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Occasional musings on cricket, writers and writing

Worthing is a place in Sussex

The inexplicable career of Peter Wales

Chances are, if you’ve ever heard of Worthing, it’s because you remember it from The Importance of Being Earnest, in which Jack Worthing memorably informs Lady Bracknell that “The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old gentleman of a very charitable and kindly disposition, found me, and gave me the name of Worthing, because he happened to have a first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocket at the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a seaside resort.”

Worthing was also home to an annual cricket festival, the centrepiece of which was one of Sussex’s county championship matches. In mid-June 1951, the Worthing Cricket Week opened with a match between Sussex and its neighbour, Hampshire. Sussex v Hampshire was usually a rivalry with only local resonance, but in the early stages of the 1951 season, both counties briefly looked like plausible contenders for the championship. Sussex arrived at Worthing having won four matches in succession, while Hampshire was undefeated.

The amateur batsman, Peter Doggart (brother of the Test batsman Hubert), had played in Sussex’s previous match, against Nottinghamshire at Horsham. He was left out of the side to play Hampshire, and in his place the county promoted the 22 year old Peter Wales to make his first-class debut.

You’ve never heard of Peter Wales. Which isn’t surprising, because he never played for Sussex again. The interesting question is, why?

Wales was a Sussex local: he had been born at Hove and educated at Hove Grammar School. In 1948 and 1949 he had been a professional on the Sussex staff, playing reasonably well for the second team without doing anything exceptional. At the age of twenty, he opted for a more secure career as an accountant, although he continued to play club cricket for Brighton and Hove. He was a consistently successful club cricketer, scoring heavily and bowling tidy medium-pace, but it was still something of a surprise when Sussex invited him to open the batting, as an amateur, against Hampshire.

Desmond Eagar won the toss, and Hampshire batted first. Sussex entrusted the new ball to its two wily old veterans, Jim Cornford and Jim Wood. Cornford and Wood knew all there was to know about exploiting the idiosyncrasies of their home pitch at Hove, but they also enjoyed the vagaries of Sussex’s outgrounds. The pitch at Worthing was well-grassed, and the two seamers had reduced Hampshire to 57 for five when James Langridge handed the ball to Peter Wales. In his very first over, and before conceding a run, Wales tempted Leo Harrison into a prodding defensive stroke, and the ball was held by John Langridge at slip. Two overs later, Wales beat and bowled Derek Shackleton, and then he had Jimmy Gray caught at mid-on. He went into his first lunch as a county cricketer with figures of three wickets for eight runs.

After lunch, Richard Carty and Charles Knott added 49 runs for the last wicket, easily the largest partnership in an innings of 119, and Wales emerged with the figures of nine overs, six maidens, three wickets for twelve runs. He was back in the action straight away, opening the innings with John Langridge. Derek Shackleton and Vic Cannings were every bit as effective as Cornford and Wood, and Wales simply concentrated on surviving. Experienced batsmen fell around him: Langridge for 4, George Cox for 3, James Langridge for 8: Sussex slumped to 25 for three. John Oakes played a few shots while Wales blocked dutifully, but he was bowled by Gray when the total was 48. Wales held fast, and helped Ken Suttle carry the score to 73 before he missed an off-break from Knott and was bowled for 29. He had defied Hampshire’s bowlers for exactly two and a half hours.

Sussex ended the first day on 103 for five, and Suttle and Alan Oakman helped the county to a lead of 86 on the second day. The rest of the game belonged to Sussex’s third seamer, Ted James, who produced a remarkable spell of 19.3 overs, taking seven for 12. His best support came from Wales, who was given only four overs, allowed just one run, and removed Alan Rayment and Richard Carty. For the second time in the match, he took his first wicket before allowing a run.

Sussex was left with 33 to win. They didn’t exactly race there: against steady Hampshire bowling, it took 18.4 overs, but a ten-wicket victory was duly completed. John Langridge made 23, and Wales was unbeaten on 9.

The Daily Herald called it a “real story-book, big-time debut”. The Daily Mirror included him in a list of “young players worth watching” for future Test selection. Wales was suitably modest about it all, telling the press that perhaps one day, “I may make an average player.” But that day never really came, because his first-class career was already over.

The sample size is too small to be meaningful, but Wales’ statistics are ridiculous: a batting average of 38 and a bowling average of 2.60. He conceded one run an over, and took a wicket once every 12 balls. It beggars belief that Sussex never turned to him again, and there’s no clear record of why this happened. Perhaps his employer refused to allow him the time off to play; possibly there was some falling-out between Wales and the county; maybe he simply preferred to play for fun. He remained, for many years, a dominant figure in club cricket in Sussex and a stalwart of the Club Cricket Conference, as well as a very prominent local footballer. There were people who said that he could have been a professional footballer, too, had he chosen that path.

The man whom Wales replaced in the Sussex side, Peter Doggart, died at 38 from an overdose of barbiturates. Wales, though, lived to be ninety. Somewhere in that long, full life was an inexplicably brief first-class career, all of it played within two days at Worthing, a place in Sussex.

Max Bonnell

31 March 2025

THE SINGLE TEST OF OTTO ERNEST NOTHLING

James Rodgers remembers a short episode in a full life

Max Bonnell (in Golden Blues, 2014, pp 142-147) has written definitively about Otto Nothling (SUCC 1st Grade cap no186, Australian cap no127, Wallaby no170) and has corrected the often-repeated myth that Nothling once replaced Don Bradman in the Australian Test side.

Nothling had played for SUCC from 1921 until 1926 while studying Medicine in Sydney as, at the time, there was no Medical Faculty in Queensland.

EARLY LIFE

He had been born in Teutoburg near Maleny, Queensland, the sixth of eight children born to Carl Martin Nothling (1863-1936), a stonemason whose family had fled to Australia from Germany (the Kingdom of Prussia) during the 1870 Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and Marie Wilhelmine (nee Teisch) 1868-1939. Teutoburg was the destination for German immigrants at the time but has been known as 'Witta' since 1916 when many German place-names were changed. Otto was the recipient of a scholarship which enabled him to transfer from Wombye State School to Brisbane Grammar School. At nearly 190 centimetres in height, he was already an imposing figure, a champion athlete, a Rugby full back, a free-scoring batsman and a damaging fast bowler. In 1921 he travelled south to reside at St Andrew's College while studying Medicine and representing the University in rugby, athletics and cricket.

SYDNEY

He came to Sydney without reputation, presumably because no one knew him or had not heard of his ability, and made his 1st Grade debut with SUCC in 1921-22 after some games in the lower grades (where he averaged 6.3 with the ball in 1920-21 in 2nd Grade and 133.3 with the bat in 2nds in 1921-22). He quickly established himself, initially as a batsman who scored a blistering 124 in that first season. He followed that with four more seasons when his bowling was irresistible and his batting was explosive.

After graduating MB ChM in 1926, he returned to Queensland and, for the next two seasons, he became a fixture in the Queensland cricket side, having previously played five times for NSW.

PATHWAY TO THE TEST TEAM

Dr Nothling's selection in the Australian side for the 2nd Test against England at the SCG in December 1928 came about as a result of his own good early-season form, injuries to two Australian fast bowlers, and the need to make changes to the side that had been beaten by 675 runs in the 1st Test in Brisbane. Unlike the first two SUCC players to play just one Test, Rowley Pope and Reginald Allen, Nothling was not playing for SUCC at the time of his Test debut, and he earned his selection with substantial performances in 1st class cricket rather than just happening to be available, as Pope and Allen had been.

In October 1928, Nothling's batting and bowling for 'The Rest' in the 'Test Trial' when he scored 62 not out in 61 minutes, and took the wickets of established Test player, Bill Woodfull and Tommy Andrews, put his name in the selectors' considerations.

In November, he played for the Australian XI against Percy Chapman's touring MCC side at the SCG, he took three wickets and remained 29 not out inj the 2nd innings.

Later that month, when Queensland played the MCC side in Brisbane, his 5 for 78 from 28 overs again caught the eye, especially as his five victims were all established players: Herbert Sutcliffe, Wally Hammond (for a duck), Ernest Tyldesley, Percy Chapman and Les Ames.

Two weeks after Australia's disastrous performance in the first Test ever played in Brisbane, it was clear that both injured opening bowlers, Charlie Kelleway and Jack Gregory, would need to be replaced. Indeed, both had played their last Test. Further, 20 year old Don Bradman , who had scored only 18 and 1 on debut, would be relegated to 12th man for the only time in his Test career. The selectors replaced Bradman with another batsman, Vic Richardson. Kelleway was replaced by 46 year old off-spinner, Don Blackie, who joined another 46 year old, Bert Ironmonger. Gregory was replaced by Nothling. The all-rounder Nothling DID NOT replace the batsman Bradman.

FRIDAY 14 DECEMBER 1928

On the first day, Australia batted all day to be a respectable 8 for 251 at stumps although Bill Ponsford, having fractured his left hand, was unlikely to bat again. Bradman would be pressed into service in the field when England batted. Nothling, batting at no7, scored only 8 before he was bowled by Larwood.

SATURDAY 15 DECEMBER

Before a crowd of 58,446, a record for Sydney, England batted cautiously after Australia was dismissed early in the first session when Larwood had Ironmonger caught. Nothling, opening the bowling, was accurate and miserly but wicketless as England set about occupying the crease before bad light stopped play.

MONDAY 17 DECEMBER

After the day of rest, England ground the Australians down, keeping them in the field while the Englishmen took their total to 5 for 420 with Hammond 201 not out and Larwood 37 not out.

TUESDAY 18 DECEMBER

In this 'timeless Test', England went on to amass 636. Hammond, who was to score a record 905 runs in the series, was finally bowled by Ironmonger for 251. The ancient spinners, Ironmonger and Blackie, with a combined age of 92, sent down 127 overs between them and took 6 for 290. Nothling spent another day in the field, wicketless.

WEDNESDAY 19 DECEMBER

In a vastly improved batting display, Bill Woodfull and 'Stork' Hendry scored centuries and, at 4 for 339 at stumps, there may have been hopes for Australia to set England a total enough for the three Australian spinners (Ironmonger, Blackie and the relatively youthful 36 year old Clarrie Grimmett) to use the wearing surface. Jack Ryder and Nothling had constructed a partnership that had already yielded 93.

THURSDAY 20 DECEMBER

On the sixth day of play, Nothling and Ryder took their partnership to 101 in only 67 minutes before Ryder was Larwood's only wicket for the innings. The last 5 wickets fell for 58. Posford was unable to bat because of his broken hand. Only Nothling stood secure. His 44 included 6 fours and occupied 98 minutes before he was run out by a raking throw from Patsy Hendren. England won comfortably. Nothling had appeared on the Test field for the last time. With the bat, he had looked as though he belonged there. The former Australian captain, MA Noble, considered that "the athletic Queenslander played a fine fighting knock." It was his lack of success with the ball, however, that told against him when the 3rd Test team to play in Melbourne was chosen. In Sydney, he had bowled 46 overs for the match without a wicket.

