Two Melbourne Caterers Financed First English Cricket Tour to Australia, And Made £14,000 Profit on the Venture

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 607, 8 March 1929, Page 7

Two Melbourne Caterers Financed First English Cricket Tour to Australia, And Made £14,000 Profit on the Venture

Special interest attaches to the fifth cricket test, which was scheduled to open at Melbourne to-day, for two reasons. It provides England with a chance to win all five tests, a feat which has never previously been accomplished by an English team in Australia. Again, it England wins, it will be level with Australia on the test match aggregate. From 1876-77, no fewer than 11S tests have been played. Australia has won 47, England 46 and 25 have been drawn. One of the most curious features of present-day test cricket is that the first attempt to bring an English team to Australia resulted in a complete failure, and it was only through the enterprise of a firm of Melbourne caterers that the first English team reached Melbourne on Christmas Eve, 1861. The idea of bringing an English team to Australia had originated two or three years previously. The players were enthusiastic; public interest was supposed to be keen, and so a company was formed, to consist of 2,000 shareholders at €2 10s each. Unfortunately, however, the cricketing public held aloof, and the company collapsed. The few shares taken up did not defray the preliminary expenses, and the luckless secretary was even sued for the amount! Into the breach stepped two enterprising caterers, Messrs. Spiers and Pond, who owned the Cafe do Paris in Bourke Street. They sent an agent, Mr. W. B. Mallam, to England to talk business with the leading players. A. good, but not representative, team was induced to make the trip, the terms being £l5O to each player and all expenses paid. The two caterers reaped a rich reward. Tremendous enthusiasm greeted the team everywhere. In the first match (against 18 of Victoria) the attendance on the first day was 20,000, and the receipts for this game paid for the whole of the expenses of the tour. In all. Messrs. Spiers and Pond netted nearly £14,000 out of the venture. Things were done in style in those

d..\s The English team, on arrival, "as driven by coach (drawn bv eight greys > to the Cate de Haris, and all -Melbourne turned out to greet them. An immense balloon, the tirst ntanufa.ctured in the colonv, was ilown over the ground on the last day of the h’A., A U f rriv yd over the playing no.u tto quote a Hre:* report) “just as the last wicket of the unfortunate Victorians had fallen for a gross score of rur *f» mid the coincidence was ludicrous. The Victorians were beaten by an innings and 95 runs. It was not till the visit of the fourth English team, in 1876-77. under James EUlywhite, that Australia first met an team on even terms. This is officially regarded as the first test between the two countries, although the Australian team was a combined eleven from New South Wales and Victoria only, and was not the strongest team at that. There were all sorts of preliminary difficulties. Sydney objected to the match being played at Melbourne, and Spofforth actually dropped out of the team because Murdoch was not chosen as wicket-keeper. Spofforth was not then to know that the man the selectors had rightly chosen in preference to Murdoch was afterwards to be acclaimed as the greatest of them all—John McCarthy Blackham! The Englishmen were handicapped, too They had returned from New Zealand the day before the match started, imd were without their i-egu-lar wicketkeeper (Pooley). The match resulted in a remarkable victory for Australia. Captained by L. W. Gregory. Australia made 245 and 104, and England 196 and 10S; Australia thus winning by 45 runs. In this match Charles Bannerman made 165 for Australia before lie had to retire with a split finger, and as no one else on the side made more than 20 in either innings, it can be seen that Bannerman won the match. The spectators were so pleased with his performance that a purse of £B3 7s 6d was collected and presented to Bannerman. The sum of £23 5s was also subscribed for the purpose of purchasing souvenirs for Blackham, whose wicketkeeping was a feature of the match, and for Kendall, who took seven for 55 in England’s second innings. Two years later, an unfortunate outbreak of larrakinism at Sydney nearly jeopardised the whole future of international cricket. An unruly crowd practically mobbed the English team at the wickets, and Lord Harris, the English captain, who is still a foremost figure in the councils of the M.C.C., was struck with a stick by an irresponsible member of the crowd. In consequence of this, the second Australian team which visited England in 1880 under the captaincy of W. L. Murdoch was somewhat coldly received. Several of the members of Lord Harris’s team refused to play against the visitors. The Australian team, however, had a wonderful run of success, losing only two out of its first 30 matches. No test however, had so far been played, and it looked as if the tour would have to finish with the unfortunate memories of the Sydney incident clouding the visit. However, the true interests of cricket prevailed, and when Lord Harris agreed to captain a representative

