He generally continued to bowl effectively during 1883, and peaked towards the end of the season, claiming seven wickets in an innings against "The Rest" while playing for a combined Lancashire and Yorkshire side, another seven in an innings for Lancashire against Surrey, and the best bowling figures of his career, eight for 57 for the North against the South. During the match against Surrey, the complaints from the crowd were again strong, and such were the vehemence of the protests, they almost drew the Lancashire captain, A. N. Hornby to refuse to complete the match. Crowd protests were also made at Clifton where Lancashire faced Gloucestershire, but W. G. Grace, who was batting at the time, warned the crowd to stop, or he would close the ground. In an end of season match for Dick Barlow's XI against Tom Emmett's XI; he scored his highest first-class score with the bat, reaching 51 runs in the second innings. He took 72 wickets in 1883 at an average of 12.97, placing him third in the national bowling averages. Lancashire's policy of recruiting professional bowlers without much regard for their qualification to play for the county caused some bad-feeling with other counties, most notably Crossland's native Nottinghamshire. The bickering between the counties escalated and in 1883, after receiving a provocative Christmas card from Lancashire, the Nottinghamshire committee sent an aggressive response: