Australia’s
Sons
As many as 22 players were to represent Australia in the enthralling 1894–95 Test series as it swung back and forth. Eight of them were destined to play in no more than half-a-dozen Test matches in their lifetimes. All, though, played with a passion which would hardly have compared unfavourably with that of today’s Australian cricketers, for all the financial dividends that sponsorship has bestowed in the late 20th Century.
JOHN MCCARTHY BLACKHAM
Born North Fitzroy, Melbourne, May 11, 1854
Wicketkeeper, lower-order batsman
Victoria 1874–75 to 1894–95 Australia (35 Tests, 1876–77 to 1894–95)
Jack Blackham captained Australia in the first Test of 1894–95, but a damaged thumb and the strain on a 40-year-old in such a gruelling match were to render it his last.
Even in the eyes of most Englishmen, Blackham, in his prime, had been supreme among wicketkeepers. In his flimsy leg-guards and lightly-padded gloves (still to be seen in Melbourne Cricket Club’s museum) he stood, usually, up at the stumps even to the fiery Spofforth and even when the bounce was unpredictable.
He was a veteran of the first-ever Test, at Melbourne in 1877, and was easily the last survivor in international playing terms. He was a member of the first eight teams to tour England, and eventually his earnings from cricket enabled him to give up his job at the Colonial Bank. Bank work, though, could never have been as hard on his nerves as cricket. In tense situations he died a thousand deaths.
Throughout his long career he suffered injuries too, mainly to ribs, fingers and teeth. But he was a ‘natural’ who revolutionised the art of wicketkeeping, helping, alongside several ‘new-age’ English wicketkeepers, to render the longstop position obsolete, thus giving the bowler an extra fieldsman.
Blackham was highly-respected and friendly, an intelligent cricketer, who was entrusted with the captaincy of Australia for the 1891–92 series and the 1893 tour of England, having tasted the honour during the agonised 1884–85 series. And his captaincy of Victoria was a major element in that State’s resurgence. WG Grace awarded him the palm, and the sensitive Victorian with the trademark spade beard truly earned, through his many years behind the stumps, the accolade ‘Prince of Stumpers’.
WILLIAM BRUCE
Born South Yarra, Melbourne, May 22, 1864
Left-hand batsman, left-arm medium-pace bowler
Victoria 1882–83 to 1903–04 Australia (14 Tests, 1884–85 to 1894–95)
Billy Bruce had promised much. At 19 he had made the highest score recorded to date (1883–84) in Australia with an innings of 328 not out for Melbourne against Hotham, and he had top-scored with 45 in the second innings of his maiden Test, at Melbourne in 1884–85, when he was still only 20.
Tall and slim, he was a solicitor by profession, but took leave to tour England twice, on the ill-fated 1886 tour and in 1893, when he made his highest first-class score, 191 against Oxford & Cambridge Universities at Portsmouth, when the Australians gorged themselves on 843 runs. Earlier, when the English and Australian players merged for a Smokers v Non-Smokers match in Melbourne in 1886–87, Bruce scored 131 in an opening stand with England’s champion Arthur Shrewsbury which amounted to 196, and an English magazine ventured the opinion that Bruce was now ‘the best batsman in Australia’.
It may not have helped his cause that he seldom batted twice running in the same position in the order, or that his bowling was sometimes used and sometimes not. But the quality was there, and when his confidence was high he was a delight to watch—as when he once hit Bobby Peel clean out of Trent Bridge.
SYDNEY THOMAS CALLAWAY
Born Sydney, February 6, 1868
Right-hand batsman, fast-medium bowler
New South Wales 1888–89 to 1895–96, Canterbury, NZ 1900–01 to 1906–07 Australia (3 Tests, 1891–92 to 1894–95)
Attached to Sydney’s prominent Carlton club, Syd Callaway was an allrounder who bowled at a nippy medium-fast pace and first attracted attention in the big-time when he performed well against the 1888 Australian team upon its return from England. Firstly he took wickets for NSW, and then, when McDonnell’s team went to Brisbane, Callaway, who was visiting at the time, played for the Queensland XVIII and took six wickets in each innings at low cost. Five for 89 for a Combined Victoria & NSW team against the Australians put him in line for higher honours.
