1956 was the 57th season of County Championship cricket in England. It is memorable for the performances of Jim Laker, especially his unique feat in taking a world record 19 wickets in the Old Trafford Test Match. He took a total of 46 wickets in the five Tests, a record in an England-Australia series. In May, he had taken all ten wickets in the Australian first innings in their match against Surrey, assisting Surrey to become the first county team since 1912 to defeat the Australians. Surrey won the County Championship for the fifth successive year to create a new record of consecutive titles won by one county.
Honours County Championship – Surrey Minor Counties Championship – Kent II Wisden – Dennis Brookes, Jim Burke, Malcolm Hilton, Gil Langley, Peter Richardson
Test series
Cumulative record - Test wins 1876–1956England62Australia70Drawn41
County Championship
Leading batsmen Ken Mackay topped the averages with 1103 runs @ 52.52
Leading bowlers Tony Lock topped the averages with 155 wickets @ 12.46
References
Annual reviews Playfair Cricket Annual 1957 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1957
Further reading Bill Frindall, The Wisden Book of Test Cricket 1877-1978, Wisden, 1979 Chris Harte, A History of Australian Cricket, Andre Deutsch, 1993 Ray Robinson, On Top Down Under, Cassell, 1975
External links CricketArchive – season summary