English team against the Australians, the cricket atmosphere was again regarded as normal. This was the first test match ever played in England. It took place at the Oval in September, 1880, and was won by England by five wickets. Appropriately enough, England’s greatest batsman. W. G. Grace, started his team off with the big _ score of 152 runs in a first innings total of 420. Lord Harris himself played a sound captain’s innings of 52. Australia greatly missed its demon bowler. Spofforth, who was unable to play owing to an injury in a previous match, and worse still, its batsmen practically collapsed in the first innings, the whole side being dismissed for 149. Australia had to follow on, being 271 runs behind. Worse misfortune was to follow, and when Australia had lost six wickets for 170 in its second innings, the match seemed as good as over. Then came Murdoch, a real captain for a crisis. Ho had opened the batting as was his wont, and with six wickets down, he took charge of the game. Batting in his most brilliant style, he ran his score to 153 not out, his last wicket partnership with Moule, now Mr. Justice Moule, of the Supreme Court of Australia, adding SS runs to the score. England needed only 57 runs to win, but those 57 runs cost her five of her best wickets. A tribute to the Australians’ ability was paid by Lord Harris in front of the pavilion after the match, and thus was the blot of 1579 at Sydney wiped out for ever in mutual goodwill and respect on the homely fields of England. It it always a moot point which was the greatest team that ever left’ Australia. The choice is generally accepted to lie between Murdoch’s team of 1882, the side which Joe Darling captained in 1902, and the team

First test match was played in 1877, Australia winning Outbreak of larrikanism at Sydney in 'seventies nearly sounded death-knell of Test cricket Historic series now finds England one match behind Australia—Memories of giants of other days—who was greatest, Grace or Trumper?—Australian team of 1902 regarded as best ever sent abroad.

which Warwick Armstrong led in 1921. Their records are as follow: Played. Won. Lost. Drawn. ISS2 38 23 4 11 1902 39 23 2 14 1921 3S 22 2 14 Although Armstrong’s team electrified the cricket world by its sweeping run of successes in England in 1921, it is now conceded

that it did not meet such powerful sides as those of 1832 and 1902, and the majority of expert opinion favours the 1902 team. All three teams contained a. wonderful array of players whose deeds are written in cricket history for all time. Murdoch, peerless batsman and astute captain, had with him in 1882 a wonderful quartet of bowlers in Spoffortll,

Boyle, Palmer and Garrett. The batting was not so strong, but Murdoch, Horan, Massie, A. Bannerman and Bonnor were always good for runs, and the fielding was first-class. Darling in 1902 luid a side which contained a wonderful blend of youth and experience. Victor Trumper was at his brilliant best with the bat, and Noble, Clem Hill, Duff, Armstrong were already eclipsing the veterans like Darling, the hard-hitting captain, and Sid Gregory i* the batting order, while Hugh Trumble, Saunders and Noble led a battery of bowlers which included all types from slow breaks to the lightning’ deliveries of E. Jones. It has been argued that if Armstrong and Carter (both of whom were in the 1902 side) could “come back’’ nearly 20 years later and show more brilliant form than they did in 1902, the standard in 1921 could not have been so high as it was when they were in the first flush of their brilliance against such great opponents as Archie McLaren, “Rariji,” F. S. Jackson, Tyldesley, Jessop and Lockwood. For all that, however, Armstrong had a great battery of bowlers in Gregory. Macdonald, Mailey and himself, two master batsmen in Macartney and Bardsley. and a sound fielding side, several of the team being Australia’s rich legacy from the A.I.F. of the war years. The high tide of English success in the tests was from 1884 to 1896. During that period, England only once lost the rubber in 11 series of tests. The finest record of any English team in Austi*alia was that of P. F. Warner’s 1911-12 team, which won four out of five tests, and dropped only one match on tour. J. W. H. T. Douglas captained the team in the tests, owing to Warner’s illness, and he had a wonderful array of batsmen, including Foster, Hobbs and Rhodes, a really great bowler in Barnes, and a sound fielding side. From teams, we come down to the