Picking up wickets for his club as if playing against children, Callaway won a place in the Australian side for two Tests in 1891–92, without making headlines, but had the satisfaction of getting the wicket of the world’s most famous cricketer, WG Grace, in both the Englishmen’s matches against NSW.
Callaway toured New Zealand in 1890 and took 51 wickets at only seven runs each, 47 of them bowled, which helped him form an affection for that country that would change the course of his life.
Born Emerald Hill, South Melbourne, July 14, 1863
Left-arm fast bowler, left-hand lower-order batsman
New South Wales 1892–93 to 1898–99, Queensland 1893–94 to 1895–96 Australia (1 Test, 1894–95)
Few more fascinating men have played cricket for Australia. If anyone was an allrounder it was Coningham: record-breaking runner, oarsman, rifle marksman, billiards player, footballer, swimmer (he was presented with a medal for saving a drowning child during the 1893 tour of England). He also earned his keep in a variety of ways, including a spell as a barber in Glebe, Sydney. He once suddenly realised that he ought to have been taking the field at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and dashed off leaving a cut-throat razor hanging from a customer’s cheek.
He was clearly a man who believed in getting his own way, and he was forced into a form of isolation during the 1893 Australian tour of England, when he was left out of key matches despite good performances on most of his given opportunities. He showed his feelings towards the end by gathering sticks and lighting a fire near the boundary at Blackpool when the temperature dropped during the match late in August.
In December 1895, Coningham hit the first century for Queensland in first-class cricket, 151 in 3½ hours, and typically he had threatened to withdraw from the match until the Sydney authorities came up with £10 to cover his fortnight’s loss of earnings. During his time as a bookmaker he was quick to display his status as International Cricketer on his leather bag. Volatility was always to be the first quality associated with ‘Conny’.
JOSEPH DARLING
Born Glen Osmond, Adelaide, November 21, 1870
Left-hand batsman
South Australia 1893–94 to 1907–08 Australia (34 Tests, 1894–95 to 1905)
Joe Darling, the schoolboy prodigy, was about to embark on a remarkable Test career. Since his knock of 252 for Prince Alfred College as a 14-year-old (when his gloveless fingers bled from friction against the twine on the bat-handle) he had been marked out for a higher purpose. Only his farming duties delayed his entrance into international cricket.
Short, rugged and quite without frills, he could defend and he could punish, particularly with the pull-shot to short balls. Beyond this obvious batting quality, leadership skills were also apparent. In his four first-class matches before the arrival of Stoddart’s team, Darling had made an unbeaten 63 and an 87. The manner of his making those runs further raised the sense of expectation.
GEORGE GIFFEN
Born Norwood, Adelaide, March 27, 1859
Right-hand middle-order batsman, right-arm medium-pace and offspin bowler
South Australia 1877–78 to 1903–04 Australia (31 Tests, 1881–82 to 1896)
It is spot-on as well as convenient to label George Giffen as ‘the WG Grace of Australia’. He dominated most of the encounters in which he took part, either with bat or ball or often both, and his effectiveness was augmented by a dominant personality. He was not as jovial as the English champion, which was a shortcoming for the Australian, midst the tensions of touring and of team-selection, and it is tempting to speculate that Giffen might have been an even greater cricketer had he been endowed with less of a temperamental nature.
Tirelessness was among his qualities. When he was captain, it was said, he acted as if he were the whole eleven. In Giffen’s language, a change of bowling was to take himself off only to have a go immediately at the other end. Nonetheless, this was seldom good news for batsmen, for his nagging offspin hardly ever gave scope for liberties.
His greatest performance in statistical terms was an innings of 271 in seven hours backed by bowling figures of 9 for 96 and 7 for 70 in a total of 76 six-ball overs, all in the one match for South Australia against Victoria at Adelaide Oval in November 1891.
Even Grace never quite matched that, or Noble or Hirst or Hammond or Sobers. And yet all Giffen had done was improve on his 237 and 12 for 192 in the previous season, against the same opposition, only at Melbourne. Twice before he had taken a century off Victoria and coupled the deed with 13 or 14 wickets. His was a towering presence, prematurely grey, sometimes grumpy, perpetually concerned at the effect his cricket absences were having on his prospects for advancement in the Post Office.
He developed a sound and somewhat dour batting technique, but this and his bowling skill—with subtle pace-changes the potent factor—brought him the 1000 runs/100 wickets double in Tests against England, a distinction he shared with only Noble and Rhodes until Botham came along.
He argued with umpires sometimes, and even with his captains when on tour. He went to England five times and declined a place on the 1888 and 1890 expeditions. He performed the 1000/100 double on the last three tours, testimony not only to his skill but to his fitness. Giffen took all 10 wickets for 66 (like Arthur Mailey of a succeeding generation), for an Australian XI against a Combined XI at Sydney in 1883–84, the first instance in an Australian first-class match, and he did the hat-trick as many as three times, in an unlikely combination of venues: Old Trafford, Adelaide, and Wembley. Not even WG did that.
HENRY GRAHAM
Born Carlton, Melbourne, November 22, 1870
Right-hand middle-order batsman
Victoria 1892–93 to 1902–03, Otago, NZ 1903–04 to 1906–07 Australia (6 Tests, 1893 to 1896)
Harry Graham, the ‘Little Dasher’, was a day younger than Joe Darling. He made his name with a century in his first Test innings, that innings happening to be at Lord’s, in 1893, when Australia were in fearful trouble at 75 for 5 in reply to England’s 334. Graham walked in at No. 7, and hit a return catch to Lockwood, who had taken all five wickets. The catch went down.
Graham, 5ft 6ins (168 cm) and under 10 stone, with the even smaller Syd Gregory, set about mounting a recovery, and though Mold’s speed tested them, and Lockwood came back hungry for more, they held steady, running impertinent singles. ‘Grammy’ Graham’s fifty came in only 55 minutes, and the stand raced to 142 in a bare 100 minutes before Gregory was caught behind, Lockwood’s sixth victim. More luck had come Graham’s way at 57 when Shrewsbury missed him at point off Lockwood, but little more than two hours after he had reached the crease in Australia’s dark hour, he found himself on 98. Again, he hit towards point. Shrewsbury stuck up a hand—and the catch fell to ground. Soon the hundred was his, the first by an Australian in a Lord’s Test, and made well inside a year since he had first played big cricket. His 107 took 140 minutes, with 12 fours and a five (overthrows), and his immortality—as long as cricket books are read—was assured.
That match was drawn, thanks to Harry Graham’s great hand and rain on the last day, but the next Test, at Old Trafford, was lost by an innings, and he made a duck and 42. He finished top of the 1893 tour averages in all matches, piling up 1492 runs at 28.69. But he hardly made a run in the six matches in North America on the way home, and those close to him began to feel concern at his lack of personal discipline. He was by no means exceptional in liking a few drinks.
His electrifying bursts were still worth waiting for, as when he followed his Manchester Test duck with a four-hour 219 against Derbyshire, chanceless and enchanting.
SYDNEY EDWARD GREGORY
Born Moore Park, Sydney, April 14, 1870
Right-hand batsman, excellent cover fieldsman
New South Wales 1889–90 to 1911–12 Australia (58 Tests, 1890 to 1912)
Syd ‘Tich’ Gregory was some time in finding his feet at Test level, and yet he was to go on to play a record number of times for Australia against England (52) and to notch a great distinction for himself in this 1894–95 series.
