Between 1922 and 1925 Yorkshire won four consecutive County Championship titles — the longest unbroken run by any county since the championship became official in 1890. Captained by Geoffrey Wilson and then Major Lupton, the side built around Sutcliffe, Holmes, Rhodes, Macaulay and Robinson lost only 11 of 116 matches across the four seasons.
Yorkshire had won the Championship in 1919 and 1920 also under D.C.F. Burton. The 1922-25 sequence was therefore part of a six-year dominance broken only by Middlesex's narrow 1921 title. The county's player-development system, including the famous League nursery and the school competitions, was already producing more Test cricketers than any other.
Yorkshire had been the most consistent county throughout the 1900s. The 1922-25 sequence was the most concentrated period of dominance. The side opened the batting with Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes — a partnership that would in 1932 add 555 against Essex. The middle order had Maurice Leyland and the captain. The bowling rested on Wilfred Rhodes (left-arm orthodox), George Macaulay (off-spin and medium pace), Emmott Robinson (medium pace), and Roy Kilner (left-arm orthodox).
In 1922 Yorkshire won 19 of their 30 Championship matches and lost only 1; in 1923 they won 25 of 32; in 1924 they won 16 of 30; in 1925 they won 21 of 32. Across the four seasons their bowlers took 5,000 wickets at sub-15 averages — figures unmatched by any other county in the inter-war period.
The County Championship in the 1920s remained the most prestigious domestic cricket in the world. Yorkshire's dominance, allied to the simultaneous fact that nine of the eleven players in their 1925 side were English Test cricketers, made the county effectively a second England XI. The next four-in-a-row was achieved by Yorkshire themselves between 1937 and 1939 (a sequence ended by the Second World War).
1922: 19-1 Championship record under Geoffrey Wilson
1923: 25 wins from 32 matches, the most in any single county season of the decade
1924: 16-1 record
1925: 21 wins; fourth consecutive title
Across the four years: 81 wins from 116 Championship matches
1922
First of four consecutive titles
1923
Record season — 25 Championship wins
1924
Third title
1925
Fourth title; total 81 wins in 116 matches
“Yorkshire cricket in 1922-25 was an organisation rather than a team. Every man knew his job and the next man's job.”
Lancashire took over the Championship in 1926, 1927 and 1928 — three consecutive titles. Yorkshire won again in 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1935, then four-in-a-row again in 1937-39. By the Second World War the county had won 22 Championship titles to Surrey's 13.
Yorkshire's 1922-25 four-in-a-row was the most concentrated period of county dominance between the wars and the foundation of an English domestic cricket reputation that the county would not relinquish until the late 1960s.
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.