1957 was the 58th 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 str ...

in England. Surrey's run of success continued with a sixth successive title and this was the most decisive as they won 21 matches out of 28 and lost none. They finished with 312 points while runners-up

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 ...

had 218. England defeated West Indies 3–0.

Honours

– Surrey * Minor Counties Championship – Yorkshire Second XI *Wisden

Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

– Peter Loader, Arthur McIntyre,

Collie Smith O'Neil Gordon "Collie" Smith (5 May 1933 – 9 September 1959) was a West Indian cricketer. A hard-hitting batsman and off-spin bowler, Smith was rated highly in West Indies. He idolised Jim Laker, for which reason he was nicknamed "Jim" for a ...

, Mickey Stewart,

Clyde Walcott Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott KA, GCM, OBE (17 January 1926 – 26 August 2006) was a West Indian cricketer. Walcott was a member of the "three W's", the other two being Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell: all were very successful batsmen from Barb ...

Test series

West Indies tour

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

defeated West Indies 3–0 with two matches drawn. The first match, at

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

, was crucial. England had appeared likely to lose it by an innings, until Peter May and

Colin Cowdrey Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, (24 December 19324 December 2000) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University (1952–1954), Kent County Cricket Club (1950–1976) and England (1954–1975). Univers ...

came together in a partnership of 411, then the fourth wicket Test record for all countries. May made 285* and Cowdrey 154. As a result, England saved (and nearly won) the match. The mastery that Sonny Ramadhin had enjoyed over English batsmen since

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

was broken.

County Championship

It was jokingly suggested that Surrey might still have won the title had they had no stumps to bowl at, for Mickey Stewart held 77 catches (only one short of

Wally Hammond Walter Reginald Hammond (19 June 1903 – 1 July 1965) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed cap ...

's record for a fielder), and

Ken Barrington Kenneth Frank Barrington (24 November 193014 March 1981), was an English international cricketer who played for the England cricket team and Surrey County Cricket Club in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a right-handed batsman and occasional leg-sp ...

and

Tony Lock Graham Anthony Richard Lock (5 July 1929 – 30 March 1995) was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in forty nine Tests for England taking 174 wickets at 25.58 each. Lock took 2,844 first-class wicket ...

each held 64.

Leading players

Peter May topped the

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

s with 2,347 runs at an average of 61.76.

topped the bowling averages with 212 wickets taken at 12.02 runs per wicket.

References

Annual reviews

Playfair Cricket Annual ''Playfair Cricket Annual'' is a compact annual about cricket that is published in the United Kingdom each April, just before the English cricket season is due to begin. It has been published every year since 1948. Its main purposes are to revie ...

1958 *

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 ...

1958 1957 in English cricket English cricket seasons in the 20th century {{England-cricket-season-stub