individual players. The first name to be mentioned is that of the tlrami Old Man of English cricket, Dr. AY. G Grace. For something like 30 veurs Grace was the dominating figure in English cricket. Over six feet in height, broadshouldered and massive, with an enormous black heard and a high-pitched voice, the doctor was a vivid and striking personality wherever he went. In the sense of being the greatest cricketer of ail time, if anyone merits that somewhat vague distinction. it is by unanimous consent given to the famous old champion. Not till a year or two ago was his colossal record of 126 centuries in first-class cricket beaten. There will be others besides Jack Hobbs who will place more three-figure innings to their credit, but it is safe to say that \V. G.’s performance will never be equalled for so long a period and on wickets which in the first part of.liis first-class career were far from being the billiard-table pitches of to-day. As a batsman. W. G. was solid and powerful, rather than brilliant; he was a shrewd, dominating captain, and a dangerous slow bowler. Round his forceful personality. the whole history of English cricket centred for night on 30 years. It was once said of him: "He represents cricket as the Pope represents Christianity.” The greatest batsman who ever represented Australia was undoubtedly Victor Trumper. He stands supreme, just as Spofforth is acclaimed as the finest bowler Australia ever sent abroad, and Blackham is ranked first on the list of test match wicketkeepers. W. G. Grace and Trumper typified two distinctive eras in cricket, the 19tli century and the 20tli. The great Englishman played his last test match in the year Trumper first came to England, a tall, slender stripling still in his teens. Both died in the same year (1915); Trumper at the early age of 37, worn out by an affliction which took heavy toll of his by no means robust strength all through his playing years; Grace, full of years and honours and ruddy good health, at the age of 67. It is a profitless busines to compare the two as batsmen. Their styles were titterly dissimilar; they belonged to different periods; and there is the natural patriotic leaning in each case. English critics can see no gre /jr player than Grace: and Trumper*s old comrades acclaim him to a man as the finest batsman who ever played in test cricket. An easier way out of the difficulty may be taken: W. G. was the greatest cricketer: Trumper the most brilliant batsman the game has known. There are others who follow in the footsteps of these two master craftsmen: Ranji. of the hawk-like eye and flashing bat; Jessop, who used his like a, scythe and was the fiercest hitter who ever wielded a bat in big cricket; Arthur Shrewsbury, greatest of old-time professional batsmen: Clem. Hill, prince of lefthanders; Bonnor, a giant in stature.

who loved grandstand clocks and other tempting targets round the ground : Murdoch, Australia’s first great batsman and Grace’s rival in the ’eighties: Jack Hobbs, who unites the past with the present; the inimitable C. G. Macartney, with his rapier-like bat Archie Maclaren, who made his last big score as recently as five or six years ago at Wellington; .Hon K. S. Jackson, and many another wielder of the willow, whose names will live for all time in cricket history. Australia’s demon bowler of the ’eighties, F. R. SpoflEorth, who later became a. tea merchant in London and ended his days comparatively well off. gains a majority decision of cricket authorities as the greatest bowler. Hard on his heels come such great trundlers as S. F. Barnes, who. on what seemed a perfect test wicket at Melbourne, once bowled five overs, four maidens, lor one run and four wickets: T. Richardson, one of the best of the speed merchants: Alfred Shaw, the finest length bowler the game has known; Briggs and Peel. famous match-winning pair of the ’eighties and ’nineties; George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes, two great left-handers; Bosanquet, inventor of the “googly”; Trumble, who rose to his most brilliant heights in the tests; Turner, Lohmann, Ferris, Macdonald, and a host of others. Great fieldsmen in test history start with Blackham, who, by general consent, ranks as the greatest wicketkeeper of all time. Lohmann and Jack Gregory combined cat-like spring ami perfect hands in the slips; Jessop. Royle and Sid Gregory were like swooping eagles at cover; and Tyldesley. Hill and Ransford ranked as peerless catchers and throwers in the long field. And on the scroll of cricket history are written the names of great allrounders like Giffen, Rhodes, Armstrong and Gregory, who batted almost as well as they bowled or fielded; M. A. Noble, Admirable Crichton of the world’s cricket, fine bat, heady bowler, safe point, ranked by many as Australia’s greatest test match leader. Out of the hundreds of fine players who have come and gone in test cricket, the fame these men will endure as long as the game is played.

Acknowledgements for much of the historical data in this article are due to Mr. E. E. Bean's book on ‘ Test Cricket.” and to Mr. E. C. Beale.