THE THIRD TEST...NO NOTHLING

21 year old Ted A'Beckett, making his Test debut, replaced Nothling. 37 year old Queenslander Ron Oxenham, also making his debut, came in for the 46 year old Ironmonger (who was to be recalled for the 'Bodyline' series for years later when, as has since been revealed, he was 50 years old.) Bradman was restored for the still-injured Ponsford and rewarded the selectors with innings of 79 and 112, ensuring his selection for the rest of the series. He was never dropped again.

SHEFFIELD SHIELD

Nothling went back to play the rest of the season with Queensland. He struck a rich vein of form with the bat: 47 vs South Australia, 121 vs NSW, 56 vs Victoria, 50 vs South Australia.

In 21 1st class games, his respectable returns, 882 runs @24.5 and 36 wickets @41.1, were not enough to warrant a recall to the Test side.

EPILOGUE

Otto Nothling led a full life.

He played what are now acknowledged as 19 Test Matches for the Wallabies between 1921 and 1924 as a safe full back. He is one of only two (the other is Johnnie Taylor, also of SUCC) to have represented Australia in Rugby and cricket.

He practised Medicine in Dubbo and Maryborough. In December 1929, a year after his only Test, he took 10 for 16 in an innings in a club match for Maryborough against Gayndoh. He eventually specialised in dermatology. As Major Nothling, he served in World War II as a medical officer in Greece and Crete before being invalided home.

A gregarious character and a loyal friend, he was much respected as President of the Queensland Cricket Association until his death in 1965.

Among all those glittering achievements, he will always be numbered among the 71 Australian players and 23 SUCC players to have played just one Test.

But...he did not replace Bradman in the Test side. That is a good story but it's not correct!

He replaced the distinguished Jack Gregory who played his 24th and final Test the game before Otto Nothling played his one and only.

JAMES RODGERS

TOMMY DUCKER'S ONLY FIRST-CLASS GAME...IN PHILADELPHIA.

When a 24 year old former Sydney University cricketer found himself in Philadelphia at the same time that the 1912 Australian team was playing there, the Australians had only ten players to choose from. Five of the team had remained in England after the damp summer of 1912 and after the ill-fated Triangular Tournament. A young Englishman, a fruit-seller, had befriended the hard-drinking Australians during their time in England and he was then inexplicably asked to be the eleventh player during the Australians' subsequent tour of North America on their way home.

Ernest Albert Penfold (1889-1968) batted four times for the Australians without scoring even a single run and he bowled three expensive overs. He has been called, "the most unlikely of Australian first-class cricketers." Penfold was, however, unavailable for the return three-day game against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia starting on Friday 4 October 1912 at the Merlon Cricket Club ground near Haverford College.

And so it was that Norman Graham ('Tommy') Ducker (1887-1932), who was playing for the Belmont Club in Philadelphia with the great swing bowler, Bart King, became a first-class cricketer. He had been an established 1st Grader in Sydney (SUCC 1st Grade cap no91) as a reliable higher order right hand batsman (513 runs at 25.7) and occasional left arm slow bowler. He had earned his place in University's 1st grade side after scoring a commanding 134 in 2nd Grade against Petersham in November 1905 but he was never good enough to be seriously considered for the NSW team.

Ducker was from a wealthy family in Sydney. His father, John Ernest Page Ducker (1858-1953), was a Sydney stockbroker and it seems that Tommy was of independent means when he lived and played cricket for the Belmont Club in Philadelphia from 1910 until 1913. He had been educated at Sydney Grammar School from 1897 until 1900 where he had played in the younger cricket and rugby teams. He then transferred to Cooerwull Academy near Lithgow from 1901 where young men with thoughts of training for the Presbyterian ministry were educated.

In the event, he did not follow that particular vocation but he did go up to the University in 1904, resident at St Andrew's College, studying Arts. He was graded in SUCC's 2nd Grade in 1904-05 and went on to play about 35 games in 1st Grade until his undergraduate years were finished. He was awarded a Blue for cricket in 1906. After graduating BA, he began medical studies but he discontinued after three years and did not graduate in Medicine.

He was a talented sportsman. On the cricket fields, his athletic fielding stood out and he played a number of other sports. In 1909, he became captain of the first NSW Ice Hockey team.

When he was summoned to represent the Australian XI in Philadelphia, he batted at number 7 and was second top score with 9 before he was bowled by Rudolf Waad in the Australians' dismal 1st innings of 101. The Australians trailled by 136 but rallied on the second day to total 262 and eventually to win the match on the third day by 45 runs. Ducker again fell to fast bowler Waad in the 2nd innings for only 6.

So, he had played his one first class game. 15 runs at 7.5.

When he returned to Australia in 1913, he resumed his 1st Grade career, this time with Western Suburbs (1st Grade cap 144).

As the clouds of war gathered and darkened, Ducker enlisted in January 1915 in the 7th Australian Light Horse with the rank of Sergeant. He landed at Gallipoli in May 1915, was promoted to Lieutenant and was twice wounded in the neck and in the leg before being evacuated to a hospital in Malta, suffering from dysentery. He rejoined his colleagues in the Light Horse at Gallipoli until December but his wounds and his sickness necessitated his repatriation to Australia. His resilience and devotion to duty were astounding. He re-enlisted and eventually served in Sinai, Palestine and the Jordan Valley and was not to return permanently to Australia until July 1919. He appears to have played no more organised sport and to have rarely contacted his old university teammates after the war.

Marriage in 1922 to a wealthy widow ended in divorce in 1927 on the grounds of "desertion" after he had spent some time in Papua New Guinea on the Austral Papuan Investment Plantation.

In 1928, Ducker re-married to Kathleen Frances Wilkie and they lived at Ocean Beach. Once again, he appears not to have needed to work regularly.

In January 1931, Tommy Ducker accidentally shot himself while cleaning a rifle which exploded. In 1932, he died still suffering from his injuries. He had been severely wounded at Gallipoli aged 28 but it was an accident at Manly that seems to have led to his death aged 45.

From 1858 until 2024-25, nine SUCC cricketers have played just one first-class game in Australia. Another two have played their one and only first-class game outside Australia. One of those two is NG 'Tommy' Ducker who played his only first-class game as a replacement in an Australian XI in Philadelphia.

A series of conditionals:

If he hadn't been playing cricket in Philadelphia at the same time as the 1912 Australians...

If the Australians had more than ten of the original touring side...

If the eleventh man had been available for the game against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia...

Then, NG Ducker would have been most unlikely to have played a first-class game.

But...he did!

JAMES RODGERS March 2025.

A CRICKETING ARISTOCRAT...MAYBE

James Rodgers asks what became of a promising schoolboy cricketer

Often research results in dead ends.

So it seemed to be when I was attempting to write a piece on a once-promising cricketer.

Did he play after his school cricket career ended?

Cecil de Vere Pery (1881-1915) was one of the British aristocracy, a grandson of the second Earl of Limerick, William Tennison Pery (1812-1866). Today, he is little known even though his family had inherited titles and could trace a heritage which included a Bishop of Limerick, a Conservative politician, a Captain of the Yeoman of the Guard, members of the de Vere and Cecil families, and ancestors who included, it is claimed, William the Conqueror.

Cecil Pery's father, the Honourable Cecil Standish Stackpole Pery (1847-1935), had been born in England before settling in Queensland. In August 1875, he married Katherine Mary, nee Gavin (1847-1920).

In March 1897, their second son, Cecil de Vere Pery, completed his schooling at St Ignatius' College, Riverview, in Sydney when he is said to have left to enter a bank in Sydney. Cecil was noted for his musical ability, playing the piano and singing duets at the boarders' social evenings. He captained his school side in cricket in 1896 when he batted fluently and took the most wickets. The school magazine, Our Alma Mater, commented favourably: "...a splendid bat, excellent field and very good bowler."

He may have continued his cricket career. If he did, that's where all definite records of his cricketing exploits appear to have disappeared.

There was a cricketer named Cecil Perry (or Parry), 1846-1917, who played one game for Tasmania in 1868 and one for Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1870-71 (3 innings for 23 runs, 3 wickets for 56) but this is clearly not Cecil de Vere Pery, nor is he related.

On Saturday 13 May 1899, for South Brisbane against North Brisbane, a player named "Pery" took 4 wickets for 30.

On 30 April 1899, for Toombul against Woolloongabba, "C Pery", batting at number 9, was bowled for 7. He then took a catch and had bowling figures of 0 for 22 as Toombul won by 53 runs.

Then, in September 1899, in an inter-club trial game for South Brisbane, "C Pery" took 1 for 12.

Are these three instances evidence that Cecil Pery was in Brisbane playing cricket during 1899?

Cecil's life after school, however, seems to have been replete with scandal, heroism and tragedy. But maybe not cricket!

After he entered the mysterious "bank", the next we hear of him is when he married Lillian Mary Dorothy (nee Bacon) on 21 October 1904 at the Sacred Heart of Our Lady's Church, Randwick, by Father Frederick Borman MSC. Lillian was the sister of Cyril Hastings Bacon (1892-1915), who had been at Riverview with Cecil. Bacon was to die a month after Cecil's death.

The marriage was not a happy one, despite producing a son, Francis Hope (known as "Geoff") Pery (1905-1971) in June 1905. Lillian's family did not approve of the marriage. Cecil claimed to have been an amateur actor and a theatrical agent which, if true, would have given him little time to continue his cricket career. So Cecil and Lillian went their separate ways. In April 1906, Cecil left Sydney for London where he was "appointed to a very lucrative post" while Lillian and her mother toured Japan, "contemplating an English and continental trip" later in 1906.

In 1908, Lillian petitioned for divorce in the NSW Divorce Court before Justice George Bowen Simpson on the grounds of what was variously reported as "misconduct" or "adultery". The petition was uncontested and Justice Simpson granted a decree nisi but ordered that details of the case be prohibited from publication.

Meanwhile, Cecil's father had left his wife and, in 1914, married Violet Margaret McCarthy (1888-1946), a widow who was 40 years younger than him. They were to have a son, Aubrey de Vere Pery (1914-2000), a half brother 33 years younger than Cecil Pery.

During the years of the Great War, the first Mrs Pery kept a boarding house in Sydney in order to earn some money.

When war was declared in 1914, Cecil Pery was in England where he initially enlisted in the Grenadier Guards and was twice wounded. He transferred to the Middlesex Regiment (the "Diehards") and gained his commision in the field in July 1915. Lieutenant Pery was killed on 25 September 1915, near Loos in France "gallantly leading his men to storm the German trenches." He was one of ten officers of the First Middlesex killed on that day.

A footnote: The son of Lillian and Cecil, "Geoff"Pery, attended Riverview, his father's old school, for one year only, 1921, when his mother was living in Darlinghurst. He eventually married Annie Northwood in London in

March 1935 and, back in Australia in May 1941, enlisted as a Private in the Australian forces (N271350).

His father, Cecil de Vere Pery, however, may have played only a few games of competitive cricket after 1896 when he earned those three descriptive adjectives concerning his cricket career at Riverview: "splendid...excellent...very good."

James Rodgers
15 March 2025

The man without a book

Historical biography is one of the staples of cricket writing – you pick a player, trawl through the documentary remains of his life, maybe contact his surviving relatives, and hope to uncover enough to put together an interesting story. It’s handy if your subject was a significant player – far more valuable, though, is an interesting life. Lists of matches, runs and wickets aren’t enough to hold a reader’s attention for long: there are only so many ways you can say that “in his next match, against Somerset, he failed again, with scores of 16 and 3.”