He was a member of Australia’s first great cricket family. His father, Ned, and uncle, Dave, both played in the first of all Test matches, and he himself was born in the small house provided by the Sydney Cricket Ground trustees in the precincts of the ground itself for his father as curator. Syd’s other uncles, Charles and Arthur, played for NSW; his cousin Jack became as great an allrounder as Australian cricket has known; and Harry Donnan (five Tests for Australia) was his brother-in-law.
He lived for cricket, and it showed in his lithe fielding as much as his batting. There was no hesitation for him in the matter of touring either, exhausting and repetitive though it could be. He went on eight tours of England between 1890 and 1912. A popular tourist, he delighted with his footwork, which helped him overcome his conspicuous lack of height, and preferred to play an attacking game, even though he could defend grimly when required. Noting that Gregory was ‘rather fond of running himself out’, English maestro CB Fry clearly admired him: This very great Australian batsman, a little man with beady black eyes and as neat as a domino, had no superior in technique as a cutter and off-driver.’
JOHN HARRY
Born Ballarat, Victoria, August 1, 1857
Right-hand batsman, variety bowler, wicketkeeper
Victoria 1883–84 to 1897–98 Australia (1 Test, 1894–95)
Jack Harry was a rarity among 19th Century Australian cricketers in that he made a living from the game and was thus designated as a ‘professional’. He was a rarity, too, in that he was sometimes known to tire of bowling with his right arm and switch to left, occasionally achieving his aim of confusing the batsman.
He hit a couple of centuries for Victoria, and collected many runs and wickets for Bendigo and for East Melbourne in club cricket. He was also an interstate baseballer.
FRANCIS ADAMS IREDALE
Born Surry Hills, Sydney, June 19, 1867
Right-hand batsman, outfielder
New South Wales 1888–89 to 1901–02 Australia (14 Tests, 1894–95 to 1899)
After hinting at big things for several seasons, Frank Iredale came through in the mid-1890s as unarguably one of the best batsmen in Australia. He was one of those batsmen who take time to get settled, vulnerable before 20. Thereafter he could be so solid that bowlers developed feelings of futility. The cut was his most prolific stroke, and, unusually for a tall man, he pulled effectively. ‘Noss’ Iredale was also a sound fieldsman in the deep, the sort whom an opposing batsman who had lofted a shot in his direction scarcely bothered to watch as the catch descended.
ARTHUR HARWOOD JARVIS
Born Hindmarsh, Adelaide, October 19, 1860
Wicketkeeper, lower-order right-hand batsman
South Australia 1877–78 to 1900–01 Australia (II Tests, 1884–85 to 1894–95)
Blackham’s understudy on four tours of England between 1880 and 1893, ‘Affie’ Jarvis might have earned more Test caps in another era. Instead, his State benefited from his play for over 20 years. He caught the eye when only 18, having a good game against Lord Harris’s English team in 1878–79, remaining for years in consideration for higher honours. He had his days as a batsman, notably when he made his highest Test score, 82, at Melbourne in the 1884–85 series, while his five catches and a stumping at Sydney in the next Test helped Australia to a six-run victory. Admiring his attacking batsmanship, his South Australia captain, Giffen, once thought Jarvis was the best batsman in the State. He was also impressed by the fact that, in contrast to the Victorian, Blackham, Jarvis had no unsound fingers on either hand.
ERNEST JONES
Born Auburn, South Australia, September 30, 1869
Fast bowler, good mid-off fieldsman
South Australia 1892–93 to 1902–03, Western Australia 1906–07 to 1907–08 Australia (19 Tests, 1894–95 to 1902–03)
Ernie Jones utilised his Samson-like body for mining, stevedoring and fast bowling. He was Australia’s first truly ferocious pace bowler. Wicketkeepers and longstops, let alone batsmen, found him a terrifying proposition with the new ball, and even after he reduced his storming run-up by a few yards, it was still anyone’s guess as to whether he or Tom Richardson was the fastest bowler in the world. Jones was more erratic, and his velocity dropped off slightly earlier than Richardson’s. Still, he was, for years, Australia’s warhead.
