1865 English cricket season
Encyclopedia
The 1865 English cricket season saw the first-class
debut of WG Grace
3 March. Formation of Worcestershire CCC.
22 June. WG Grace made his first-class debut playing for Gentlemen of the South v. Players of the South. This was a two-day match which his team won by an innings and 58 runs. Amazingly, he began his career with a duck: st HH Stephenson b G Bennett. However, he made up for this disappointment by taking 5-44 and 8-40! He was then aged just 16.
Grace played in five matches during his debut season but he was still not attached to a first-class county (Gloucestershire did not become a first-class team until 1870). His other games in 1865 were for Gentlemen v. Players (twice), England v. Surrey and Gentlemen of England v. Gentlemen of Middlesex.
Grace played till 1908. He remains peerless as a player and is known to history as The Great Cricketer. A massive personality who was the sport’s supreme all-rounder, but he is best remembered as a master batsman who conquered the uncertain pitch conditions of his time. His superiority over his contemporaries is astounding and only Don Bradman has a similar stature in the game's history.
Lancashire CCC joined the list of teams generally accepted in the unofficial County Championship and played its initial first-class match v. Middlesex at Old Trafford on 20, 21 & 22 July.
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut of WG Grace
Events
15 & 16 February. Earliest inter-colonial match in the West Indies was Barbados v. Demerara (now Guyana) at Bridgetown. This is recognised as the start of West Indian first-class cricket.3 March. Formation of Worcestershire CCC.
22 June. WG Grace made his first-class debut playing for Gentlemen of the South v. Players of the South. This was a two-day match which his team won by an innings and 58 runs. Amazingly, he began his career with a duck: st HH Stephenson b G Bennett. However, he made up for this disappointment by taking 5-44 and 8-40! He was then aged just 16.
Grace played in five matches during his debut season but he was still not attached to a first-class county (Gloucestershire did not become a first-class team until 1870). His other games in 1865 were for Gentlemen v. Players (twice), England v. Surrey and Gentlemen of England v. Gentlemen of Middlesex.
Grace played till 1908. He remains peerless as a player and is known to history as The Great Cricketer. A massive personality who was the sport’s supreme all-rounder, but he is best remembered as a master batsman who conquered the uncertain pitch conditions of his time. His superiority over his contemporaries is astounding and only Don Bradman has a similar stature in the game's history.
Lancashire CCC joined the list of teams generally accepted in the unofficial County Championship and played its initial first-class match v. Middlesex at Old Trafford on 20, 21 & 22 July.
External sources
Annual reviews
- Fred LillywhiteFred LillywhiteFrederick Lillywhite was a sports outfitter and cricketing entrepreneur, who organised the first overseas cricket tour by an English team and published a number of reference works about cricket.-Cricketing dynasty:...
, The Guide to Cricketers, Lillywhite, 1866 - John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1866
- Arthur HaygarthArthur HaygarthArthur Haygarth was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians....
, Scores & Biographies, Volume 9 (1865-1866), Lillywhite, 1867