Picture courtesy of Mick Pope. Yorkshire’s players pose in front of the Edgbaston scoreboard following the record total of 887 all out.
Yorkshire versus Warwickshire, Edgbaston, May 1896. A game which produced three standout records that still stand firm today.
“One of the really great Yorkshire sides”, according to historian Jeremy Lonsdale, they racked up a first-innings 887 all out thanks largely to centuries from FS Jackson, Ted Wainwright, Bobby Peel and captain Lord Hawke.
Peel led the way with an unbeaten 210.
The three-day County Championship match finished in a draw, with the 887 remaining Yorkshire’s highest ever first-class total and the second highest in all first-class matches played in England.
At the time, it was a first for four centuries in a first-class innings. That has since been surpassed to the tune of six centuries, achieved once in both India and Pakistan. But it remains a Yorkshire record and a joint English record.
Yorkshire went on to win the title that season, only their second of 32 to date. The first had come in 1893.
Between 1893 and 1912, they won the Championship nine times, all but the last of them coming under Hawke’s leadership.
“They won the Championship in 1893, and it was the turning point in the club’s history,” said Lonsdale.
“1896 was the first of six titles in 10 years, so it really was a classic Yorkshire side.”
Picture courtesy of Mick Pope. Yorkshire captain Lord Hawke, who made a century in the game in question at Edgbaston.
The trip to Edgbaston marked the second Championship game of the 1896 season, with Yorkshire having beaten Lancashire in the first by two wickets over at Old Trafford.
Against Warwickshire, they won the toss and elected to bat.
“It started off as a pretty typical county game,” said Lonsdale. “First wicket goes down at 43, second at 124, third at 141. There wasn’t much of a sense that there was something remarkable about to happen.
“But it kicks off in the afternoon on day one and continued to 6.20pm on the second day.
“One interesting thing about it is that they ended the day on 527-7, so it could all have been wrapped up very quickly on that second morning. But they just batted and batted, with Peel and Hawke sharing 292 for the eighth wicket (448-7 to 740-8).
“That was also a Yorkshire record and the highest by any county. Those records still stand.
“There weren’t actually that many people on the ground at the start of the second day, but the crowd built up as news filtered through what was happening – the number I’ve found is around about 2,500. But apparently mostly sitting in ‘melancholy silence’.
“I think it’s worth saying that Warwickshire were quite weak.
“It was only their second season in the Championship, and they finished 12th out of 14 that year. They had been beaten by an innings against Surrey in their first game, and there was a clear disparity in quality.
Picture courtesy of Mick Pope. Yorkshire’s great all-rounder George Hirst, who contributed with bat and ball against Warwickshire in 1896. Hirst is also featured in the cover photo for this article.
“They ended up using ten bowlers in that first innings. Poor old Sydney Santall, who opened, ended up bowling 65 overs for 2-223. And Henry Pallett 75 overs for 4-184. Their wicketkeeper Dick Lilley was one of the bowlers. It was very hot as well, which certainly wasn’t ideal for them.”
Lonsdale continued: “One of the things I was thinking when looking back was, ‘Why on earth did Yorkshire carry on batting as long as they did’.
“But at this point in the game’s history, they weren’t allowed to declare until the third day.
“It does seem excessive, but Warwickshire just couldn’t bowl them out until right at the end of day two, and there was no time left for them to start their first innings.”
On day three, Warwickshire were bowled out for 203 in their first innings, George Hirst taking 8-59 from 40.1 overs having taken the new ball.
The hosts, following-on, then closed the game with 48-1 second time around.
“That first-innings 887 is still the 12th highest first-class score of all time, or the 11th if you count that two teams have both posted 912.
“This has only been beaten once in this country, and that was when England made 903-7 declared against Australia at the Oval in 1938. That was when Len Hutton got his 364.
“The previous week, in the Yorkshire versus Lancashire game, Yorkshire had only posted totals of 123 all out and then 168-8.
Picture courtesy of Mick Pope. Bobby Peel, one of four Yorkshire centurions as they amassed a record 887 all out.
“Another interesting thing is that of those four batsmen who scored a century in the innings, none of them scored a century for Yorkshire throughout the whole of the previous season.
“It also made me chuckle that, at the end of the first day – after over 500 runs had been scored on a hot day, Warwickshire hosted Yorkshire for a dinner to celebrate the opening of the new pavilion at Edgbaston.
“That would have been an interesting experience for all involved.
A couple of players who starred in this game are of particular interest, captain Hawke, whose 166 from number nine was a career best, and all-rounder Hirst.
Batting at 10, he contributed 85 before starring with that aforementioned 8-59 as a left-arm medium-fast bowler.
Lonsdale said: “Lord Hawke dominated Yorkshire Cricket from the mid-1880s right through until his death in 1938. He has a reputation for being fairly authoritarian.
“He wasn’t actually the greatest of cricketers. He only averaged 20 with the bat across his 633 first-class matches, of which five were Tests for England.
“But he was a strong captain and still one of the great figures of Yorkshire Cricket.
“Much has been written about how he improved the lot of the county’s professional players. I’m sure there’s a lot of truth in that.”
Picture courtesy of Mick Pope. Lord Hawke, the founding father of Yorkshire Cricket.
And on all-rounder Hirst, who topped 36,000 runs and 2,700 first-class wickets added to 600 plus catches, Lonsdale said: “When you look down the side, it really was superb.
“There were some fantastic players, and Hirst was very much a part of that.
“His runs, wickets and catches, he was everywhere.
“He was one of those cricketers that if you want to fantasise about such things, you wonder what he’d be like – and how much he’d be worth – in T20 cricket today. Would that format have been perfect for someone like Hirst?”
And just going back to the 887 total, Lonsdale added: “This was a golden age of batting.
“There’d been a lot of high scores the summer before in 1895.
“It was all part of improving pitches and exceptionally good players.
“Archie MacLaren had scored his 424 for Lancashire against Somerset, as part of a record breaking 801 in the first innings of the match at Taunton.
“People just assumed that record would last for a while. But Yorkshire’s 887 just swept that aside.”
