Philadelphian cricket team in England in 1897

The Philadelphian cricket team toured England in the summer of 1897. Starting on 7 June at Oxford, the tour lasted for two months and ended in late July at The Oval. The Americans played 15 first-class matches captained by George Stuart Patterson. The tour is, perhaps, most notable for the introduction of American bowler J Barton King to the international cricketing world. It is also notable in that the match the Philadelphians played against the MCC was to be Patterson's last first-class cricket match.

This tour was a very ambitious one for the Americans. They had last toured the British Isles in 1889. Though the results may have been less satisfactory than hoped for by promoters, the tour was arranged mainly for educational purposes and few of those on the American side expected to win many matches. Previous tours had tended to involve amateur English sides with a relatively low level of competition. In 1897 a schedule was made including all of the top county cricket teams, the Oxford and Cambridge University teams, the Marylebone Cricket Club, and two other sides, though only a few of the counties thought it worthwhile to put their best elevens onto the field. While it initially aroused some curiosity, many English fans lost interest until Bart King and the Philadelphians met the full Sussex team at Brighton on 17 June. In the first innings, King proved his batting worth on a fourth-wicket stand of 107 runs with John Lester. He then took 7 wickets for 13 runs and the team dismissed Sussex for 46 in less than an hour. In the second innings, King took 6 for 102 and helped the Philadelphians to a victory by 8 wickets.

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