A Short
Breather
The newspapers, sole communicators—apart from word of mouth—of the dramatic events in the first Test match, lavished praise on England for their fightback and acknowledged, almost in awe, the fickleness of the weather. Some correspondents—who may never have had to bat on an Australian sticky against artful bowlers like Peel and Briggs—were even critical of Australia for making 420 runs fewer in the second innings than in the first.
‘That’s the match,’ Briggs said when Blackham had won the toss, according to one of the cuttings in Stoddart’s scrapbook. Peel, the report remarked, ‘found the match rather a trying one, and came in fairly done up’. Did that particular reporter not know the truth?
Another cutting reveals that delighted though the Englishmen may have been, one at least could not resist the temptation to tease. They went off to the races, where one player stated gleefully that ‘we like your climate immensely; it’s so suited to the game, you know’. On the light blue (Australian) side ‘feelings had to be concealed’.
And as the Victorian and South Australian players boarded the southbound express train, Jack Lyons said, ‘Yes, we’re going home. About time, isn’t it?’
Picnic at Clarendon: the English cricketers, maintaining dress decorum, relax away from the tensions of the
tour. Stoddart is extreme left; Ward sips a cup of tea; Philipson (behind) enjoys a pipe; Ford is standing; Phil
Sheridan (NSWCA) has a white beard; Ben Wardill kneels in front; MacLaren sips tea; Richardson reads a
paper; Lockwood sits in front of him; the chap in the black hat is probably a host.
Blackham declined to be interviewed.
Back at the Hotel Australia, where the English amateurs were staying, as Stoddart and his fellows entered the dining-room that evening, 200 diners cheered them loudly, the captain bowing in acknowledgment.
The next day, Friday, was free, before the English team played Eighteen Juniors of Sydney, again at the SCG, on the Saturday and Monday. We shall never know if the English bowlers over-celebrated after the Sydney Test victory, but they were anything but effective against the Juniors, who scored 327 for 7 on the first day, rising to 442 for 9 on the second before the captain had the satisfaction of signalling a declaration. By then, the 21-year-old Paddington allrounder and future Australian Test captain MA Noble was 152 not out. He then took the wickets of Ford and Stoddart as the tourists batted through to 151 for 6 and a lopsided draw.
Quite as significant as Noble’s performance, however, was an 85 minute innings of 67 by a slender youth of 17 who was making his first appearance in the big-time. His style was described by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘superior’. He was once deceived by a Humphreys underarm legspinner. He gave no identifiable chance. He treated the bowling of these famous Englishmen with ‘the greatest disrespect’. He would go on doing that for seasons to come, until his health failed him totally 20 years later. His name was Victor Thomas Trumper.