In cricket biography, with a few exceptions (named Bradman, Trumper and Warne), the first biographer on the spot gets more or less exclusive rights. You might think that the only biography of, say, Bert Collins or Tibby Cotter isn’t much good – but there doesn’t seem to be huge demand for another, and few biographers do so poor a job that the revisiting of a cricketing life seems necessary. One biography per historical cricketer appears to be a reasonable rule of thumb (no such principle applies, of course, to current players, who are encouraged to produce as many volumes of autobiography as possible).

That means that the well is running dry, since so few cricketers of any importance have escaped the biographer’s gaze. Gideon Haigh’s most recent (and very good) cricketing biography explored the life of a man whose Test career produced 16 runs at an average of 5.33 and six catches. I have spilled ink over a Western Australian player whose entire first-class career consisted of 13 matches, and an underarm bowler who made just three appearances for New South Wales. I have written about batsmen with first-class averages of 12.32 (Reg Allen) and 12.23 (Roley Pope). There’s a biography of Arthur Coningham (one undistinguished Test, one undistinguished tour to England, one spectacular and salacious court case). If books have been devoted to cricketing lives as obscure as these, who can there be left?

This set me thinking: who is the best Australian cricketer who is not the subject of a full biography – and why? And the answer, I think, is probably Jack Blackham.

Consider this: Blackham played in the very first Test match, in 1877. His career for Victoria spanned twenty years. He captained Australia. He made eight – eight – tours to England with Australian teams. And many sound judges of the game credit him with being one of the inventors of the modern technique of keeping wicket. In 1891, Wisden announced that “we entirely agree with the popular verdict – he is the greatest wicket-keeper the world has yet seen” (although, rather uncharitably, it revised its verdict when he died, arguing in his obituary that he had never had to keep to any really fast bowler, and that Dick Pilling had been every bit as good). So Blackham was present at the inception of Test cricket, enjoyed a remarkably lengthy career, excelled in his role and made a meaningful contribution to the technical evolution of the game. But as far as I can tell, the nearest thing he has to a biography is a chapter in Ray Robinson’s On Top Down Under.

Which is not to say that I think this is unfair. I’ve never looked into Blackham’s life in any great detail but it seems, apart from his cricket, to have been a little… on the dull side. He spent most of his working life as a clerk in the Colonial Bank. He never married. He seems to have been a diffident, somewhat nervous man with no strong views on anything other than cricket. Except that he was one of the players who stood down from the first two Tests in 1884-85 in a dispute over payment, he generally avoided controversy. He did play some Victorian football as a young man, but otherwise cricket seems to have consumed his life. That may have been why he was so great a player: it may also be why he’s unpromising as a subject for biography. There are only so many ways you can say, “in the return match against New South Wales he held only one catch, but it dismissed Billy Murdoch, who had made 321.”

Murdoch, of course, was the man over whom Blackham was selected in that first Test in 1877. There’s a biography of him. But Murdoch practised as a solicitor, went broke, moved to England, played for England (sort of) and Sussex, married an heiress, befriended WG Grace and gambled at Monte Carlo. There was a hint of swagger, and an occasional whiff of scandal, about him. He was a significant cricketer, yes – but his life offers a lot more colour and movement than Jack Blackham’s dutiful shuttle between the MCG and his desk at the bank.

On the surface, anyway. Who knows what you’d find with a deep dive into Blackham’s life? Until someone attempts it, we can’t be sure, although the passage of each passing year makes it increasingly improbable that anything very startling will turn up. In the meantime, Blackham remains the greatest Australian cricketer with an unexamined life, and all because, in between catching and stumping batsmen, he led (so far as we know) a quiet, blameless existence.

Max Bonnell

28 February 2025

The Curse of Comparison: Victor Trumper and Fred Gow

On Saturday 31 January 1903, in an extraordinary 1st Grade game at Redfern Oval, Victor ThomasTrumper (1877-1915) opened the batting for Paddington against Redfern in a match that began at 2.15pm as was the custom at the time. When the second wicket fell, Trumper was joined in the middle just before 5.15pm by Frederick Kingswood (Fred) Gow (1881-1961). The score stood at an astounding 2 for 554. Trumper had plundered the Redfern bowlers relentlessly in scoring 331. Within two balls, Trumper was stumped for 335, including 22 fives for hits over the fence and 39 fours, a score that still stands as the highest ever made in Sydney 1st Grade or Premier Cricket. He and Gow, however, added just four runs all scored by Trumper. Two overs later, Gow was also stumped, for 3, all made in one shot.

For much of his career, Fred Gow was to be consistently compared with the "immortal" Victor Trumper. They had played against each other in 1896 when Fred was only 14. They then played with each other for the Paddington Club from 1900 and then for the NSW team in 1909.

Such comparisons now seem unrealistic and to have been grounded in wishful hope rather than in any consistent evidence.

Fred was educated at three private schools in Sydney, St Aloysius' College in 1894 and 1895, St Ignatius' College, Riverview, 1896 and 1897,and finally Sydney Grammar School, 1898 and 1899.

When he was at Riverview, Fred played for the College's 1st XI, aged just 14, in a Sunday game against the Paddington XI that included Trumper three years before his Test debut. Paddington easily accounted for the

schoolboys. Top scorer was MA Noble, a future Australian Test captain. Top scorer for Riverview was the diminutive Fred Gow with 18 out of a total of 53 all out. In most games, a lack of strength told against him despite a sound defence and an ability to concentrate while wickets fell around him. When he finally scored a scintillating 96 in a minor match in 1897 this gave significant promise. When he transferred to Sydney Grammar School, he came under the influence of George Barbour, Grammar's astute and demanding 1st XI coach. Fred made 735 runs in the 1898 season and also played in Grammar's consecutive 1st XV Premiership sides as half back. His older brother, Ambrose, also played in Grammar's 1st XV and 1st XI. The brothers were also to play in the Paddington 1st Grade side and then to both represent NSW in Baseball.

After his debut for Paddington's 3rd Grade team in the 1899-1900 season, Fred was promoted to 1st Grade in October 1900 after "an admirably made 60 [in 3rd Grade] and excellent fielding". In his first match against Central Cumberland, after Dan Gee was dismissed without scoring, Fred (88) and Victor Trumper (94) were involved in a stand of 163. Paddington, under MA Noble, went on to win the 1st Grade premiership but Fred's form was erratic as he scored only 215 runs at 21.5.

The next time that Fred was involved in a substantial partnership with Trumper came a year later when they added 133 against Sydney. Trumper's 108 overshadowed his younger colleague who nevertheless made a stylish 52.

Fred continued to experience little consistent success, even turning out for a side in the competitions played on Centennial Park, until he returned to Paddington and scored a chanceless 103, his initial 1st

Grade century, against the Sydney Club in November 1908. Newspaper reporters then fell over each other to praise him: "...one of the most beautiful displays of stylish, brilliant, versatile batting...Trumper himself in his most glorious days could hardly have done better."

Another asserted: "There is no batsman coming on who gives better promise of developing into another Trumper than does Gow."

Comparisons with the great Victor Trumper surely rely on hyperbole? They may also have represented a forlorn wish to create another champion?

Fred's graceful stroke-play may have turned heads and reminded spectators of the stylish, poetic batting of Trumper (when Fred rattled up 73 in 40 minutes against Middle Harbour in November 1909, he "played an innings that charmed everyone"), but Fred's alarming inconsistency allowed little room for fantasising or wishful thinking.

Fred did do enough to earn a place for the first time in the NSW Sheffield Shield team in December 1909. He had just scored 110 in 70 minutes in a State trial game at the SCG and selection for his first Shield game seemed well-merited. Almost inevitably, Fred's innings was compared with Trumper: "Even Trumper at his best could not have surpassed it."

The NSW Sheffield Shield side was undoubtedly weak as Trumper, Kelleway and Carter were all unavailable and Noble had retired. Fred replaced Trumper. At Adelaide Oval on 18 December 1909, before a crowd of 5000, he came in at first drop after NSW had lost Warren Bardsley for 2. Fred was bowled by Jack O'Connor for 11. In the second innings, Fred was again bowled, this time by Jack Crawford for 8 and NSW lost by an innings as Clem Hill scored 205 for South Australia. The fact that he was twice out bowled in his Shield debut gives some hint as to the reasons for his puzzling inconsistency.

He was nevertheless selected again for a NSW team that played Queensland (sixteen years before their admission to the Sheffield Shield competition) in Brisbane in November 1910. His form in Grade Cricket demanded his selection. His 64 for Paddington against Balmain again drew more comparisons:

"It had the vigor and grace of Trumper, and in other respects recalled that artist."

In Brisbane, Fred opened the batting for NSW, playing with impressive freedom and free-flowing certainty to top score with 67 in 76 minutes until he was stumped. Another clue? In the second innings, he was bowled for 0 and Queensland won by 19 runs.

Four weeks later, Fred and Victor Trumper added 64 for the 2nd wicket against South Australia in Sydney in what must have produced a sublime experience for the 3000 spectators. In the second innings, however, disaster struck when Trumper was bowled second ball for 0. This was then followed by Fred's dismissal for 0 next ball, his stumps disturbed by Australian Test fast bowler, Bill Whitty.

One more game (0 and 10 against Queensland) and Fred's first class career was over: 7 games, 234 runs at 16.6.

His lack of consistency seemed to follow him everywhere. In ten seasons of 1st Grade cricket, he scored only 1534 runs at 18.6.

Whatever potential he had remained largely unfulfilled. Only glimpses of his artistry were on display.

Common methods of dismissal included "bowled", "stumped", "run out". He seemed to be particularly vulnerable to deliveries pitched in line with the stumps.

His batting style was undoubtedly graceful and comparisons with Trumper are somewhat understandable but most of his innings were over before his dignity and ability at the crease could be appreciated.

There are enough references to his casual running between wickets, to a cavalier impetuosity, as well as to his frustrating inability to keep the straight ones from hitting his stumps.

In his obituary in The Aloysiad in 1961, there is one sentence, almost an after-thought that gives a clear clue to his difficulties. "His eyesight forced him to retire from big cricket before his time."

Was faulty eyesight related to his inability to keep the straight ones out of his stumps? Did his eyesight prevent him from judging runs when running between wickets? Did his failing eyesight cause him to miss deliveries when he went out to drive only to be stumped?

As Fred Gow faded from cricket memory, he continued to play for many years at levels below 1st Grade before taking up umpiring in the CAS competition. He spoke little about his playing career. A granddaughter, requesting information about Fred some years ago, admitted that she knew that he had been a tram driver and that he might have played cricket.

Fred Gow did indeed play cricket (and baseball) for NSW. And such was his reputation that for some years he was consistently compared with one of the greatest of all Test cricketers, Victor Trumper.

JAMES RODGERS

SYDNEY UNIVERSITY CRICKET: 1852 or 1854 or 1864?

James Rodgers traces the origins of one of Australia's oldest clubs.

The Death of Captain Webster.

