# 1907 English cricket season

1907 was the 18th season of County Championship cricket in England. Nottinghamshire won their first official title. England played their sixth Test series against South Africa but it was the first to be held in England.

## South African tour

This was the fourth South African tour of England following those in 1894, 1901 and 1904. The 1907 tour was the first to feature Test matches between England and South Africa in England, although the teams had played Tests in South Africa since 1888–89. England won the series 1–0 with two matches drawn.

### Series summary

* First Test at Lord's – match drawn
* Second Test at Headingley – England won by 53 runs
* Third Test at The Oval – match drawn

## County Championship

| | County | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | Abandoned | Points | Finished Games | % |
| 1 | Nottinghamshire | 20 | 15 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 15 | 15 | 100.00 |
| 2 | Worcestershire | 18 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 60.00 |
| 2 | Yorkshire | 28 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 15 | 60.00 |
| 4 | Surrey | 28 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 50.00 |
| 5 | Middlesex | 20 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 33.33 |
| 6 | Lancashire | 26 | 11 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 22.22 |
| 7 | Essex | 22 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 17.64 |
| 8 | Kent | 26 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 21 | 14.28 |
| 9 | Warwickshire | 20 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 9.09 |
| 10 | Gloucestershire | 22 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 0 | -4 | 20 | -20.00 |
| 11 | Leicestershire | 20 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 0 | -4 | 16 | -25.00 |
| 12 | Hampshire | 24 | 6 | 11 | 7 | 0 | -5 | 17 | -29.41 |
| 13 | Sussex | 26 | 7 | 13 | 6 | 0 | -6 | 20 | -30.00 |
| 14 | Somerset | 18 | 3 | 12 | 3 | 0 | -9 | 16 | -66.66 |
| 15 | Northamptonshire | 20 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 0 | -10 | 14 | -71.42 |
| 16 | Derbyshire | 22 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 2 | -15 | 19 | -78.94 |
| Details as recorded in John Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack. |||||||||
Points system:
* 1 for a win
* 0 for a draw, a tie or an abandoned match
* -1 for a loss

## Minor Counties Championship

An entirely new system of scoring was adopted for the Minor Counties Championship in 1907. With Oxfordshire dropping out and Lincolnshire and Worcestershire Second Eleven coming in, the twenty-one Minor Counties clubs were split into four divisions – North, Midlands, East and West – and a system of semi-finals between division leaders and a final was used to determine the winner.

### North

| | County | Played | Won | Won on 1st inns | No result | Possible points | Points obtained | % |
| 1 | Lancashire Second Eleven | 9 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 45 | 34 | 75.55 |
| 2 | Staffordshire | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 28 | 62.22 |
| 3 | Durham | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 45 | 18 | 40.00 |
| 4 | Yorkshire Second Eleven | 10 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 45 | 16 | 35.55 |
| 5 | Lincolnshire | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 15 | 30.00 |
| 6 | Northumberland | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 40 | 8 | 20.00 |
One match between Lancashire Second Eleven and Staffordshire was abandoned without a ball bowled due to rain.

### Midlands

| | County | Played | Won | Won on 1st inns | No result | Possible points | Points obtained | % |
| 1 | Surrey Second Eleven | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 33 | 82.50 |
| 2 | Wiltshire | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 23 | 57.50 |
| 3 | Berkshire | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 19 | 47.50 |
| 4 | Buckinghamshire | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 10 | 25.00 |
| 5 | Worcestershire Second Eleven | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 3 | 7.50 |

### East

| | County | Played | Won | Won on 1st inns | No result | Possible points | Points obtained | % |
| 1 | Hertfordshire | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 33 | 75.00 |
| 2 | Norfolk | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 23 | 57.50 |
| 3 | Suffolk | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 35 | 13 | 37.14 |
| 4 | Bedfordshire | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 13 | 32.50 |
| 5 | Cambridgeshire | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 35 | 10 | 28.57 |

### West

| | County | Played | Won | Won on 1st inns | No result | Possible points | Points obtained | % |
| 1 | Glamorgan | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 36 | 90.00 |
| 2 | Devon | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 20 | 50.00 |
| 3 | Dorset | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 13 | 32.50 |
| 4 | Cornwall | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 11 | 27.50 |
| 5 | Monmouthshire | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 8 | 20.00 |
Points system:
* 5 for an outright win
* 3 for a win on the first innings
* 0 for a loss either outright or on the first innings of a drawn match
Matches with no first innings result are ignored when calculating maximum possible points.

