1964 English cricket season

The 1964 English cricket season saw Australia retain the Ashes as Bob Simpson led them through a hard-fought series.

Honours

*County Championship - Worcestershire
*Gillette Cup - Sussex
*Minor Counties Championship - Lancashire II
*Second XI Championship - Lancashire II
*Wisden (for their deeds in 1964) - Geoffrey Boycott, Peter Burge, Jack Flavell, Graham McKenzie, Bob Simpson

County Championship Table

Notes: Surrey and Worcestershire one point each for tie on first innings in match drawn; Gloucestershire and Hampshire one point each for tie on first innings in match lost. Hampshire five points in drawn match when scores finished level and they were batting.

Test Series

Australia retained the Ashes by beating England 1-0. Australia won the Third Test at Headingley and the other four were all drawn. In the match that Australia won, they were 187-7 in reply to England's 268 when Ted Dexter decided to take the new ball. In response, Peter Burge, the last recognised batsman, went on the attack. He scored 160, well supported by Neil Hawke and Wally Grout, and the last three wickets added 211. 121 behind on first innings, England could not recover. Since a draw in the Fourth Test at Old Trafford would ensure that Australia would retain the Ashes, they batted on till they had reached 656-8 before declaring, with Bobby Simpson scoring 311, his first Test century. England responded with 611 (Ken Barrington 256, Ted Dexter 174) and the match ended in the dullest of draws.

Leading batsmen

Ken Barrington topped the averages with 1872 runs @ 62.40

Leading bowlers

Jim Standen topped the averages with 64 wickets @ 13.00

External sources

* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/1964_ENG.html CricketArchive – season summary]

Annual reviews

* Playfair Cricket Annual 1965
* Wisden Cricketers Almanack 1965

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