1869 English cricket season

The 1869 English cricket season saw the demise of the Cambridgeshire club. A team called Cambridgeshire played in two specially arranged matches, in 1869 against Yorkshire and in 1871 against Surrey. After that, Cambridgeshire ceased to be a first-class team. Their demise was attributed to the lack of available amateurs to back up the famous trio of Bob Carpenter, the first Tom Hayward and George Tarrant, along with the absence of useful patronage and the difficulty of obtaining membership which led to a debt deemed unpayable.

1869 was also the season when W. G. Grace began a record-setting run of batting triumphs. For the first of three consecutive seasons, he established a new record for most runs in a season, and his six centuries doubled the previous record.

^a Hampshire, though regarded until 1885 as first-class, played no inter-county matches between 1868 and 1869 or 1871 and 1874
^b The others were Allan Steel in 1877, Sammy Woods in 1886, Charlie Townsend in 1895 and Jack Crawford in 1904 and 1905

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