1897 County Championship

1897 County Championship

Cricket format	First-class cricket (3 days)
Tournament format	League system
Champions	Lancashire (1st title)
Participants	14
Matches	132
Most runs	Bobby Abel (1,833 for Surrey)
Most wickets	Tom Richardson (238 for Surrey)

The 1897 County Championship was the eighth officially organised running of the County Championship, and ran from 3 May to 30 August 1897. Lancashire County Cricket Club won the championship for the first time, narrowly beating Surrey.

Table

• One point was awarded for a win, and one point was taken away for each loss. Final placings were decided by dividing the number of points earned by the number of completed matches (i.e. those that ended in win or loss), and multiplying by 100.

Team	Pld	W	L	D	Pts	Fin	%Fin
Lancashire	26	16	3	7	13	19	68.42
Surrey	26	17	4	5	13	21	61.90
Essex	16	7	2	7	5	9	55.56
Yorkshire	26	13	5	8	8	18	44.44
Gloucestershire	18	7	5	6	2	12	16.67
Sussex	20	5	6	9	–1	11	–9.09
Middlesex	16	3	4	9	–1	7	–14.29
Warwickshire	18	3	4	11	–1	7	–14.29
Hampshire	18	4	7	7	–3	11	–27.27
Nottinghamshire	16	2	5	9	–3	7	–42.86
Somerset	16	3	9	4	–6	12	–50.00
Kent	18	2	10	6	–8	12	–66.67
Leicestershire	14	1	10	3	–9	11	–81.82
Derbyshire	16	0	9	7	–9	9	–100.00
Source: CricketArchive

Leading averages

Most runs Aggregate Average Player County 1,833 50.91 Bobby Abel Surrey 1,431 43.36 Jack Brown Yorkshire 1,372 39.20 Ted Wainwright Yorkshire 1,328 34.05 David Denton Yorkshire 1,318 42.51 K. S. Ranjitsinhji Sussex Source:

Most wickets Aggregate Average Player County 238 14.23 Tom Richardson Surrey 140 16.38 Johnny Briggs Lancashire 109 20.38 Frederick Bull Essex 102 17.77 Willis Cuttell Lancashire 102 18.52 Jack Hearne Middlesex Source: