View source for 1896 Minor Counties Championship

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox cricket tournament
| administrator =
| cricket format = 2 days
| tournament format = [[Sports league|League system]]
| champions = [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]
| count = 1
| participants = 13
| matches = 37
| most runs = [[Harry Foster (cricketer)|Harry Foster]] {{-}} (550 for Worcestershire)
| most wickets = [[George Nash (cricketer)|George Nash]] {{-}} (65 for Buckinghamshire)
| previous_year = 1895
| previous_tournament = 1895 Minor Counties Championship
| next_year = 1897
| next_tournament = 1897 Minor Counties Championship
}}
The '''1896 Minor Counties Championship''' was the second running of the [[Minor Counties Cricket Championship]], and ran from 25 May to 29 August 1896. [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] won their first outright title,<ref name=table>{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/Tables/4/Minor_Counties_Championship_1896.html|title=Minor Counties Championship 1896 Points Table|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=10 September 2013}}</ref> having shared the previous year's championship.<ref name=1895table>{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/Tables/4/Minor_Counties_Championship_1895.html|title=Minor Counties Championship 1895 Points Table|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=10 September 2013}}</ref> [[Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club|Buckinghamshire]] were runners-up and were the only other team to win more games than they lost.<ref name=table/> Thirteen teams competed in the championship, down one from the previous year. [[Bedfordshire County Cricket Club|Bedfordshire]], [[Cheshire County Cricket Club|Cheshire]] and [[Lincolnshire County Cricket Club|Lincolnshire]] were absent, while [[Glamorgan County Cricket Club|Glamorgan]] and [[Northumberland County Cricket Club|Northumberland]] made their Minor Counties Championship debuts.
The leading run-scorer, [[Harry Foster (cricketer)|Harry Foster]], who played for Worcestershire,<ref name=runs>{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/4/Minor_Counties_Championship_1896/Batting_by_Runs.html|title=Batting and Fielding in Minor Counties Championship 1896 (Ordered by Runs)|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=10 September 2013}}</ref> was the only batsman to score more than one [[Century (cricket)|century]] over the course of the season.<ref name=centuries>{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/4/Minor_Counties_Championship_1896/Centuries.html|title=Minor Counties Championship 1896 - Centuries|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=10 September 2013}}</ref> The leading wicket-taker, Buckinghamshire's [[George Nash (cricketer)|George Nash]],<ref name=wickets>{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/4/Minor_Counties_Championship_1896/Bowling_by_Wickets.html|title=Bowling in Minor Counties Championship 1896 (Ordered by Wickets)|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=10 September 2013}}</ref> took the two largest match wicket hauls of the season: 14/100 and 12/102 against [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] and [[Oxfordshire County Cricket Club|Oxfordshire]], respectively.<ref name=tens>{{cite web |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/4/Minor_Counties_Championship_1896/Ten_Wickets_in_Match.html|title=Minor Counties Championship 1896 - Ten Wickets in a Match|publisher=CricketArchive|accessdate=10 September 2013}}</ref>
==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 a win or a loss), and multiplying by 100.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!width=175 |Team
!width=20 abbr="Played" |Pld
!width=20 abbr="Won" |[[Result (cricket)#Win and loss|W]]
!width=20 abbr="Lost" |[[Result (cricket)#Win and loss|L]]
!width=20 abbr="Draw" |[[Result (cricket)#Draw|D]]
!width=20 abbr="Abandoned" |[[Result (cricket)#Abandoned|A]]
!width=20 abbr="Points" |Pts
!width=20 abbr="Finished matches" |Fin
!width=20 abbr="Percentage of finished matches" |%Fin
|- style="background:#ccffcc;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]
|9||6||1||2||0||5||7||'''71.43'''
|- style="background:#f9f9f9;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club|Buckinghamshire]]
|8||4||1||3||0||3||5||'''60.00'''
|- style="background:#FFCCCC;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]]&nbsp;{{double-dagger}}