On the evening of Friday 31 March 1854, Captain Robert Webster climbed the stairs to his bedroom in the Governor’s Quarters of Darlinghurst Gaol. His breathing was laboured; his tread was heavy; he had only a few hours to live. His eldest son, Robert Edward Webster, also climbed the stairs to assist him. His father had been complaining of a cold for some days. Captain Webster, an Irish officer attached to the Garrison in Victoria Barracks, was the third Governor of Darlinghurst Gaol.

By 8.30pm, Captain Webster had been helped into bed but his condition grew worse. Dr Thornton Marshall, Assistant Surgeon of the 11th Regiment, was called from his quarters in Victoria Barracks but before he could arrive, Captain Webster was dead.

A magisterial enquiry was held the next morning. Thomas Harrison, Darlinghurst’s Deputy Gaoler or ‘Principal Turnkey’, thought that Captain Webster had been suffering from influenza. Doctor West conducted the post-mortem examination and concluded that the cause of death, however, had been “a fatty degeneration of the heart, the muscle of which was changed into fat.”

Captain Webster’s death at 47 caused great mourning at his Darlinghurst residence among the members of his immediate family – his wife, Anna, and their ten children. There was also a significant sense of loss at Victoria Barracks for an Officer who had served since 1825.

The Postponement of a Cricket Match.

There was another consequence of this tragic death. The Garrison Cricket Club had arranged to play the Sydney University team on Saturday afternoon at the ‘Garrison Ground’ at the rear of the military barracks which had been opened recently in February 1854. In view of the circumstances, the teams agreed to postpone the game until the next Saturday, 8 April. Meanwhile, there was a funeral to organize.

On the afternoon of Monday 3 April, the various Sydney Law Courts adjourned their proceedings so that those wishing to attend the funeral may have been able to do so. Reverend Thomas Druitt, Chaplain of Victoria Barracks, conducted the service at St Stephen’s Church, Newtown, before Captain Webster’s burial at the Camperdown Cemetery in Church Street Newtown.

Sydney University cricket begins.

The Sydney Morning Herald of Friday 7 April announced: “The match between Sydney University and the Garrison, which was to have taken place last Saturday [1 April] but was postponed on account of the death of Captain Webster, is now arranged to come off tomorrow [8 April] on the ground at the rear of the military barracks.”

And so, on Saturday 8 April, at a ground known variously at the time as ‘The Military Cricket Ground’ or ‘The Garrison Ground’ (now where the ‘Sydney Cricket Ground’ stands), a team of soldiers representing the Garrison played cricket against a team of students representing Sydney University. The Garrison Cricket Club seems to have been formed in 1853-54 and to have played its first game against the Royal Victoria Club on Wednesday 15 February 1854 to mark the opening of the new Garrison Ground in the presence of the Governor of NSW, Sir Charles Fitz Roy. The band of the 11th Regiment played throughout the afternoon. The Garrison Club won by one run when the Royal Victoria Club’s last man was run out.

The Garrison then played at least two more games before meeting the students. The soldiers who were part of a detachment which was lodged at Victoria Barracks appeared to be older and more experienced than their opponents. The students were all undergraduates at the University and were aged between George Curtis’ callow 15 years and John Kinloch who was 21.

Where did they learn to play cricket?

What experience did they have in playing cricket games?

How did they form a team to take on the soldiers?

The answers to these questions are elusive. But we do know something about the cricketing background of some of the students. 16 year old Rodney Stuart Riddell (1838-1907) opened the batting for University and probably faced the first ball in University’s innings, probably the first ball bowled against Sydney University in any game of cricket. Riddell was the son of the Colonial Treasurer, Campbell Drummond Riddell (1796-1858). He had been initially educated at Mr William Cape’s School in Darlinghurst, as was his opening partner, 17 year old Marshall Burdekin (1837-1886). There is no record of any organized cricket games played by Cape’s School but Riddell had certainly played a few games for the Royal Victoria Club, including the game against the Garrison referred to earlier. In fact, it was Riddell who was the last batsman who was run out to give the Garrison victory by one wicket. Riddell was among the first students admitted to the University in October 1852, having passed the matriculation exams in Greek (‘The Iliad’ Book 5, ‘The Anabasis’ Book 1), Latin (‘The Aeneid’ Book 1, Sallust’s ‘Bellum Catalinae’), Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. Burdekin became one of the first to be conferred with a Master of Arts (1859), a barrister and a Member of the Legislative Assembly of NSW. Others who played in the game on 8 April continued to play for University for some time but that gives no clue as to how they first learned the game.

Riddell did not finish his Arts degree, becoming a professional soldier, serving in the New Zealand wars in the 1860s, the Afghan Wars (1878-1880) and the War in the Sudan in 1885 as a Lieutenant Colonel. His great grandfather, Sir James Riddell was the first Baron of Ardnamurchon in Scotland and the hereditary title passed to Rodney. He was knighted, probably the first University cricketer to have that honour conferred on him. Thomas Henry Coulson (1833-1862) who had been among the first to be awarded a scholarship to the University in 1854, was the first of this team to die, aged only 29.

University’s first outstanding cricketer, however, was the 21 year old John Kinloch (1833-1897) who had been born in Dublin and who played his first recorded match in 1847-48 (for Union Club at Hyde Park). He was both experienced and talented, bowling fast underarm. One contemporary wrote that he “takes but a short run and delivers the ball sharply with a very rapid pace, very straight along the ground. His bowling has a peculiar ‘spin’ and is therefore successful.” He seldom scored runs, however, and was a “stiff and heavy” fieldsman who played with a monocole because of his short-sightedness. Kinloch was eventually a prolific wicket-taker in club matches and he played three times for NSW against Victoria, each time on the losing side, taking 12 first-class wickets at 11.16 and scoring just 5 runs. He was an important figure in NSW cricket, chairing the first meeting of the NSW Cricket Association in 1859. For many years, he was the secretary or the organiser of the University teams. It was he who reported in 1859 that University had first played cricket in 1852 and that the club had been formed in 1852 but there is no evidence for this claim. It seems highly unlikely that games involving Sydney University would have been played in 1852, given the fact that the University was established by an Act of the NSW Legislative Council in only September 1850; that the first meeting of the Senate of the University took place on 3 February 1851; that the first matriculation exams took place on 4 October 1852; that the inauguration ceremony took place (where Sydney Grammar School now stands) on 11 October 1852; that the first 24 students were admitted only in October 1852. If University did play any games in 1852, the team would have been selected from only 24 undergraduates.

The game on 8 April 1854

If the soldiers were expecting to have an easy time of it against the young students, especially when the Garrison led by 16 runs on the 1st innings having made 49 to University’s 33, they may have been unprepared for a significant comeback. The pitch was challenging for batting. ‘Shooters’ were common. Bowling was either underarm or round arm. Bats were rough-hewn. The ball was smaller than its current version. Batsmen wore no protective equipment. Players wore coloured shirts and buckskin boots. There were no boundaries and batsmen had to run all their ‘notches’. It appears that not all 22 players were available for the entire match. Private Fry was replaced by Private Hartnett in the Garrison’s 2nd innings and, for University, James Bowman batted in the 1st innings but was replaced in the 2nd innings.

No bowling figures were recorded and bowlers were credited with wickets only when the batsman was out bowled. So Kinloch took at least eight wickets for the match, George Leary took at least three, Coulson at least two and James Wilson at least two. In their 2nd innings, the Garrison succumbed to the bowling of Kinloch and George Leary. Private Plank top-scored with 10. Byes were next top-scorer with 5. University was left with 51 to win and steady batting, even from Kinloch, who was inevitably run out but not before he had got to double figures, saw University home by 2 wickets.

More cricket in 1854

On Monday 10 April, on a day of drizzling showers, Kinloch and Coulson represented The Junior Marlebone (sic) Club against the Union Club at Hyde Park. Sunday 16 April was Easter Sunday and no games were scheduled over the Easter season.

Then, on Saturday 22 April, at the Garrison Ground, the two teams met again. University’s team was unchanged except that Burdekin’s place was taken by David Scott Mitchell, a name easily recognized. When he died in 1907, he left his vast collection of books and an extraordinarily generous gift of 70,000 pounds, to the State of NSW. The Mitchell Library still bears his name. In this game, however, he was bowled by Captain McDonald for 0. University won convincingly by 8 wickets. Kinloch’s bowling was irresistible. In the Garrison’s 1st innings of 49 of which Captain McDonald made 14, Kinloch took 7 wickets. When the soldiers went in again, 19 behind, after University’s George Curtis made easily the highest score of the match with 26, Kinloch took another 4 wickets and University had 20 to win. Remarkably, Kinloch swiped 12 not out and University lost only two wickets in passing the score.

The Sydney Morning Herald was fulsome in its praise: “On the university side, during the first innings, the batting of Messrs Lee [who made 10] and G Curtis was very good; and in the second innings, that of Mr Kinloch, while his bowling we can venture to say, was scarcely ever surpassed in this country.”

The next Saturday, 29 April, University played its first three-aside match against the Bank Club. So dominant were the three University players that Rodney Riddell scored all the runs and Ed Lee took all the wickets without the third University player meriting a mention. In the following days, one more three-aside game and a two-aside game were played between University, represented by Riddell and Lee, and the Bank, a side formed from players who worked at one or two of the banks in Sydney. University won both games, so that by the end of its first season, University had been victorious in all five of its games.

The emergence of the University teams did not carry much permanence. Only one game was played in 1854-55 (when University fielded five players who had not played in 1853-54) and none in 1855-56.

The Sydney University Cricket Club is formed in 1864

The University moved from the city to its present expansive site in 1855 and, by 1857, had adopted the Coat of Arms and the motto (“Sidere Mens Eadem Mutato”- “The mind stays the same while the stars change”).
By 1864-65, the Club which owed so much to Kinloch’s leadership and enthusiasm was formally re-constituted or re-formed with a written constitution and colours. This Club, whose date (1864) is on the badge of the Sydney University Cricket Club, reappeared on 20 April 1865. Its opponent was the Military & Civil Club (a successor to the Garrison Club) and the game was played at the ground formerly known as the Garrison Ground which was then called the ‘Military & Civil Ground.’

We can say with some certainty, however, that a team known as ‘Sydney University’ played ‘The Garrison’ in April 1854, just over 170 years ago.

So I found this...

A few years ago, I found myself in the vicinity of Waverley Cemetery, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, with an hour to kill, and it occurred to me that I had never visited Victor Trumper’s grave. I’ve never really understood the necrotic fascination of inspecting the tombs of the famous, but Trumper’s funeral had been a great public occasion, so I decided to walk down and see where it happened.

There were two things I hadn’t expected. One is that it’s not really Victor Trumper’s grave, but a family plot. His wife was buried there, too, and his son, and his son’s wife. And there’s this: the inscription reads, “Died 28th June 1915, aged 36.” Which is wrong, surely, because throughout his life Trumper gave his birthdate as 2 November 1877, which would mean that at the time of his death, he was 37. It’s a strange mistake to make on the tomb of a very public figure.

Anyway, last year I went looking to see what I could learn about Trumper’s early life. It has been common knowledge for many decades that, although he was raised in Sydney by Charles and Louisa Trumper, there is no record of his birth. Charles and Louisa married in 1883: when they had a child a year later, her birth certificate insisted that she was the first child of that union. In 1877, the generally-accepted year of Victor’s birth, Charles Trumper was 15, and Louisa Coghlan (as she then was) was twenty. It feels unlikely that they were in a relationship then. It’s perhaps the great unsolved question of cricket history: who were Victor Trumper’s biological parents, and how did he come to live with Charles and Louisa Trumper?

I can’t claim to have come close to solving it, although in my coming book, Young Vic, I do offer a few tentative speculations. But I did find something new.

Victor Trumper remained at Crown Street Superior Public School until late September 1895. It was then unusual for a child to stay at school for so long – compulsory schooling ended at 14. It seemed likely to me that at some point, Trumper sat for the Junior Public Examination: this was a series of exams conducted by the University of Sydney, to provide a kind of intermediate assessment of students a year or two before they might attempt to matriculate (the Department of Education did not introduce the Intermediate Certificate and Leaving Certificate until 1911). The results of the Junior Public Examination were not published. But they were recorded in a handwritten ledger, and that ledger is still held in the University of Sydney archives.

And there we find the first record of Victor Trumper’s date of birth. 2 November 1878.

It’s unwise to be too excited about a single, uncorroborated, discovery: it could be an error. But if – if – it’s correct, then it changes a lot about the way we need to think about Trumper’s early life. You’ll need to read Young Vic to see what I think it means. But Charles and Louisa Trumper outlived Victor: perhaps, just perhaps, that inscription in Waverley Cemetery was their way of setting the record straight.

Max Bonnell, 12 January 2025

Springboks and Students

James Rodgers recalls an unusual tour match

COMBINED AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES v SOUTH AFRICA, SYDNEY UNIVERSITY OVAL, 21-22 DECEMBER 1910

On Wednesday 21 December 1910, Charlie Dolling, captain of the "Australian Universities" team, a 24 year old medical graduate of Adelaide University, walked out to the middle of Sydney University's Oval. He looked up at the clear blue sky, shook hands with the South African captain, 30 year old gold mine manager, Percy Sherwell, spun the coin successfully and informed Sherwell that the Universities' team would bat.

Dolling then returned to the dressing rooms and instructed 19 year old Eric Barbour, one of the four Sydney University medical students in the team, to pad up and to accompany his captain out to the middle to open the Universities' innings.

Alf Chislett, Sydney University's legendary groundsman, had prepared an evenly-paced batting wicket that promised an abundance of runs but in the second over, with only two runs on the board, Dolling, facing the right arm medium-pacers of 'Tip' Snooke who bowled from the pavilion end, attempted a cut shot to a rising delivery. His top edge flew into the slips where Dave Nourse hung onto the catch. The Universities' captain, who had first represented South Australia's Sheffield Shield team in 1905, was out for a duck, and he walked dejectedly back to the pavilion.

This was the third time that a visiting international cricket team had played at the Sydney University Oval.

In February 1898, AE Stoddart's English side had played a two-day game against thirteen players representing what was known as an "Australian Universities" side. In reality, the Universities' side contained ten players, mainly undergraduates and graduates who played with Sydney University, another two from Melbourne University and one who played with IZingari. Stoddart's team dominated the game, declaring at 7 for 333 at stumps on Saturday and having the Universities' side 6 for 76 on a showery Monday when the game had to be abandoned.

Then, in March 1908, once more on the Sydney University Oval, the touring Fijian side played a one-day game against an eleven of Sydney University. This time, the exotic visitors were out-classed, making 135 and 94 against University's 195 before stumps were drawn.

Sydney University's authorities were keen to play more matches of this kind on the University Oval, hoping to be considered worthy of matches against touring international sides in the same way that the ancient English universities' cricket teams were part of touring teams' fixtures. When the South Africans had toured the British Isles in 1907, three years before their first tour of Australia, they had played both Oxford University and Cambridge University in two first-class games, both of which were washed out on the third day.

There was much enthusiasm for this third game on the Sydney University Oval featuring an international side playing against what The Sydney Morning Herald considered "an eleven representative of the best that Australian 'varsity cricket could produce."

The Herald was filled with lyrical images in describing the first day's play. "Cultured cricket sums up the day's exhibition. It was a 'varsity crowd and the ladies who thronged the grandstand were the sisters and friends of the students. The picturesque arena was surrounded by colleges, while silhouetted against the skyline was their Alma Mater. A University cricket match partakes somewhat of the nature of a social occasion."

The spectators were well entertained as 412 runs were scored during this first day's play. The Universities' team featured eight players who would play first class cricket and included two who would play Test cricket for Australia. There were six undergraduates from Sydney, three from Melbourne University and two graduates from Adelaide University. The Adelaide players were to stay in Sydney over Christmas to play in the first inter-varsity game between Adelaide and Sydney Universities on 26 and 27 December. A weakened Sydney won by 6 wickets before a meagre crowd who found little of interest in Sydney's loose bowling and shoddy fielding.

On 21 December, the Australian Universities were bowled out just after tea for 288, the majority of which came from three of Sydney University's top order stylish batsmen, Barbour, McElhone and Minnett. After Dolling's early dismissal, Eric Barbour and Eric McElhone added 113 in under an hour with scintillating, exhilarating stroke play. Roy Minnett, who was to play nine Tests for Australia in the next few years, top-scored with a dominant 82 which contained 12 fours and which tamed the three famed wrist spin bowlers, Pegler, Schwartz and Faulkner, who among them took one for 137. The 34 year old left arm slow bowler, Charlie 'Buck' Llewellyn, generally considered the first coloured cricketer to play for South Africa, took wickets regularly and finished with 6-76 from 20 probing overs.

From then on, the South Africans were increasingly dominant. They scored the majority of the 519 runs added on the second day before Sherwell declared at 7 for 487. Llewellyn had smashed his way to 148 not out, including thirteen fours and six sixes. The Universities just hung on for a draw and at stumps were 8 for 156, still 43 behind. Barbour and Melbourne's Louis Darby defended grimly during the last few overs although Darby's loitering to soak up time while walking out to bat drew strong criticism from The Herald for his "not sportsmanlike action."

Despite both sides' hopes that such games at Sydney University's pleasantly tree-lined oval would become regular fixtures in touring teams' itineraries, it was not until England's 1936-37 tour that the next game was played on the oval. And that game has been the last.

But who were the members of the 1910-11 Universities' team?

Six were from Sydney; three from Melbourne; two from Adelaide.

Seven were to graduate as Doctors of Medicine.

Two graduated in Law.

One was a civil engineer.

Nine were to serve in the Great War. Quite a number of them returned to Australia as decorated war heroes. Lewers, Stack and Massie were all awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Fisher and Campbell were awarded the Military Cross.

At the time of the Australian Universities' game, the youngest was Eric Barbour, aged 19, and the oldest was Walter Stack, aged 26.

In 1910-11, Sydney University's 1st Grade side was to finish third after the 1909-10 side had won the premiership. A number of players were first year undergraduates. Barbour was to play his first full season in 1st Grade and was to score 533 runs at 59.2. Similarly, it was Jack Massie's first season in 1st Grade.

Many had their promising cricket careers considerably affected by serving in the Great War and by the demands of their professional careers. Remarkably, all eleven survived the war and returned to their careers in Australia. In batting order in this match, they were:

1. CHARLES EDWARD DOLLING

Dolling, of German origin, captain of the Australian Universities' side, was born on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, on 4 September 1886. His early education was at Way College before he went on to Prince Alfred College where he captained the school's 1st XI side in 1904-05 and 1905-06. In the 1904 game against St Peter's College, he announced his considerable talent, scoring a triple century before taking six wickets. In the corresponding game of 1905, Dolling scored 106 and took 13 wickets. He went up to the University of Adelaide to study Medicine and where he played cricket and football (Australian Rules) and where he involved himself generously as an office bearer of the University's Sports Association.

Aged only 19, he was selected for South Australia, making his debut in the Sheffield Shield match against Victoria in Melbourne. This was the first of 29 first-class games he was to play, until his final three games, when, aged 37, he captained South Australia after the Great War. He averaged 34.88 in first-class games, scoring 1744 runs which included four centuries.

After the Australian Universities' game against the South Africans, Dolling practised as a doctor on the Yorke Peninsular before going to London for more study. He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and served in Egypt and in France.

He returned to Australia in 1921, resumed his club cricket with West Torrens (for whom he scored a record 856 runs in 1922-23) and married Dorothy Clarke in Adelaide.

He was a much respected manager of South Australian teams and a selector for South Australia and Australia until his death in his surgery on 11 June 1936 aged only 49. His position as Australian selector was filled by Donald Bradman.

2. ERIC PITTY BARBOUR

Barbour was born in Ashfield, Sydney, on 27 January 1891. He was closely, even obsessively, coached by his father, George Barbour, a fine club cricketer for University and Burwood, a NSW Rugby player, a NSW cricket selector, a delegate to the Australian Board of Control, and Classics Master at Sydney Grammar School where he inevitably coached the College's 1st XI.

Eric Barbour made his debut in the Grammar 1st XI aged 14 in 1904-05. He was to score an astounding 9867 runs in all games in the 1st XI and to take 492 wickets with his leg breaks. When Grammar played Shore in 1908-09, he not only took 7 for 78 in Shore's 301 but he also hit 64 boundaries in making 356 in Grammar's 916. In the same season, he made his first class debut for NSW against Queensland, aged only 17 and wearing his Sydney Grammar cap. He had played 1st Grade for Burwood aged 15 in 1906-07.

His 1st Grade and first class careers were affected significantly by the Great War and then by the demands of his medical practice. Barbour played his last Grade games (when he captained Randwick to its first premiership) aged in his early forties, and his last game for NSW aged 34. He was a much-respected NSW selector.

Nevertheless, his first class career of 23 games produced 1577 runs at 46.38 and his 1st Grade career realised 4603 runs at 48.45.

There was always the feeling, however, that he could have done even better. Similarly in his studies, after earning the highest pass of any student in NSW in the Leaving Certificate, his university results in Medicine were sound rather than spectacular.

He withdrew from the 1914-15 Australian team's tour of South Africa (which was cancelled anyway because of the war) to concentrate on his final medical studies.

As with many other young doctors, Barbour enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps in September 1915. He had recently married Dora Grieve. He was posted to Egypt, England and France and he was largely shielded from the horrors of war, although his younger brother, Fred, was killed in France in 1917.

After the war, he captained a Combined Dominions team in England before resuming his medical practice in NSW, firstly at Dorrigo (1919-1923), then Stockton (1923-1929) and finally at Kensington from 1930 until his death.

He wrote two fine cricket books, the coaching manual The Making of a Cricketer and, with Alan Kippax, Anti-Bodyline, during the 1932-33 tour of Australia, and a newspaper column for the Sydney Morning Herald and for The Sydney Mail. He married for a second time to Jessie Nicholson in 1932 and had time to play a last couple of games for the Sydney University Veterans before dying of cancer on 7 December 1934, aged only 43.

