Tour of England 1934                Captain:  Bill Woodfull

17th Australian Test tour

17th Test-playing tour of England by Australia

(March - October 1934)

Australia's Board of Control did not confirm that the tour would take place until 16 November when they obtained MCC's agreement that leg-theory bowling was not in the best interests of the game.

The tourists were forbidden to discuss Bodyline or anything else with the press, and Oldfield jokingly refused even to tell newsmen whether he had been seasick on the cross-channel ferry, after the stormy weather the cricketers suffered on the 'Orford' as they journeyed through the Bay of Biscay.

The Australians were assured that Bodyline would not be bowled against them but at Trent Bridge Voce bowled with four men close on the leg-side and, to the cheers of the crowd who called Woodfull 'mardy' (sulky), took eight wickets.  ‘Shin soreness’ was given as an excuse for him not bowling again in the match.

The Australians attracted large crowds, whatever the fixture.  Even on rainy days in the county matches, about 12 000 people turned up.

Sponsorship was in its infancy. Taking the Glamorgan match as an example, Woodfull made 228 runs not out, earning a shilling talent money for each of his twenty fours and a further pound for his double century. All told, the Australians ended up with £1 a man, and donated it to the local hospital in Swansea.

In January 1930 the Australian Board had considered an invitation by the Indian Board to make a Test tour of India in 1934-35 and was 'inclined to accept' but the opportunity to play a match at Bombay on the way home from England was not taken.

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

England 1930

Next tour

South Africa 1935-36

Next tour of England

1938

Members of the Test tour party (16)

Opening batsmen:  Bill Brown, Bill Woodfull, Bill Ponsford.

Middle-order batsmen  Donald Bradman, Arthur Chipperfield, Ernest Bromley, Len Darling, Stan McCabe, Alan Kippax.

Wicket-keepers    Bert Oldfield, Ben Barnett.

Slow bowlers  ‘Chuck’ Fleetwood-Smith, Clarrie Grimmett, Bill O’Reilly

Fast bowlers  Hans Ebeling, Tim Wall

Thumbnail sketches from Jack Hobbs’s ‘Fight for the Ashes’

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

   (8 June 1934) : 

   29 yrs  8 months.

State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

N - New South Wales (7)

S -  South Australia (2)

V -  Victoria (7)

Bromley played for Western Australia and transferred to Victoria in 1932-33.

Key to type:

RHB Right-handed bat

RM  Right arm medium-paced bowler

RFM  Right-arm fast medium

OB   Off break

WK  Wicket-keeper

Test Appearances made before the tour

Oldfield 39,  Woodfull 30,  Grimmett 27,  Ponsford 25,  Bradman 23,  Kippax 21, McCabe 20,  Wall 14,  O'Reilly 7,  Darling 2,  Bromley 1,  Barnett 0,  Brown 0,  Chipperfield 0,  Ebeling 0,  Fleetwood-Smith 0.

Tour Officials

The manager's name was announced on 22 September 1933. He was Harold Bushby, a Tasmanian lawyer. He beat five other candidates: R C M Boyce, W L Kelly, L P D O'Connor, S H D Rowe and E L Waddy.

Selectors

In October 1933 it was announced that the touring party would be selected by Dr Charles E Dolling (South Australia), E A Dwyer (New South Wales) and Bill Woodfull (Victoria) and would be announced the day after the Sheffield Shield was completed.

William J Johnson, Vic Richardson and Alan Kippax were unsuccessful in their bids to become selectors.

Selection

Bill Woodfull was chosen unanimously as captain, while Donald Bradman was appointed vice-captain over Kippax by a majority vote.

Woodfull asked that 16 players should be taken, owing to the lack of all-rounders.

Unavailable:

Tour Party Announced :  31 January 1934.

Not selected :  Jack Badcock.  There were also the surprise omissions of Vic Richardson, Jack Fingleton, Hugh Chilvers

Time between selection and departure from Australia         54 days

(31 January  - 26 March)

Travel

Fremantle  T  Southampton

                 ‘Orford’

Naples    tWaterloo, London

Bradman was allowed to miss the Tasmanian tour (as were Bromley and Ponsford) and to join the ship at his hometown of Adelaide. The team went on the 'Nairana'  to Tasmania on 9 March for the customary pre-tour fixtures.

The 'Orford' left Fremantle on 26 March 1934, after the match against Western Australia. There was also a match in Ceylon

Many of the tour group disembarked at Naples for a sightseeing tour or at Toulon to travel the rest of the journey overland. When the main body of the tour party arrived on 25 April at Southampton docks (disembarking there rather than remaining aboard until Tilbury), Oldfield, Kippax and McCabe had already been in England for some days. Woodfull, Bradman, Grimmett, Wall, Ponsford, Ebeling, Fleetwood-Smith, O’Reilly, Darling, Pope and Ferguson then caught the train to London’s Waterloo Station

Brown, Barnett, Bromley and Chipperfield, with the manager and treasurer, who had been sightseeing in France and Switzerland, arrived at London’s Victoria Station on the boat train on 26 April.

The pre-tour practices were held at Alan Fairfax's indoor cricket school.

Time spent in England

   157 days

(25 April - 29 September)

On-tour selection panel

Bill Woodfull (captain), Don Bradman (vice-captain), Alan Kippax.

Reinforcements

None.  Ernie Bromley developed appendicitis at the time of the final Test, and was unable to complete the tour. Bradman, too, had appendicitis but his went septic and he was seriously ill.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

NCC  Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground

Time spent in England before First Test: 

  44 days

(25 April - 8 June)

Test appearances on tour

5 -  Bradman,  Brown,  Chipperfield,  Grimmett,  McCabe,  Oldfield,  O'Reilly,  Woodfull.

4 -  Darling,  Ponsford,  Wall

1 -  Bromley,  Ebeling,  Kippax

0 -  Barnett,  Fleetwood-Smith.

Highlights

•    In the first Test Bill O'Reilly took 4-75 and 7-54.  In the five Test matches he captured 28 wickets.

•    Don Bradman played an innings of 304 at Headingley, being dismissed just short of his own world record of 334.

•    Bill Ponsford (266) and Bradman (244) added 451 for the 2d wicket at The Oval, the highest stand in Test cricket.

•    In a festival match Bradman struck bowler Tich Freeman for 30 runs (4-6-6-4-6-4) in one over.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Tilbury    T   Fremantle

            ‘Orontes’

After his operation Donald Bradman convalesced in the south of France and missed the entire 1934-35 season in Australia. He did not sail home until 18 December when he left on the 'Otranto', arriving home on 22 January.

The team sailed home on the 'Orontes' out of Tilbury on 29 September. Several players including Bill Woodfull enjoyed a holiday in Europe before boarding the ship at Toulon.  The Board permitted Woodfull to have his wife meet him in Colombo.

The Orontesarrived at Fremantle on the morning of Tuesday 30 October and were given a public reception. The ship left harbour, taking them to the eastern states, later the same day

Time away from Australia

  218 days  

(26 March to 30 October)

Finances

The tour profit amounted to £41 000 for the Australian Board of Control. 

The players were, as in 1930, to be paid £600 (£100 prior to embarkation, £350 in England, with £150 on return, subject to a good report on their behaviour).

Written accounts of the tour

“Ashes and Dust”  (1934)  by Douglas Jardine  [Hutchinson]

"Kissing the Rod"  (1934) by  Percy Fender  [Chapman & Hall]

"Fight for the Ashes"  (1934) by  Jack Hobbs  [G Harrap & Co]

Postscript

At the end of the tour Australian cricket lost the services of both Woodfull and Ponsford who retired.