1904 English cricket season

In the 1904 English cricket season Lancashire went through the County Championship unbeaten, which was enough to clinch the Championship title. Lancashire drew ten games, but their 16 wins were still more than any other team could muster. Defending champions Middlesex fell to fourth place, losing two successive matches to Kent and Nottinghamshire in June to have a negative percentage five games into the season. They did eventually win nine games, though, which was enough to take them past everyone bar Yorkshire and Kent. Yorkshire were two losses from sharing the Championship with Lancashire, and drew with the Champions on both occasions; despite Lancashire following on in their match at Headingley, Johnny Tyldesley made an unbeaten century from number three to draw the game.[1] However, even a win in this match could not have given Yorkshire the title.

Contents

Honours

County Championship

Final table

The final County Championship 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.

County Championship 1904 - Final Standings
Team P W L D A Pts GC1 Pts/GC (as %)
1 Lancashire 26 16 0 10 0 16 16 100.00
2 Yorkshire 27 9 2 16 0 7 11 63.64
3 Kent 21 10 4 7 0 6 14 42.86
4 Middlesex 18 9 4 5 0 5 13 38.46
5 Nottinghamshire 20 7 4 9 0 3 11 27.27
6 Sussex 24 5 4 15 0 1 9 11.11
=7 Leicestershire 20 6 6 8 0 0 12 0.00
=7 Warwickshire 16 5 5 6 0 0 10 0.00
9 Gloucestershire 18 5 6 7 0 -1 11 -9.09
10 Derbyshire 18 5 8 5 0 -3 13 -23.08
11 Surrey 28 6 12 10 0 -6 18 -33.33
12 Somerset 18 5 11 2 0 -6 16 -37.50
13 Worcestershire 18 3 8 7 0 -5 11 -45.45
14 Essex 20 3 10 7 0 -7 13 -53.85
15 Hampshire 18 2 12 4 0 -10 14 -71.43

Points system:

Most runs in the County Championship

1904 County Championship - leading batsmen
Name Team Matches Runs Average 100s 50s
C. B. Fry Sussex 23 2376 79.20 9 4
Johnny Tyldesley Lancashire 25 2237 69.90 8 7
Tom Hayward Surrey 26 2074 50.58 7 9
George Herbert Hirst Yorkshire 27 1848 51.33 6 8
James Iremonger Nottinghamshire 19 1812 60.40 5 8

Most wickets in the County Championship

1904 County Championship - leading bowlers
Name Team Matches Balls bowled Wickets taken Average
Edward Dennett Gloucestershire 18 5901 123 19.36
Colin Blythe Kent 21 5385 121 19.38
George Cox Sussex 23 6564 112 23.50
James Hallows Lancashire 24 5319 108 18.71
Bill Reeves Essex 20 5176 106 26.16

South Africans tour

The South Africans toured England during the season, playing 22 matches. Most of them were against regular first-class sides, but there were also matches against an England XI (with five players who had already played Test cricket), against Marylebone Cricket Club (with two Test players) and a South of England side with five Test players. The tourists won ten of their 22 matches, and lost two, against Worcestershire and Kent. They did not manage to beat any of the top four sides in the Championship, though; they drew with Lancashire and Yorkshire (twice), lost to Kent and tied with Middlesex. Frank Mitchell, the South Africans' captain, also played first class cricket for Yorkshire during the season, which helped him score more than 1,000 first class runs in the season. 839 of those were made for South Africa;[2] Louis Tancred (1217)[3] and Maitland Hathorn[4] were the two players to make more than 1,000 runs for South Africa only. On the bowling side, pace bowler Johannes Kotze headed the attack, claiming 104 wickets in his 22 matches for South Africa.[5]

Overall first-class statistics

Leading batsmen

1904 English cricket season - leading batsmen
Name Team(s) Matches Runs Average 100s 50s
Tom Hayward Players, South of England, Surrey 36 3170 54.65 11 11
C. B. Fry Gentlemen, Gentlemen of England, Sussex 29 2824 70.60 10 6
George Herbert Hirst North of England, Yorkshire 36 2501 54.36 9 10
Johnny Tyldesley Lancashire, North of England 30 2439 62.53 8 9
David Denton North of England, Players, Yorkshire 36 2088 40.15 3 15

Leading bowlers

1904 English cricket season - leading bowlers
Name Team(s) Matches Balls bowled Wickets taken Average
J. T. Hearne England XI, MCC, Middlesex, Players, South of England 32 6921 145 18.84
Colin Blythe Kent, South of England 24 6146 138 19.60
George Herbert Hirst North of England, Yorkshire 36 6198 132 21.09
Bernard Bosanquet Gentlemen, MCC, Middlesex, I Zingari, South of England 27 4363 132 21.62
Wilfred Rhodes North of England, Players, Yorkshire 36 7184 131 21.59

References

  1. ^ Yorkshire v Lancashire in 1904, from CricketArchive, retrieved 5 August 2006
  2. ^ Player Oracle Reveals Results, from CricketArchive, retrieved 5 August 2006
  3. ^ Player Oracle Reveals Results, from CricketArchive, retrieved 5 August 2006
  4. ^ Player Oracle Reveals Results, from CricketArchive, retrieved 5 August 2006
  5. ^ Player Oracle Reveals Results, from CricketArchive, retrieved 5 August 2006

External sources

Further reading

English cricket seasons: 1890 to 1918

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