1876 was the 90th 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). Gloucestershire reclaimed the unofficial "Champion County" title. A relatively dry summer and improvements to pitches via the

heavy roller The roller is an agricultural tool used for flattening land or breaking up large clumps of soil, especially after ploughing or disc harrowing. Typically, rollers are pulled by tractors or, prior to mechanisation, a team of animals such as horses ...

saw several batting records broken.

Champion County

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

Playing record (by county)

Wynne-Thomas, Peter; ''The Rigby A-Z of Cricket Records''; p. 53

Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

Events

* 14 January: Formation of

Essex County Cricket Club Essex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Essex. Founded in 1876, the club had minor county status until 1894 when ...

at a meeting in the

Shire Hall, Chelmsford The Shire Hall is a municipal facility in Tindal Square in Chelmsford, Essex. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The current building was commissioned to replace an ageing 16th sessions house at the north end of the High Street which ho ...

. There had been previous county organisations in Essex going back to the 18th century, mainly around the famous Hornchurch club. * 20 June: At the soon-to-be-built-on

Prince's Cricket Ground Prince's Cricket Ground in Chelsea, London was a cricket ground, created by the brothers George and James Prince as part of the Prince's Club, on which 37 first-class matches were played between 1872 and 1878. The ground was built on in 1883. The ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

made the first total of 600 in a first-class match when they scored 612 against Middlesex with

William Game William Henry Game (2 October 1853 – 11 August 1932) was a cricketer for Sherborne School, Oxford University cricket team, Oxford University and Surrey County Cricket Club, Surrey. He also played rugby union as an outside back for Oxford Unive ...

top scoring with 141. * 27 June: Game became the first Oxonian to score a century against

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, scoring 109Caine, C. Stewart (editor); ''

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 ...

''; Seventieth Edition (1933); pp. 245–246 * In August, W.G. Grace made his highest first-class score of 344, for MCC v

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

at Canterbury in August. Two days later he made 177 for Gloucestershire v Notts, and two days after that scored 318 not out for Gloucestershire v

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 ...

, the latter two innings against counties with exceptionally strong bowling attacks. Thus in three consecutive

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

Grace scored 839 runs, and was only out twice. Grace's 344 was the first triple century scored in first class cricket. William Ward's 278 scored in 1820 had stood as a record for 56 years; within a week Grace had bettered it twice. * Grace also become the first player to score 2000 runs and take 100 wickets in a season: 2622 runs and 130 wickets in 26 matches. His feat was not equalled until

Charlie Townsend Charles Lucas Townsend (7 November 1876 – 17 October 1958) was a Gloucestershire cricketer. An all-round cricketer, Townsend was classically stylish, left-handed batsman, who was able to hit well despite his slender build. His off-side strok ...

in 1899. * Alfred Shaw became the first bowler to bowl 10,000 balls in a season, a feat he was to repeat in 1878 but was not equalled again until J.T. Hearne in

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

. His actual total of 10,526 balls was not bettered until

Tich Freeman Alfred Percy "Tich" Freeman (17 May 1888 – 28 January 1965) was an English first-class cricketer. A leg spin bowler for Kent County Cricket Club and England, he is the only man to take 300 wickets in an English season, and is the second most p ...

's record season in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

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.

References

Annual reviews

* ''John Lillywhite’s Cricketer’s Companion'' (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1877 * ''James Lillywhite’s Cricketers' Annual'' (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1877 * ''

'', 1877

External links

CricketArchive – season summaries
{{English cricket seasons 1876 in English cricket English cricket seasons in the 19th century