### Semi-finals

* 22 August – Lancashire Second Eleven 263 defeated Hertfordshire 85 and 101 by an innings and 77 runs
* 29 August – Surrey Second Eleven 198 and 103 lost to Glamorgan 146 and 156 for six wickets by four wickets

### Final

* Lancashire Second Eleven 243 and 121 defeated Glamorgan 74 and 182 by 108 runs.

## Wisden Cricketers of the Year

* Albert Hallam, Reginald Schwarz, Frank Tarrant, Bert Vogler, Thomas Wass

## Leading batsmen (qualification 20 innings)

1907 English season leading batsmen :
| Name | Team | Matches | Innings | Not outs | Runs | Highest score | Average | 100s | 50s |
| C.B. Fry | Sussex | 19 | 34 | 3 | 1449 | 187 | 46.74 | 4 | 5 |
| “Plum” Warner | Middlesex MCC | 27 | 47 | 6 | 1891 | 149 | 46.12 | 3 | 13 |
| Tom Hayward | Surrey | 34 | 58 | 6 | 2353 | 161 | 45.25 | 7 | 12 |
| Albert Lawton | Derbyshire MCC | 12 | 21 | 1 | 835 | 129 | 41.75 | 3 | 4 |
| Geoffrey Foster | Oxford University Worcestershire | 18 | 33 | 4 | 1182 | 163 | 40.75 | 2 | 6 |
| Henry Foster | Worcestershire MCC | 19 | 33 | 3 | 1127 | 152 | 37.56 | 3 | 5 |
| Jack Hobbs | Surrey | 37 | 63 | 6 | 2135 | 166 not out | 37.45 | 4 | 15 |
| Arthur Hill | Hampshire | 11 | 20 | 1 | 711 | 116 | 37.42 | 1 | 5 |
| Percy Perrin | Essex | 20 | 34 | 2 | 1194 | 117 | 37.31 | 3 | 8 |
| Tip Foster | Worcestershire | 16 | 25 | 1 | 888 | 174 | 37.00 | 2 | 4 |

## Leading bowlers (qualification 1,000 balls)

1907 English season leading bowlers :
| Name | Team | Balls bowled | Runs conceded | Wickets taken | Average | Best bowling | 5 wickets in innings | 10 wickets in match |
| Reggie Schwarz | South Africans | 4269 | 1616 | 137 | 11.80 | 7/41 | 12 | 2 |
| Albert Hallam | Nottinghamshire | 5617 | 2133 | 168 | 12.69 | 8/67 | 20 | 6 |
| Schofield Haigh | Yorkshire | 3567 | 1308 | 102 | 12.82 | 7/13 | 8 | 1 |
| Thomas Wass | Nottinghamshire | 5316 | 2328 | 163 | 14.28 | 8/65 | 17 | 6 |
| William Huddleston | Lancashire | 2715 | 1092 | 76 | 14.36 | 7/42 | 7 | 2 |
| Gordon White | South Africans | 1661 | 824 | 56 | 14.71 | 7/33 | 3 | 1 |
| George Hirst | Yorkshire | 6831 | 2799 | 183 | 15.29 | 9/45 | 17 | 4 |
| Colin Blythe | Kent | 6817 | 2822 | 183 | 15.42 | 10/30 | 17 | 6 |
| Humphrey Gilbert | Oxford University | 1714 | 683 | 44 | 15.52 | 8/48 | 4 | 1 |
| Wilfred Rhodes | Yorkshire | 6265 | 2693 | 173 | 15.56 | 6/19 | 13 | 2 |

## Notable events

* 1 June – Colin Blythe takes 17 wickets for 48 runs in one day's cricket against Northamptonshire, setting two records:
* The best bowling analysis in a first-class match, beaten only by Jim Laker when he took nineteen wickets for 90 runs for England against Australia in 1956.
* The first bowler to take seventeen wickets in a single day – a feat since equalled only by Hedley Verity in 1933 and Tom Goddard in 1939.
* Playing against Gloucestershire at the Spa Ground in June, Northamptonshire were dismissed in their first innings for only 12 runs, which is still the lowest innings total in the history of the County Championship.
* As many as ten pairs of bowlers bowled unchanged throughout two completed innings during a match, the most on record in English cricket history.