There was a suspicion about the legitimacy of his action—no great rarity at the time—but never any doubt about the danger that always lurked for batsmen when ‘Jonah’ had the ball. Sometimes he was a threat even when he didn’t have it, for when a bouncer broke FS Jackson’s rib, Ernie was so sympathetic that when he next met the aristocratic Englishman he warmly shook his hand, almost turning his fingers to splinters with his mighty grip.
JOHN JAMES LYONS
Born Gawler, South Australia, May 21, 1863
Right-hand opening batsman, right-arm medium-pace bowler South Australia 1884–85 to 1899–1900 Australia (14 Tests, 1886–87 to 1897–98)
Jack Lyons won a place in the game’s culture for his shattering attacks on all kinds of bowling—except, perhaps, the slow tempters sometimes floated down by the likes of Peel. At times it seemed that the faster they bowled the harder Lyons hit; and all with a minimum of feet-movement. He was considered more effective than other fabled Australian hitters of the time, such as Bonnor, McDonnell and Massie, because his range extended to the entire compass of the ground. And, of course, nothing pleased him more than to thump the ball clean out of the ground.
On the 1893 tour of England he waded into the MCC bowlers at Lord’s to such effect that his hundred came in an hour, and there were 22 fours in his final 149. Alick Bannerman had played doggedly alongside all this time, and when Lyons was caught at long-off, the follow-on arrears of 181 had just been wiped away. It was an innings discussed in cricket circles for many years to follow. On the previous tour, in 1890, he had not done quite so well against MCC: he made 99 in 75 minutes, which paired nicely with his 45-minute 55 in the Lord’s Test, which in turn paired well with his 5 for 30 in England’s first innings. His 134 in the Sydney Test of 1891–92 came in only 2¾ hours.
THOMAS ROBERT MCKIBBIN
Born Raglan, Bathurst, NSW, December 10, 1870
Right-arm medium-pace/offbreak bowler, left-hand lower-order batsman, slip fielder
New South Wales 1894–95 to 1898–99 Australia (5 Tests, 1894–95 to 1897–98)
Tom McKibbin, a country cricketer, made a quiet debut for NSW against Stoddart’s 1894–95 team after his sharply-spun bowling had attracted attention in high places, and soon he was in the Test team, seen by the optimists as another CTB Turner. At times he turned the ball, on responsive pitches, much too far; but when the touch was right, he was a formidable opponent. There were, however, murmurs about his action. They were not factional. There was unquestionably something irregular about his arm movement, quick though it was.
In only his third first-class match McKibbin routed Queensland with 5 for 19 and 9 for 68 at Brisbane, a performance which provided the Test selectors with a temptation they simply could not resist.
CHARLES EDWARD MCLEOD
Born Port Melbourne, October 24, 1869
Right-hand batsman, right-arm medium-pace bowler
Victoria 1893–94 to 1903–04 Australia (l7 Tests, 1894–95 to 1905)
Younger brother of Bob McLeod, who played in six Tests in the early 1890s, Charlie, too, was a steady player, more a bowler to start with, before his batting developed. Patience was a keynote, with his bat usually immaculately straight, but in 179 first-class innings his highest score was no greater than 112. Such players, of course, are often valuable to a captain by way of ‘ballast’, and succeeding Australian skippers continued to find a place for him. And if he should ever have been barracked for slow batting, he had an affliction which, for once, would have been an asset: he was almost totally deaf. Not that this helped him in the 1897 Sydney Test, when he left his crease without realising he had been bowled by a no-ball. The English wicketkeeper whipped out the stumps and, as the law then stood, poor McLeod had to keep on walking to the dressing-room.