3. FRANK ERIC (known as Eric) McELHONE

Eric McElhone was born on 27 June 1887. When he died in 1981, aged 94, he was the last survivor of this Australian Universities' match. He was also the last survivor of the Sydney University premiership sides that dominated Grade cricket before the Great War, having first appeared for the Club in 1905-06 after three seasons with Waverley and after a glittering school career with St Aloysius' College. Eight seasons in University's 1st Grade team produced 2053 runs and selection in seven games during 1910-11 and 1911-12 (385 runs at 38.5) in a NSW side that included some of the most renowned Australian players of the era. He considered it a singular honour to have played in NSW sides captained by Victor Trumper whose memory he continued to commemorate for many years.

During the 1910-11 season, just after he played in the Combined Universities' team against South Africa, he made his first class debut and, in his second match in January 1911, he scored 101 against Victoria. Then, in February 1911, he stroked his way to an effortless 94 for NSW against the South Africans, His handling of the famed South African wrist spinners drew deserved praise as he consistently hammered the off side boundary.

A handsome pedigree assisted Eric's development as a cricketer. His father, Frank, had been one of the founding members of the Waverley Club in 1894. One uncle, Billy McElhone, was Chairman of the Australian Board of Control. His wife's brother was the Australian Test player Dr HV Hordern.

Eric also played baseball for NSW and, as a fieldsman in cricket, he stood comparison with some of the finest cover points of his time. Since 1955, the Club's trophy for the best fieldsman in 1st Grade has been named in his honour.

He reappeared in Grade cricket for North Sydney after the Great War before retiring with 2904 runs in 1st Grade.

Eric McElhone's long life brought him many achievements. He practised as a solicitor for almost 70 years and was married for 66 years. At the age of 91, in 1978, he was elected as a Life Member of the Sydney University Cricket Club, a club he always held in the highest esteem.

4. ROY BALDWIN MINNETT

Roy Minnett was born in Sydney on 13 June 1888.

He was one of two players in this Universities' side who would go on to represent Australia ( nine Test matches. 390 runs at 26.06 and 11 wickets at 26.36). In first class cricket, he played 54 matches (2142 runs at 28.94. 86 wickets at 25.02) and his 1st Grade career spanned 20 seasons (3833 runs at 27.77 and 319 wickets at 19.14). For a brief period before the Great War, he was the most exciting all-rounder in Australian cricket, a lively fast-medium bowler and a dashing stroke player.

Three of his brothers also played 1st Grade in Sydney and two of them also represented NSW.

Roy had been a prodigy at the Shore School. He made his 1st Grade debut (for North Sydney) while still at school, aged 17, and his first class debut at 18. In this 1910-11 season when he was playing for Sydney University, he was selected three times for NSW. He hit 151 against Tasmania at a run a minute. Consistent scores for NSW in 1911-12 resulted in his selection for the 1st Test against England. On his second day in Test cricket, he dominated the scoring until, on 90 (14 fours, 105 minutes), he was caught at slip from the bowling of the legendary Sydney Barnes. He never quite recaptured that form but he played eight more Test Matches, including the 1912 tour to England, and dominated first class cricket (842 runs at 63 in 1911-12).

Soon after Roy graduated, he enlisted in the Army Medical Corps and was based in England before returning to Australia and, soon after, to Grade Cricket in 1916. He was only 32 when Test Cricket resumed in 1920 but, by that stage, he had all but retired from first class cricket to concentrate on his medical career. He played his last 1st Grade games in 1924-25.

He continued to practise as a doctor until his death aged 67 in 1955.

5. HUGH BUNNETT LEWERS

HB Lewers was one of only three who played in the Australian Universities' team who would not play first class cricket.

He was born in Melbourne on 6 September 1889, the youngest son of Thomas and Jessie (nee Bunnett) Lewers and he was educated at Melbourne Grammar where he prospered in sports and studies. He scored over 1000 runs in 1st XI competition games spread over four seasons, 1904-1907. As a middle order batsman and a brilliant fieldsman, he dominated most games, especially when he captained the 1907 champion side. He also represented the school's 1st XVIII side for three seasons and was appointed Captain of the school in 1907.

He went up to the University of Melbourne in 1908 to begin medical studies, resident at Trinity College. From 1907-08 until 1912-13, he regularly represented the University's 1st XI until his final 1st Grade game, the semi final in April 1913 when Collingwood defeated University by only 20 runs. That was the end of his competitive cricket career. He had earned Blues for cricket in 1909, 1911 and 1912.

When war was declared, Dr Lewers was one of the first surgeons from Victoria to enlist, on 20 August 1914, with the rank of Captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps. He participated in the Gallipoli landing where he was wounded and he served on the Western Front, eventually with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the 6th Australian Field Ambulance. For his bravery at Pozieres in 1916, he was awarded the DSO.

After the war, he practised at the District Hospital in Bendigo until he was posted to Sandakan in Borneo in 1926.

He then emigrated to England, was awarded the OBE, and spent the rest of his life in England until he died in North Devon on 26 June 1950, aged 60.

6. ERIC MORTLEY FISHER

Eric Fisher was born in Sydney on 25 May 1889. He was awarded a scholarship to Sydney Grammar School at a time when the school was particularly dominant in Rugby and cricket and when it produced many who studied Medicine at Sydney University.

Fisher captained the school's 1st XV as well as representing the school in 1st XI cricket and in Tennis and Athletics. The highlight of his distinguished school cricket career occurred in his final season, 1907-08, when Fisher (184) and Eric Barbour (171) added 325 for the 2nd wicket against The Kings School.

It took him almost the entire 1908-09 season before he made his 1st Grade debut for Sydney University (1st Grade cap no103) as a higher order batsman and occasional slow bowler. Consistent runs in 2nd Grade (341 runs at 31), a promising 69 against Newtown in November 1908, and consistent availability led to his first game in 1st Grade against Waverley at the University Oval during student vacation in January 1909. He was undefeated, scoring 16 not out and 17 not out in University's loss but he had to score more runs in 2nd Grade before he could no longer be denied promotion. Opening the batting in April against Redfern, he scored 44 and was never again left out of the 1st Grade side. He was awarded his Blue for cricket in 1909 and received a Blue for Rugby in the same year. He captained the University 1st XV in 1913.

In the three seasons when he played every game in the 1st Grade cricket side, he totalled 1215 runs (top scoring with 92 not out against Gordon in 1910-11). In those three seasons, University won two premierships. He played just one more game in 1st Grade, in 1912-13.

Fisher graduated in 1913 with first class honours and with the University medal.

Many other young medical graduates enlisted in the 1st AIF at this time. Fisher, just before his twenty sixth birthday, enlisted on 1 May 1915 in the Australian Army Medical Corps with the rank of Captain. Two weeks later, he sailed, bound for Gallipoli and his precious letters from Gallipoli from August 1915 until December survive in the University archives.

Posted to France in 1916, Fisher was in charge of a Regimental Aid Post at Pozieres where he treated hundreds of wounded soldiers. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery and for devotion to duty.

Returning to Australia in 1917, Dr Fisher graduated ChM in 1920 and practised at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital before setting up in private practice in Macquarie Street.

In June 1928, he married Patricia Florence Watt.

When he died on 4 March 1967, Eric Fisher was 77, a decorated war hero, a distinguished doctor, and a talented sportsman, who, 56 years previously, had represented the Australian Universities against the South Africans on Sydney University's oval.

7. ALBERT ERNST VICTOR (known as Bert) HARTKOPF.

Bert Hartkopf was born on 28 December 1889 at North Fitzroy, Melbourne.

He was one of two in this Australian Universities' team who went on to play Test cricket for Australia although he had to wait until he was 35, fifteen years after this Australian Universities' game.

Educated at Scotch College Melbourne from 1897 until 1909, he was a sportsman of protean ability, especially in Athletics, Australian Rules Football and cricket. He spent over five seasons in the college's 1st XI as a forceful right-hand batsman and a leg spinner who spun the ball vigorously.

At the time of the Australian Universities' game, when he scored 23 not out and 9 and took 1-71 from only 11 overs, Hartkopf had just finished his studies in first year Medicine at Melbourne University, for whom he played 1st Grade cricket and 1st Grade Australian Rules football.

He graduated with a degree in Medicine in 1915 but he does not appear to have enlisted in the 1st AIF. Perhaps his German name may have played a part in this? He worked at the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, and then at the Royal Children's Hospital Perth.

In February 1918, he married Elizabeth Faulks and, from 1919, he set up medical practice in Northcote, Melbourne.

He had played the first of his 41 first class matches for Victoria against NSW in 1911-12 and then he resumed his first class career after the Great War (1758 runs at 34.47 and 121 wickets at 30.79).

When the English side, under Arthur Gilligan, toured Australia in 1924-25, Hartkopf scored a valuable half century for Victoria against the MCC in November. A few weeks later, the Australian selectors summoned him to play in the 2nd Test at the MCG, Hartkopf's home ground, to strengthen the Australian bowling after England had scored 298 and 411 in the 1st Test. So, Hartkopf made his debut (Australian Test cap no120), replacing HL Hendry.

The 2nd Test began on New Year's Day 1925, a 'timeless' Test that lasted for seven days, and that enticed over 236,000 spectators, but Hartkopf had to wait until the second day before he appeared on the field. Then, batting at number eight, he slammed a quick 80 and Australia finished with 600.

He had been chosen for his bowling but his leg spinners were wayward as England totalled 479 and his only wicket was England's wicket keeper and number ten batsman, Bert Strudwick, whom Hartkopf bowled for 4.

In Australia's 2nd innings, Maurice Tate dismissed Hartkopf for 0. Australia won by 81 runs but Hartkopf was entrusted with only 4 overs in England's 2nd innings. His Test career was over as Australia selected Jack Ryder (who made a double century) to replace Hartkopf for the 3rd Test.

Hartkopf's 80, however, remains the highest score for all those Australian players who have played just one Test.

He returned to the Victorian side and continued to play until 1928-29 when he turned 40.

Dr Hartkopf died on 20 May 1968.

8. GORDON CATHCART CAMPBELL

Gordon Campbell was born in Blackwood, South Australia, on 4 June 1885. His father, Dr Allen Campbell, had emigrated from Cathcart in Scotland (hence his son's second name) and had married Florence Ann. They were to have six sons and two daughters.

Gordon attended St Peter's College in Adelaide where he captained the 1st XI, the 1st XVIII, the Lacrosse team and the running team. He would go on to represent South Australia in these four sports as well as in gymnastics and he was considered to be the best all-round sportsman in South Australia at the time.

Going up to Adelaide University in 1904, he was to graduate BA (1906) and LLB (1909) and then to be admitted to the Bar in 1911 before practising as a solicitor.

As the wicket keeper and a competent right hand batsman in the Australian Universities' side, he had already represented South Australia in 1909-10 and was to play 23 first class games by the time of the Great War (497 runs at 15.06 in addition to 28 catches and 20 stumpings). He toured North America with an Australian side in 1913 and was chosen as Manager, Selector and one of two wicket keepers in the Australian side which was to have toured South Africa in 1914-15, a tour that was abandoned because of the war.

Before enlisting in May 1915 with the rank of Lieutenant, Gordon Campbell married Iris Fisher. A few months later, he sailed from Adelaide to Alexandria and to Lemnos before landing at Gallipoli.

He enjoyed a distinguished career in the 1st AIF as a decorated war hero, awarded the Military Cross in the New Year's Honours List in January 1917 as a result of his bravery in the battle of Pozieres before being awarded a Bar to the Military Cross in November 1917. Gordon's brother, Norman, was killed in action in France.

In October 1919, he returned to Australia and resumed his career in Law, founding a firm of solicitors, Bennet, Campbell and Ligertwood. He does not appear to have played much more serious cricket but he was prominent in cricket administration in South Australia, as a South Australian selector, Chairman of the South Australian Cricket Association and a member of the Australian Board of Control.

Gordon Campbell died aged 76 on 13 August 1961 at Woodville, Adelaide, 45 years after his extraordinary courage during the Battle of Pozieres.

9. WALTER JAQUES STACK

Walter Stack was born in Sydney on 31 October 1884.

For the first years of his long life, Stack led a life of gentility and relative ease. His family lived in England and Walter was educated at Dulwich College where he was a classmate and friend of the novelist PG Wodehouse.

When he returned to Australia, Stack enrolled at Sydney University and resided at St Paul's College. In 1905-06, he was graded in Sydney University's 2nd Grade before promotion to 1st Grade where he stayed for the remainder of his University cricket career which concluded in 1913-14. He changed courses to Medicine in 1908 but he took two years off his studies to concentrate on his cricket career. His father, George Stack, had played twice for NSW against Victoria in 1866 and Walter represented NSW in seven first class games from 1909 to 1913 (142 runs at 12.90 and 24 wickets at 31.08).

Stack bowled his wrist spinners from a short run with a high action and he mixed googlies with sharply turning leg breaks while keeping exemplary control. Twice he took 50 wickets in a 1st Grade season.

Stack played in three 1st Grade premiership teams, captaining the 1913-14 1st Grade premiers (1361 runs at 17.91 and 269 wickets at 18.97). He was especially damaging in crucial games. In particular, his 7 for 48 in the 1911-12 final against Redfern was decisive.

He graduated in Medicine in 1914 and enlisted in April 1915 as Medical Officer of 4 Battalion with the rank of Captain. He landed at Gallipoli in July 1915.

In the next year he was twice mentioned in despatches for devotion to duty (at the battles of Lone Pine and Pozieres) and was invested with the DSO in May 1919 at Buckingham Palace by King George V.

Stack returned to Australia in November 1919 and qualified as an ophthalmic surgeon. He lived in Bathurst where he was married in February 1930. He continued to play cricket until he was almost 50 years of age. In one of his last representative games, he captained Western Districts of NSW against Percy Chapman's 1928-29 MCC side. He caught and bowled Jack Hobbs and had Maurice Leyland caught in the covers before taking two sharp catches at first slip.

When Dr Stack died at Bathurst on 26 March 1972, aged 87, it was 61 years since he had played for the Australian Universities against the South Africans.

10. LOUIS VICTOR DARBY

Not a great deal is known about Louis Darby who was born in Tasmania and who represented Melbourne University as a middle order batsman and medium pace bowler. One source says that he was born in 1896 but this cannot be correct unless he was aged 12 when he first represented Melbourne University!

Before the war, he played 1st Grade for the University from 1908-09 until 1912-13. He then returned for another five games in 1919-20.

In the Australian Universities' match, he is remembered for loitering to the wicket to soak up time and to ensure that the match was drawn as he defended stoically with Eric Barbour for company as the Universities' side were still 43 runs short of making the South Africans bat again.

11. ROBERT JOHN ALLWRIGHT (known as Jack) MASSIE

Jack Massie was born at North Sydney on 8 July 1890 into the heart of the Sydney Establishment. His father, Hugh Massie, was a prominent banker who captained Australia and who played nine Tests for Australia in the 1880s as a renowned hitter who opened the batting with startling effect. His mother (Tryphena Agnes) was a daughter of Sir Thomas Allwright Dibbs whose brother, George, was Premier of NSW from 1891 to 1894. Jack's older brother, also named Hugh Massie, a free scoring top-order batsman, played 1st Grade for Sydney University from 1907 until 1910 (724 runs at 38.10).

In the four seasons after Jack had left Shore School,where he had played four seasons in the school's 1st XI (223 wickets), he was devastating in 1st Grade with Sydney University (166 wickets at 13.79) and then with NSW (16 first class games, 99 wickets at 18.42) as he bowled left arm in swingers often from around the wicket.

Standing 6 feet 4 inches, he towered over his team mates. At Shore, he excelled at rifle shooting, boxing, rowing, rugby, hurdling and cricket. At Sydney University, he was awarded an unprecedented four Blues in five sports (boxing was considered part of athletics) and he was to represent NSW in rugby, athletics, boxing and cricket. In the 1913-14 1st Grade premiership side, he took a then record 69 wickets including five wickets in an innings on eight occasions.He was selected for Australia in Rugby but withdrew to concentrate on his studies. Similarly, he would surely have been selected for the Australian cricket team's tour of South Africa (which was cancelled because of the Great War) if he had been available.

Massie was a brilliant scholar who graduated from Sydney University in 1914 with first class honours and the University Medal in Civil Engineering.

He enlisted in September 1914 and in April 1915 he formed part of the Australian force that landed at Gallipoli. Massie was severely wounded when a Turkish sniper shot him in the left shoulder blade during the battle of Lone Pine. He was to be wounded another four times and was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palme. His most serious injury occurred on 3 February 1918 when a German aeroplane dropped a single bomb. Fragments of shrapnel ripped through Massie's foot.

By the time of the armistice, Massie had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and had been mentioned in despatches on multiple occasions and was awarded the DSO "for conspicuous ability, initiative, resourcefulness and devotion to duty."

He married Phyllis Wood Lang in London in June 1919.

When he returned to Australia, he played for the Sydney University Veterans in the City and Suburban competition. In 1922-23, bowling with a run up of only a few hesitant steps, he claimed 85 wickets, a record for the Sydney University Veterans that still stands.

Massie was highly respected in the cricket community and his considerable business connections were put at the service of the administration of cricket in NSW. In 1928-29, he was elected President of the Sydney University Cricket Club. From 1938 until 1944, he was a Vice President of the NSWCA. In 1944, he was made a Life Member of the NSWCA.

Tragedy was to stalk his life. His son, John, was killed in action in 1943. His wife died in the same year. Massie remarried in 1947 to a widow, Elizabeth Emily Squire. Jack Massie died at Mosman in Sydney on 14 February 1966, aged 75.

JAMES RODGERS

Posted: 6 January 2025

Jack and John

Just now, not all that seriously, I’m doing a bit of digging on Jack Walsh. You know about Walsh – left arm wrist spinner. Among Australians, only Albert Trott, Frank Tarrant, Ted McDonald, George Tribe, Shane Warne and Graham McKenzie have taken more than Walsh’s 1190 first-class wickets. Yet he never played Test cricket, and he took only two wickets for his native New South Wales. He spent most of his career with Leicestershire, playing before modest crowds at places like Derby, and so he’s not a well-remembered figure. Perhaps my research will result in a book, and perhaps not – it depends on whether what I find is interesting enough. So far, I’ve discovered that every major reference source gets his place of birth wrong, as the result of mixing him up with another John Walsh who was also born in New South Wales in 1912. Which is not quite enough to justify a book.

Anyway. In the course of digging around, I learned that in 1950, John Arlott was engaged by the Daily Mail to write a series of sketches of cricketers, which were published as "Pavilion Profiles". These were short pieces in which Arlott sought to convey, not so much runs and wickets, but the character of his subjects. And he wrote one on Jack Walsh, which was published on 12 June. Walsh was exactly the kind of character whom Arlott loved: an unpretentious, salt-of-the-earth, honest tradesman. According to Arlott, “All too often his best ball ‘beats everything’. Other bowlers might be annoyed at such lack of material success, but Jack merely grins – with a grin that kindles his face into glee – half at the success of his trickery, half in sympathy with the batsman’s bewilderment. And from one corner of his mouth he says, with the friendliest Australian accent ever heard on an English cricket field: ‘Had you, didn’t it?’ He loves to trick the expert batsman who tries to read his hand: there lies his real delight in his craft.”

John, not Jack

Which is interesting, as far as it goes. But three months later, the sportswriter in the Sydney Sun’s London bureau also decided to write a profile of Jack Walsh. “The ball spins furiously”, he wrote, “beats the batsman, the stumps, the wicketkeeper and runs down toward the boundary for byes. The bowler grins and, half in sympathy with the batsman’s bewilderment, half at the success of his cunning, says: ‘That had you, didn’t it.’ The accent is Australian... he just loves to fool expert batsmen who attempt to ‘read’ his action. That delight in his craft has made him one of the most popular men in cricket.”

It would be unfair to say that Jack Pollard copied John Arlott’s piece word for word. Pollard only used about 95% of Arlott’s words, swapped some out for synonyms, and juggled the order around a little. Yet it’s as clear a piece of journalistic theft as you could hope, or fear, to see. In 1950, very few copies of the Daily Mail reached Sydney and you’d never find a copy of the Sydney Sun in London: so the chances of Pollard being rumbled were tiny, especially if he remembered to excise expressions that were incompatible with his own, very straightforward, style (it would never occur to Pollard to think of taking wickets as “material success”).

Stumbling across these two pieces, quite by accident, made me wonder what else he might have stolen. On 5 June 1950, Arlott’s Pavilion Profile described Godfrey Evans as “the most unquenchable man in cricket.” Three months later, Pollard’s profile on Evans in the Sun called him “the most unquenchable, optimistic, impish character in cricket”. In Arlott’s telling, “If he throws himself ten yards to take a catch, you may be sure he will be on his feet, throwing up the ball before the echoes of his appeal have died in the pavilion rafters.” No-one would believe Jack Pollard writing about “pavilion rafters”, so in his version, “If he throws himself ten yards in a headlong dive, he is on his feet immediately.” Arlott reminded readers of the Daily Mail that “Until the Kent cricket committee, anxious for the safety of his eyes, demanded that he chose between cricket and boxing, Godfrey Evans had an undefeated record as a professional boxer.” Pollard: “Until the Kent County Cricket Committee, anxious for the safety of Evans’ eyes, asked him to choose between cricket and boxing, he had an unbeaten record as a professional boxer.” There’s more, lots more, but you get the drift. After all, Jack is just another version of John, only a bit less fancy, a bit less formal.

This kind of plagiarism seems to have been Pollard’s everyday stock in trade during his time in London. Although proving it isn’t always easy. In August 1950, Pollard sent to the Sun a remarkably long profile of the new England captain, Freddie Brown. It’s not stolen from Arlott: it’s full of the kind of details that Arlott disdained, like the prep school Brown attended and the business success of his fiancée’s father. Nor was this the kind of information that Pollard would uncover on his own: he had his strengths, chief of which was his extraordinary productivity, but research wasn’t one of them. It’s not from the Times, or the Sunday Times, or the Daily Telegraph or the Daily Mail but, once you’ve seen how Pollard worked in London, you know he stole it from somewhere. Have a look – I bet you can find out where if you try. I’d do it myself, but I have Jack Walsh to think about first.

Max Bonnell, 27 December 2024

When WG prevented a student from fielding for Australia.

