's Australian tourists played 42 first-class matches, including a five Test series to contestThe Ashes. Matches included five played in Scotland, including one match against Scotland, one in Ireland against SH Cochrane's XI, and one in Wales against a South Wales team. They lost just four matches on the tour. The Test series was won 2–1 by Australia with two matches drawn. England, captained by Archie MacLaren, won the first Test at Edgbaston after an Australian first-innings batting collapse on a wet pitch, with Colin Blythe and George Hirst bowling almost unchanged, taking all 20 Australian wickets. The second and third Tests, played at Lord's and Headingley respectively, were Australian victories with the final two Tests at Old Trafford and The Oval drawn. The final match of the series saw the only Test match appearance by Douglas Carr at the age of 37. Carr became the first man to play for England having made his first-class debut earlier in the same season.
County Championship
won their second County Championship title, playing 26 matches with 16 wins and only two losses during the season. Lancashire finished in second place whilst the 1908 winners Yorkshire finished in third. Gloucestershire finished last of the 16 counties which competed in the Championship, with only one win to their name. After the Championship season was completed there were calls for a move to a two division system. These calls led nowhere in the short term, although for the 1911 County Championship a new system of awarding points was introduced.
The batsmen with the highest runs aggregate in 1909 were:
Player
Matches
Innings
Runs
36
63
5
2,105
276
36.29
3
11
37
59
7
2,094
199
40.26
5
10
30
52
2
2,039
205
40.78
6
6
31
45
3
1,913
219
45.54
5
7
35
55
3
1,897
184
36.48
5
8
Jack Mason topped the batting averages with 783 runs at an average of 65.25 from 14 innings. Australians Vernon Ransford, Warwick Armstrong and Bardsley all averaged over 45, the only other batsmen with more than two innings to do so.
Bowling statistics
The leading wicket-takers during the 1909 season were:
Player
Overs
Maidens
Runs
Wickets
1,273.5
343
3,128
215
9/42
14.54
23
7
898.5
228
2,392
163
7/46
14.67
16
6
1,040
240
2,977
156
8/77
19.08
18
4
873.1
205
2,241
141
7/68
15.89
12
2
1197.1
425
2,474
135
8/22
18.32
11
3
W C Smith topped the averages with 95 wickets at an average of 12.43.
