1926 English cricket season

The 1926 English cricket season saw England regain the Ashes. Lancashire overcame its eternal rivals and began a hat-trick sequence of county titles.

Honours

*County Championship - Lancashire
*Minor Counties Championship - Durham
*Wisden - George Geary, Harold Larwood, Jack Mercer, Bert Oldfield, Bill Woodfull

Test Series

See also: Australian cricket team in England in 1926

England regained the Ashes by winning the final Test at The Oval after the first four matches against Australia were all drawn. Because the series was at stake, the match was to be "timeless", ie played to a finish. Australia had a narrow first innings lead of 22. Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe took the score to 49-0 at the end of the second day, a lead of 27. Heavy rain fell overnight, and next day the pitch soon developed into a traditional sticky wicket. England seemed doomed to be bowled out cheaply and to lose the match. In spite of the very difficult batting conditions, however, Hobbs and Sutcliffe took their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was out for exactly 100. Sutcliffe went on to make 161 and in the end England won the game comfortably

Leading batsmen

Jack Hobbs topped the averages, at the age of 43, with 2949 runs @ 77.60

Leading bowlers

Wilfred Rhodes topped the averages with 115 wickets @ 14.86, outdoing Hobbs since he was aged 48.

External sources

* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/1926_ENG.html CricketArchive – season summary]

Annual reviews

* Wisden Cricketers Almanack 1927

Further reading

* Bill Frindall, "The Wisden Book of Test Cricket 1877-1978", Wisden, 1979
* Chris Harte, "A History of Australian Cricket", Andre Deutsch, 1993
* Ray Robinson, "On Top Down Under", Cassell, 1975
* Ralph Barker & Irving Rosenwater, "England v Australia: A compendium of Test cricket between the countries 1877-1968", Batsford, 1969, ISBN 0-7134-0317-9