HENRY MOSES
Born Windsor, NSW, February 13, 1858
Left-hand batsman
New South Wales 1881–82 to 1894–95 Australia (6 Tests, 1886–87 to 1894–95)
Harry Moses was a polished left-hander who would have toured several times with the Australians but for the containment of his business career. He first played for his country in a Test at Sydney which saw England bowled out for 45 and yet go on to win by 13 runs. Moses was joint top-scorer with 31 in Australia’s first innings of 119 and top-scorer with 24 in the disastrous second innings of 97. He top-scored (28) again in the Test which followed, also on his home ground of Sydney, and made second-top-score of 33 in the second innings.
That 33 was to remain his highest score in 10 visits to the crease in Test matches, a cruel reflection of his real ability. At one time he was the highest runmaker in matches between NSW and Victoria, and his 297 not out against the old southern enemy in 1888, at Sydney, was a classic which lasted 10¼ hours. He had warmed up with a century for his State against Shrewsbury’s English team. There can be little doubt that had Moses made himself available for one of the many tours of England mounted during his playing days, his reputation in both countries would have been greater. As it is, he was destined, together with so many of his contemporary internationals, to fade into the shadows of time.
JOHN COLE REEDMAN
Born Gilberton, Adelaide, October 9, 1865
Right-hand batsman, right-arm medium-pace bowler
South Australia 1887–88 to 1908–09 Australia (1 Test, 1894–95)
‘Dinny’ Reedman, a postman, gave long and faithful service to South Australia, and added to his pride with one Test cap. He was a utilitarian batsman, maker of two centuries in his 21 years of top cricket, and a bowler of not quite the first rank, whose day sometimes dawned, as when he took 13 wickets against Victoria when in his 40th year. If there was one aspect of his game which really stood out it was his fielding, throwing and catching. He sometimes captained his State.
ALBERT EDWIN TROTT
Born Abbotsford, Melbourne, February 6, 1873
Right-hand middle-order batsman, right-arm fast/variety bowler
Victoria 1892–93 to 1895–96, Middlesex 1898–1910, Hawke’s Bay, NZ 1901–02 Australia (3 Tests, 1894–95), England (2 Tests, 1898–99)
Albert Trott may not have been the most intellectual of cricketers, but he was a willing, powerful batsman and a bowler who could get people out with pace, swing, cut, spin and sheer surprise. Younger brother of Harry, who had already toured England three times, ‘Alberto’ wanted to succeed at cricket, and practised for long hours, bowling at a large wooden crate in front of a wicket. The crate was Giffen in his mind’s eye; the wicket was repeatedly battered by curving balls; the crate, being inanimate, was indifferent to the subtle pace-changes—unlike hundreds of hapless batsmen.
He was playing good club cricket in Melbourne at 15, and at 20 made his debut for Victoria. After only six first-class matches he was chosen to play for Australia, and the deeds he performed from the very first day seemed to suggest the arrival of a great allrounder. Brother Harry was proud … for the time being.
GEORGE HENRY STEVENS TROTT
Born Collingwood, Melbourne, August 5, 1866
Right-hand batsman, legbreak bowler, point fieldsman
Victoria 1885–86 to 1907–08 Australia (24 Tests, 1888 to 1897–98)
To the start of the 1894–95 series, Harry Trott had only one decent Test score behind him, a defiant 92 in a rearguard action at The Oval in 1893, when England won by an innings. But this Melbourne postman’s reputation as a batsman was already soundly established through his deeds in Victoria’s matches and on his first three tours of England. His State recognised his captaincy qualities, for his shrewdness shone out in defiance of his sparse education, and his popularity was universal. His manner was equable, and he possessed that uncommon knack of being able to handle players of every sort of personality and disposition.
