The 1897 English cricket season saw Lancashire win the County Championship title for the first time in the official running of the Championship, thanks mainly to only three losses in twenty-six matches. Surrey won more games, and beat Lancashire twice, but one more loss than Lancashire meant that they would have to be content with second place. They could have taken the Championship home if they had beaten Sussex in the last game at The County Ground, Hove, but after gaining a five-run lead on first innings, Surrey let Billy Murdoch, C. B. Fry and George Bean make half-centuries, and rain spoiled their chances of winning on the final day. In the bottom of the table, Derbyshire strung together a run of 16 matches without victory, as they finished last in the table, and with the end of 1896 yielding three matches without a win, Derbyshire's streak read 19 matches without a win at the end of the season.
Read more about 1897 English Cricket Season: Honours, Annual Reviews
Famous quotes containing the words english, cricket and/or season:
“The bright old day now dawns again; the cry runs through the the land,
In England there shall be dear bread—in Ireland, sword and brand;
And poverty, and ignorance, shall swell the rich and grand,
So, rally round the rulers with the gentle iron hand,
Of the fine old English Tory days;
Hail to the coming time!”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Love, all alike, no season knows, nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)