1939 English cricket season

The 1939 English cricket season was the last before the Second World War and it was not until 1946 that cricket could resume in England on a normal basis. The season was almost over when war was declared on Sunday 3 September 1939.

The West Indies tourists cancelled their four remaining matches against Sussex, Kent, an England XI and H D G Leveson-Gower's XI, the tour ending after the final Test in August. Six County Championship games began on Wednesday 30 August and were completed on Friday 1 September, the day the Germans invaded Poland. Four games had been due to begin on 2 September but all were delayed due to the emergency and then cancelled. Four remaining games, including Gentlemen v Players were due to begin during the following week but all were cancelled.

1939 was the one and only season in which English cricket adopted the eight-ball over.

Earlier in the year in Australia, Don Bradman playing for South Australia had emulated the feat of C B Fry in the 1901 season by scoring centuries in six successive innings. As with Fry, the sequence spanned six matches.

Honours

*County Championship - Yorkshire
*Minor Counties Championship - Surrey II
*Wisden - Learie Constantine, Bill Edrich, Walter Keeton, Fred Price, Brian Sellers

Test Series

England played three Tests against West Indies, whose team included George Headley and Learie Constantine. England won the first Test by 8 wickets and the other two were drawn.

Leading batsmen

George Headley topped the averages with 1745 runs @ 72.60.

Other leading batsmen were Wally Hammond, Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Joe Hardstaff junior, Herbert Sutcliffe, Walter Keeton and Jack Iddon who all averaged over 50.

Leading bowlers

Poignantly, the leading bowler was Hedley Verity with an average of 13.13 and 191 wickets. Verity was killed in action during the war and, as for so many others, 1939 was his final season.

Other leading bowlers were Verity's Yorkshire colleague Bill Bowes, Tom Goddard and Bill Copson.

External sources

* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/1939_ENG.html CricketArchive – season summary]

Annual reviews

* Wisden Cricketers Almanack 1940