Aigburth Aigburth () is a suburb of Liverpool, England. Located to the south of the city, it is bordered by Dingle, Garston, Mossley Hill, and Toxteth. Etymology The name Aigburth comes from Old Norse ''eik'' and ''berg'', meaning ''oak-tree hill''. T ...

, but Yorkshire were behind on the table with three losses before their match with Yorkshire at

Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramal ...

. With

Walter Brearley Walter Brearley (11 March 1876 – 30 January 1937) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Lancashire and England. Brearley was a fast bowler with what ''Wisden'' described as "a rolling gait" who put his full – and substantial ...

taking seven for 35 in the first innings, Lancashire took a lead of 101, but

Wilfred Rhodes Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman t ...

turned it around with 74 and four for 49. Lancashire could still have managed to take the title with wins in their final games, but a loss to Gloucestershire at Bristol while Yorkshire avoided defeat meant the title went to Yorkshire. This season saw

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

join the Championship; they played twelve matches, beating

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

to avoid the wooden spoon.

Final table

The final

table is shown below. One point was awarded for a win, none for a draw, and minus one for a loss. Positions were decided on percentage of points over completed games. * ¹ Games completed

Most runs in the County Championship

Most wickets in the County Championship

Ashes tour

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

toured England in 1905, playing 35 first class matches around the British Isles. They only lost three of them, beating both champions Yorkshire and runners-up Lancashire, but two of the lost matches were Tests, and they drew the other three to lose the series 0–2. England's captain,

Stanley Jackson Sir Francis Stanley Jackson Jackson's obituary in the 1948 ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack''. This gives his full name as ''Francis'' Stanley Jackson, whereas Cricinfo and CricketArchive both give his full name as ''Frank'' Stanley Jackson. This ...

, not only won the series, but also won the toss in all five matches and headed both the batting and the bowling averages. Australia only took a first-innings lead in one of the matches, the first, and then

Archie MacLaren Archibald Campbell MacLaren (1 December 1871 – 17 November 1944) was an English cricketer who captained the English cricket team, England cricket team at various times between 1898 and 1909. A right-handed Batting (cricket), batsman, he ...

responded with his highest career Test score of 140 before Bernard Bosanquet took eight for 107 and bowled England to a 213-run victory. The second Test only reached the third innings, with no play possible on the final day, while Australia survived 91 overs for the loss of seven wickets in the drawn third Test. In the fourth Test, however, they lost nine wickets for 51 on the final day, after being asked to

follow on In the game of cricket, a team who batted second and scored significantly fewer runs than the team who batted first may be forced to follow-on: to take their second innings immediately after their first. The follow-on can be enforced by the team ...

249 behind. They lost by an innings and 80 runs, thus conceding an unassailable lead in the series before the final Test, where England made 430 and 261 for six declared to draw the game. The Australians' only other loss came at

Leyton Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

in June.

Overall first-class statistics

Leading batsmen

Leading bowlers

References

Annual reviews

Wisden 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 ...

1906

External links

Cricket in England in 1905
{{Ashes Test series 1905 in English cricket

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...