|4||1||1||2||0||0||2||'''0.00'''
|- style="background:#f9f9f9;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Hertfordshire County Cricket Club|Hertfordshire]]
|8||2||2||4||0||0||4||'''0.00'''
|- style="background:#f9f9f9;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]]
|8||2||2||4||0||0||4||'''0.00'''
|- style="background:#f9f9f9;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Northumberland County Cricket Club|Northumberland]]
|8||2||2||4||0||0||4||'''0.00'''
|- style="background:#FFCCCC;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Wiltshire County Cricket Club|Wiltshire]]&nbsp;{{double-dagger}}
|4||1||1||2||0||0||2||'''0.00'''
|- style="background:#f9f9f9;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Berkshire County Cricket Club|Berkshire]]
|8||1||2||5||0||&ndash;1||3||'''&ndash;33.33'''
|- style="background:#f9f9f9;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Oxfordshire County Cricket Club|Oxfordshire]]
|8||1||3||3||1||&ndash;2||4||'''&ndash;50.00'''
|- style="background:#FFCCCC;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Glamorgan County Cricket Club|Glamorgan]]&nbsp;{{double-dagger}}
|1||0||1||0||0||&ndash;1||1||'''&ndash;100.00'''
|- style="background:#FFCCCC;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Norfolk County Cricket Club|Norfolk]]&nbsp;{{double-dagger}}
|4||0||3||1||0||&ndash;3||3||'''&ndash;100.00'''
|- style="background:#FFCCCC;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Staffordshire County Cricket Club|Staffordshire]]&nbsp;{{double-dagger}}
|2||0||1||1||0||&ndash;1||1||'''&ndash;100.00'''
|- style="background:#FFCCCC;"
|style="text-align:left;"|[[Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club|Cambridgeshire]]&nbsp;{{double-dagger}}
|2||0||0||1||1||0||0||'''&mdash;'''
|-
|colspan=9 align="left"|Source:<ref name=table/>
|}
;Notes
* {{Color box|#ccffcc|border=darkgray}} denotes the Champion team(s).
* {{Color box|#FFCCCC|<nowiki>‡</nowiki>|border=darkgray}} denotes a team that failed to play the minimum of eight matches. These teams are sometimes omitted from the table altogether.
==Averages==
{|
|- valign="top"
||
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;"
!colspan=4| Most runs
|-
! Aggregate
! [[Batting average (cricket)|Average]]
! Player
! County
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 550 ||style="text-align:center;"| 45.83 || [[Harry Foster (cricketer)|Harry Foster]] || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 450 ||style="text-align:center;"| 32.14 || George Colson || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 365 ||style="text-align:center;"| 33.18 || [[Jack Saunders (Middlesex cricketer)|Jack Saunders]] || [[Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club|Buckinghamshire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 343 ||style="text-align:center;"| 28.58 || Charles Nepean || [[Berkshire County Cricket Club|Berkshire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 336 ||style="text-align:center;"| 25.84 || [[George Thompson (cricketer)|George Thompson]] || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]]
|-
|colspan=4 align="left"|Source:<ref name=runs/>
|}
||
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;"
!colspan=4| Most wickets
|-
! Aggregate
! [[Bowling average|Average]]
! Player
! County
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 65 ||style="text-align:center;"| 11.01 || [[George Nash (cricketer)|George Nash]] || [[Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club|Buckinghamshire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 53 ||style="text-align:center;"| 9.18 || [[Ted Arnold]] || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 47 ||style="text-align:center;"| 15.78 || [[George Thompson (cricketer)|George Thompson]] || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 45 ||style="text-align:center;"| 10.42 || Billie Barker || [[Berkshire County Cricket Club|Berkshire]]
|-
|style="text-align:center;"| 43 ||style="text-align:center;"| 13.34 || Brusher Rogers || [[Oxfordshire County Cricket Club|Oxfordshire]]
|-
|colspan=4 align="left"|Source:<ref name=wickets/>
|}
|}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/4/Minor_Counties_Championship_1896.html Minor Counties Championship 1896] at CricketArchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minor Counties Championship, 1896}}
[[Category:1896 in English cricket]]
[[Category:English cricket seasons in the 19th century]]
[[Category:National Counties Championship seasons|1896]]