James Rodgers recalls an untimely intervention by the doctor.

On Tuesday 2 February 1892, a 24 year old university student waited to be called on to the ground to field as a substitute for the Australian cricket team.

It was late in the afternoon of the fourth day of the second Test Match between Australia and England at Sydney's 'Association Ground' (now known as the Sydney Cricket Ground). The young undergraduate was obliged, however, to wait while the Australian captain, Jack Blackham, tried to convince the English captain, the redoubtable WG Grace ('WG'), that Hutton was needed.

WG was in a foul mood. He had allowed controversy to swirl around him even before the team had left England and then throughout an ill-tempered tour. Now, the Australians' request to take the field with yet another substitute fielder was, in WG's mind, like piling Pelion on Ossa. Things had not been going well either for WG or his English team ('Lord Sheffield's XI') which, earlier in the tour, Grace had claimed to be "the best team that had ever left England." Blackham's request was stretching the limits of WG's forbearance.

Multiple Substitutes

Why did the Australians need a substitute fielder?

Well, actually, they needed two substitutes! Firstly, NSW's captain, left hander Harry Moses, had unwisely begun the Test Match for Australia. He had wrenched his knee attempting a quick run during the first Test in Melbourne only three weeks previously. It became obvious during the Sydney Test that running between wickets and fielding were almost beyond him. In the 1st innings, Moses had made a laboured 29. WG, however, refused him a runner. WG was in no mood to be generous. He pointed out that he, a doctor, had advised Moses not to play and now he was unwilling to allow a substitute to field for him. Blackham persevered and WG eventually relented. Blackham nominated Syd Gregory, a fine fielder, who was 12th man for this Test. WG dug his heels in and refused the request for Gregory. Blackham then nominated the Test veteran, 33 year old Tom Garrett who was in Sydney, probably watching the game. WG finally agreed.

But now came another Australian request. A telegram from Melbourne had arrived on Tuesday morning. It was addressed to Australia's all-rounder, Bob McLeod, and it contained distressing news. Bob's eldest brother, Norman, had died of complications from pneumonia at his home in Melbourne on Monday evening. Bob McLeod asked permission to leave Sydney late on Tuesday afternoon, after he had batted in Australia's second innings, to be with his family in Melbourne. When he came in to bat, the crowd of 12,500 fell completely silent and then lustily cheered every run of his rather reckless 18. He was caught just before the afternoon tea break and dashed to catch the 5pm Melbourne train.

Australia's hard-fought second innings, when the seemingly immovable Alick Bannerman took 448 minutes for his 91, concluded late in the day with a hattrick to Johnny Briggs but without Moses batting. England now needed 229 to win, having been 163 ahead on the 1st innings. The game was slipping away from Grace's grasp.

Australia, however, was lacking Moses, injured, and McLeod, by this stage on the Melbourne train. Garrett was already on the field. Gregory had earlier been refused permission to act as a substitute while the Australians wore black armbands out of respect for McLeod's family.

Blackham had another idea. A young Melbourne University player was in the crowd. He had played his first game for Victoria at the Association Ground the week before the Test. And he had earlier played in the Intervarsity match against Sydney University during which he'd dominated the game, scoring 68 and taking 6 wickets.

His name was Ernest Hamilton Hutton.

Blackham approached WG.

WG: "Is he a better fielder than McLeod?"

Blackham: "Yes."

WG: "Then get someone else."

"Get someone else."

So, Hutton walked back to take a seat in the grandstand. Harry Donnan, who had been dropped from the first Test side after two failures when he scored 9 and 2, was summoned. WG, with more pressing things on his mind as he was to open the batting in England's quest for victory, this time agreed and Donnan fielded.

Australia was reduced to two main bowlers, George Giffen and Charlie Turner, but they took a wicket apiece, including Bobby Abel who had carried his bat for 132 in the 1st innings, the first instance of this in Test cricket. England struggled in gloomy conditions until Turner induced a thin edge to Blackham from WG and England went to stumps at a disastrous 3 for 11. On the next day, Australia won convincingly by 72 runs and the "best team that had ever left England" was 2-0 down in the three match series.

Who was Ernest Hamilton Hutton?

Hutton had been born at Mount Rouse, west of Melbourne, on 29 March 1867, the second of three sons (William Joseph was born in 1866 and George Gerald in 1869) to William George Hutton (1835-1869) and Elizabeth Ann Whitehead who had been married in 1864. William George's family, originally from Scotland, owned extensive properties around Mount Rouse and important pastoral and mercantile

investments. William George Hutton died when Ernest was an infant and his mother, with three young sons, moved to Ipswich in Queensland where Ernest was enrolled at Ipswich Grammar School from the early 1880s. There he was an outstanding sportsman, participating in Victorian Rules Football, Rugby football, track and field, pole vaulting and hurdles, tennis, cricket and billiards. At full height, he stood an imposing 6 feet 2 inches. Years later, he was considered to be the best athlete in the school's 'Team of the Century.'

In November 1887, at Brisbane's Exhibition Ground, 20 year old Ernest Hutton played his first senior cricket game when he was selected for the XVIII of Queensland to play Shrewsbury's English touring side. Standing tall and batting left-handed, he scored only 10 and 0 but, two weeks later, he was selected in a curious non-first class match for 'LC Docker's XI' against 'A Smith's XI' at the Exhibition Ground. The two sides, captained by two of Shrewbury's team, Ludford Charles Docker and the future star of movies, Charles Aubrey Smith, contained English players, Australian players and a few young Queenslanders. The game appears to have been some sort of trial game before the major colonial matches of the tour. This time, Ernest top scored in the 1st innings with a free-scoring 31. Then in the second innings, in a method of dismissal that gives some indication of his approach to batting, he was stumped by Dick Pilling from Smith's bowling. He was considered "stylish" at the crease and a fine fielder. Many years later, he was remembered as "a slashing bat". The XVIII of Queensland played another game against Shrewsbury's XI beginning on 2 December. In the 1st innings, Ernest was bowled for 5 by Joseph Merritt Preston, a tragic figure from Yorkshire who was to live only two more years. In the 2nd innings, Ernest was again stumped by Dick Pilling, this time for 16.

Next year, on 14 July 1888 and 21 July 1888, Ernest played two intercolonial Rugby games for Queensland against NSW only six years after the first match between Queensland and NSW. Although he had been captain of Ipswich Grammar's 'Victorian Rules' side in 1883, by 1888 the leading schools were playing Rugby exclusively and his natural sporting talent enabled him to switch to Rugby Football with apparent ease.

During these games came news that Ernest had matriculated to Sydney University with Class II Honours in Mathematics. So, he left Ipswich and his family to take up residence among 22 other undergraduates at St Paul's College, paying 70 pounds per annum for the privilege of residing at the College. His mother must have inherited enough money to be able to send at least two of her sons to Ipswich Grammar and then to cover Ernest's fees at St Paul's.

His enrolment in Arts I for 1889 made Ernest elegible to represent Sydney University in its various sports. He played the 1888-89 season in the University's 1st XI but he struggled against experienced bowlers from the other clubs scoring just 82 runs and taking 3 wickets. In 1889, he also played for the Sydney University Football (Rugby) Club, the undefeated premiers, and he was chosen three times for NSW, scoring a try in NSW's narrow win against Queensland at Brisbane's Exhibition Ground on 31 August 1889. He was the twenty third NSW Rugby representative from Sydney University. So, by the time he was 22, he had played Rugby for both Queensland and NSW.

Ernest began the 1889-90 cricket season with Sydney University, averaging 46 in limited appearances until November 1889, and he also played against Melbourne University in the annual Intervarsity match. He was considered the best all round

sportsman at Sydney University in this era.

Melbourne University

Then came another remarkable change for this young man of extraordinarily protean ability. After playing for a Queensland cricket team in Melbourne in March 1890 when he scored 30 against the Melbourne Cricket Club, Ernest enrolled at Melbourne University although he is not listed among the undergraduates of the University, despite passing first year in Natural Philosophy. He was apparently a resident of Trinity College for whom he scored a double century against Queen's College in March 1890 as well as taking 4 wickets. In the 1890 winter, he played 'Australian Rules' for the Melbourne Football Club and Tennis for Melbourne University. In 1891, he represented Victoria in Tennis.

Felix, writing in The Australasian in November 1890, was impressed with his ability as a cricketer: "Hutton, the Queenslander, is justly regarded as the best all-round man in the team and with his fine athletic frame he looks as if he would never tire."

During the 1891-92 cricket season, the season when he almost took the field in the Test Match in Sydney, he was playing in Melbourne University's 1st XI with outstanding success with bat and ball. This, and his grand match for Melbourne University against Sydney University, presumably encouraged the Victorian selectors to choose him for the inter-colonial game against NSW in Sydney when a replacement was needed for Jim Phillips, who was in dispute with the Victorian Cricket Association. In Victoria's resounding victory, just before the Test Match, Ernest scored only two runs and took one wicket (Charles Richardson LBW) but he threw for two run outs. In February, Jack Blackham's acknowledgement of him as an even better fielder than Bob McLeod, following WG's query, seemed to rest on solid evidence.

So, by this stage, aged just 24, he had represented NSW and Queensland in Rugby, Victoria in cricket and Victoria in tennis. But, there was more to come. Ernest Hutton seemed to spend only 1891 and possibly 1892, at Melbourne University.

A Queenslander again.

He next appears in the Queensland side once more but, this time, in a first-class match, only the second first-class game that Queensland ever played.

On 24 March 1894, Ernest took the field, at Sydney's Association Ground, for Queensland against NSW before meagre crowds. Batting at number 5, he easily top scored with 31 in Queensland's dismal 113 before he was LBW to Andy Newell on a pitch significantly affected by rain on the first day. Not Out in The Referee considered that Hutton "shaped with plenty of coolness and waited for favourable opportunities."

NSW had a 47 run lead even though Queensland was without Hutton's bowling because of a strain in his arm. Queensland, however, rallied despite Ernest scoring only 4 in the second innings before he was bowled by Tom Garrett. NSW then had 200 to win, a score they achieved when Garrett and Newell added 35 unbroken for the ninth wicket. Four of those who had played such significant parts in the second Test of 1891-92 again featured at the Association Ground: Garrett, Gregory, Moses and Donnan. And Ernest Hutton who had played a small part, off-stage, and who had been imperiously rejected by WG.

That was Ernest Hutton's last appearance in a major game of any of his sports. In a social tennis game during the 1890s, he slipped, damaging his spine, and this was the end of his sporting career.

Fading from view

From 1894 until his death aged 62 on 12 July 1929 at his mother's home, 'Warrieua' in Ascot, Brisbane, he fades from view. He is said to have been a civil engineer. He was remembered as a charming man with rare personal qualities although he never married. He left a substantial estate of 10,786 pounds. For all his sporting talent, he had an indifference and a "casual attitude" to games, never training all that diligently and refusing to take games seriously.

But for WG's foul mood, however, he may have taken the field in a Test Match.

James Rodgers, 27 December 2024

(With acknowledgements to Max Bonnell, Alf James, Pat Rodgers and Ric Sissons)

Ideas Occasional musings on cricket, writers and writing

Ideas
Occasional musings on cricket, writers and writing