HUGH TRUMBLE
Born Abbotsford, Melbourne, May 12, 1867
Right-arm offspin bowler, lower-order batsman, slip fielder
Victoria 1887–88 to 1903–04 Australia (32 Tests, 1890 to 1903–04)
A towering bowler of considerable importance to Australia’s cause, ‘Little Eva’ to team-mates, relished by English onlookers as the ‘Victorian Cornstalk’, Trumble brought the ball down from a rare height, usually with naturally flighted offspin, sometimes with surprising nip off the pitch, and occasionally turning from leg—a sort of Curtly Ambrose at slow-medium pace with ‘lateral’ movement. He often batted impressively too, and was regarded as one of the better fieldsmen at slip or slightly deeper. Success at international level was slow in coming, though he had developed well on the first two of his eventual five tours of England. Son of an Irish immigrant, brother of John who had already played for Australia, Hugh was a bank employee, and upon joining Melbourne Cricket Club he found himself sharing the attack with the veteran Fred Spofforth—and returning better season’s figures. Intelligent, with strong fingers, he absorbed the advice proffered by the likes of Blackham and became a formidable bowler. He also had the dry humour vital to a player who inevitably would sometimes see catches go down midst unrewarded spells of bowling.
Born Bathurst, NSW, November 16, 1862
Right-arm medium-pace offspin, lower/middle-order batsman
New South Wales 1882–83 to 1909–10 Australia (17 Tests, 1886–87 to 1894–95)
Charlie Turner—‘The Terror’—was a fine batsman: the young Ranjitsinhji never forgot a century he saw him make at The Oval in 1888. But his precision bowling, especially when in tandem with left-armer Jack Ferris (they bowled into each other’s footmarks) on damp pitches, placed him among the immortals.
Turner’s English father was a free immigrant, and the lad used to rise at 4.30 am to work on the Cobb & Co. mail coaches as they passed through Bathurst, and then practise with a mate down at the local oval. Here he developed his extraordinary accuracy, which was coupled with an ability to turn the ball from the off for anything up to a foot, almost always hitting the stumps. He generated lift too, and cultivated a wicket-taking change of pace.
On his first tour of England, in 1888, having taken an abiding record number of wickets (106) in the Australian season, he dismissed 283 batsmen (314 in all matches) at 11.68 a time, Ferris doing almost as well. They were nearly as effective again on the next tour of England, in 1890; and yet both times the Australians’ tour record was dismal. About 5ft 9ins tall, Turner had a longish approach to the wicket and an easy action, the arm fairly high, the chest facing the batsman. His yorker was a regular source of destruction, and a number of eminent batsmen of his time gave him the laurel as the best bowler of them all.
The signs were there from the start, for at Sydney, in 1887, his first day in Test cricket found him taking 6 for 15 as England slid to their lowest total ever, 45. And yet Australia lost. Same story next Test, though Turner took 9 for 93 in the match; and again a year later, still at Sydney, when he took 12 for 87, and still Australia lost. Twenty-one wickets at 12.43 in the three Tests in England in 1888 could not prevent a 1–2 deficit for the tourists; and so it went on: Turner, timed at 55 mph, taking wickets galore but often being let down by his batsmen.
He had married at 19, but his wife died soon afterwards. He remarried in 1891, and was ready to add to his 83 Test wickets as Stoddart and his men landed.
JOHN WORRALL
Born Maryborough, Victoria, May 12, 1861
Right-hand batsman, roundarm bowler, close fielder Victoria 1883–84 to 1901–02 Australia (II Tests, 1884–85 to 1899)
Jack Worrall served Victoria for years as a steady batsman who had begun as an attacker. His first tour of England, in 1888, had been a sobering experience, with a top score of 46 on the mocking succession of wet pitches, and he tightened up eventually to become an opener. His bowling, slowish roundarm, was often useful, and he was one of the game’s thinkers. His rugged style reflected his prominence as an Aussie Rules footballer.
