The 1876 English cricket season saw WG Grace become the first player to score 2000 runs and take 100 wickets in a season: 2622 runs and 130 wickets in 26 matches.

Events

14 January. Formation of Essex CCC at a meeting in the Shire Hall, Chelmsford

Chelmsford

Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...

. There had been previous county organisations in Essex going back to the 18th century, mainly around the famous Hornchurch club.

Leading batsmen

WG Grace was the leading runscorer with 2622 @ 62.42.

During the season, Grace made his highest first-class

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 score of 344, for MCC

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 v Kent

Kent County Cricket Club

Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...

 at Canterbury in August. Two days later he made 177 for Gloucestershire v Notts

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...

, and two days after that 318 not out for Gloucestershire v Yorkshire

Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....

, the latter two innings against counties with exceptionally strong bowling attacks. Thus in three consecutive innings

Innings

An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is...

 Grace scored 839 runs, and was only out twice. The 344 was the first triple century scored in first class cricket. William Ward

William Ward (cricketer)

William Ward was a noted English cricketer. He came from an affluent family which owned property on the Isle of Wight. He was educated at Winchester College, and then received financial training in Antwerp.-Life and career:William Ward was a prominent right-handed batsman and an occasional slow...

's 278 scored in 1820 had stood as a record for 56 years; within a week Grace had bettered it twice.

External sources

• CricketArchive – season summaries

Annual reviews

• John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion (Green Lilly), Lillywhite, 1877
• James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (Red Lilly), Lillywhite, 1877
• Wisden Cricketers Almanack 1877