In the 1923 County Championship Yorkshire won 25 of their 32 matches under Geoffrey Wilson — at the time the highest number of wins by any county in a single season since the modern Championship began in 1890.
Yorkshire had won the title in 1919, 1920 and 1922. The 1923 side was reinforced by the maturity of George Macaulay's off-spin and the consistency of Sutcliffe and Holmes at the top of the order.
Yorkshire's 1923 season was the second of their four consecutive Championship titles (1922-25). Captained by the amateur Geoffrey Wilson, the side fielded a settled XI across the season — Sutcliffe and Holmes opening, the captain at three, Maurice Leyland at four, the bowling of Wilfred Rhodes, George Macaulay, Emmott Robinson and Roy Kilner taking 700 wickets between them.
The team won 25, lost 2 and drew 5 of their 32 Championship matches. Their points percentage of 89.7 has not been matched in a full Championship season since. Across the year Macaulay took 166 wickets at 14.3, Robinson 138 at 16.4, Kilner 135 at 16.0 and Rhodes 117 at 12.2 — four bowlers each taking 100-plus wickets, the first time any county had achieved this since the Championship structure stabilised.
The 1923 season is considered the high-water mark of Yorkshire county cricket. The team finished the year having scored 16,800 runs and conceded 11,200 — a points percentage that the longest-serving Championship statisticians regard as the strongest county record of the inter-war era.
May 1923: Season opens with three wins in four matches
Mid-season: Yorkshire ten matches clear at the top
Aug 1923: 25th Championship win secured
Sept 1923: Season closes with two losses and five draws
Final record: 25-2-5 from 32 matches
May 1923
Season begins
Aug 1923
25th win secured
Sep 1923
Title secured for second consecutive year
“We were a side that knew how to win every match. We did not concede draws as some counties did; we played to win even when the weather was against us.”
Yorkshire won the title again in 1924 and 1925, completing the four-in-a-row. Lancashire took over with three consecutive titles 1926-28. Yorkshire's next Championship victory was in 1931.
Yorkshire's 25 wins in 1923 was the greatest single Championship season by any county between the wars, and the central season of their 1922-25 four-in-a-row.
The 1923 record of 25 Championship wins remains among the highest in any single County Championship season. The 89.7% points percentage has not been bettered by any Championship-winning county.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.