Tour of Australia  1881-82 (Shaw’s XI)                Captain :  Alfred Shaw    

England’s third Test tour.

(September 1881 – May 1882)

Third Test playing tour of Australia by an English side

   (previous tour 1878-79)

The tour programme included matches in the United States, en route to Australia. English teams had visited America on five previous occasions.  Among those who had been there two years before on Richard Daft's tour were Bates, Emmett, Ulyett, Shaw and Shrewsbury.  Financial success then had encouraged the latter two that the United States should be included this time; but the matches were an economic failure.

Though the American leg of the tour made them no money, income in Australia offset this loss and the whole tour recorded a £700 overall profit. John Conway who was cast aside by the 1880 Australian eleven, had been engaged as agent and secured Shaw a profitable programme including matches against the 1880 eleven playing as ‘Combined Australia’ and two against the same Australian team that was selected to visit England in 1882. There were also matches in New Zealand after the first “Test” match.  None of these matches were first-class.

All England tours

Previous Test tour

Australia 1878-79(Lord Harris’s Gentlemen of England)

Next Test tour

Australia 1882-83(Ivo Bligh’s team)

Members of the Test tour party (11)

Opening batsmen: Dick Barlow

Middle-order batsmen William Scotton,  John Selby, Billy Midwinter, Arthur Shrewsbury,

Wicket-keeper: Dick Pilling

All-rounders:  George Ulyett,  Willie Bates.

Slow bowlers: Ted Peate

Faster bowlers: Alfred Shaw, Tom Emmett.

County representation:

Gs  -  Gloucestershire (1)

La  -  Lancashire (2)

Nt  -  Nottinghamshire (4)

Yo  -  Yorkshire (4)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(31 December 1881): 

31 yrs 1 month.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Emmett 3,  Shaw 3,  Ulyett 3,  Midwinter 2 for Australia,  Selby 2,  Barlow 0,  Bates 0,  Peate 0,  Pilling 0,  Scotton 0,  Shrewsbury 0,  Lillywhite 2.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Shaw, Shrewsbury and Lillywhite picked the team.

Selection

No amateurs were considered initially, but later Morton Peto Lucas was asked. However, he declined to join the tour.

The New South Wales CA wanted George Ulyett excluded because of his part in the 1878-79 fracas but Lillywhite refused because his absence would make the side less attractive to the paying spectators.

Unavailable : William Barnes (Notts), Morton Lucas (Sussex).

Tour Party Announced  :

Time between selection and departure from England

   days

 (  ?  - 18 September)

Travel

Liverpool  T    Gravesend

                 ‘Algeria’

San Francisco  T    Sydney

                 ‘Australis’

After a farewell match at Nottingham between 15 and 17 September (Shaw's team versus 18 of Nottingham Castle), the tour party sailed the next day on the 'Algeria'  from Liverpool via  Queenstown to America.

After the matches in America, they left San Francisco on ss 'Australis' on Saturday 22 October 1881 and sailed via Honolulu (Hawaii), arriving in Auckland (N Zealand) on 12 November; and reached Sydney at noon on Wednesday16 November. They were then driven to the Oxford Hotel for a welcome from the New South Wales Cricket Association.

The time spent at sea of 22 days 21 hours was the quickest then on record for a Pacific crossing 

On 4 January the evening after the first 'Test'  the team caught a ship (the ‘Arawata’) from Melbourne back to New Zealand, arriving at the port of Bluff on Tuesday 10 January, and reaching Dunedin the next day. On 7 February they returned to Australia on the ship 'City of Sydney', reaching that harbour on 11 February.  The team wished to stop and play a match at Society Island, but the ship's captain would not permit the delay.

Time spent in Australia

    90 days

(16 November -  24 March)

 (less 4 Jan - 11 February)

Time spent in New Zealand

    27 days

(11 January -  7 February)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements

James Lillywhite played in the five minor matches in America because Arthur Shrewsbury had a bronchitis-like illness and was late joining the team. He travelled directly to Australia.

The same eleven then played in all other matches apart from at Windsor when Jack Blackham played against Hawkesbury in place of Willie Bates, who had missed his train.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

   45 days

(16 November - 31 December)

Test appearances on tour

(v Australia 1881-82)

4 -  Barlow,  Bates,  Emmett,  Midwinter, Peate,  Pilling,  Scotton,  Selby,  Shaw,  Shrewsbury,  Ulyett. 

0 -  Lillywhite.

Match appearances

T  Test match

o  one-day international 

x other match 

⊕ T/20 international

∙  played for opposition

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned  

u unknown result

England’s six previous Test tour results:

in Australia 1878-79 (1 Test)

 - lost 0-1

in Australia 1876-77 (2 Tests)

 - drew 1-1

Highlights

•  In all matches Peate took no less than 264 wickets, at a cost of 5.25 each, and Midwinter 192. 

•  Ulyett scored 1424 runs at an average of 33, including 149 in the 4th of the 'Test matches, England's first Test century.

• 

•

Tour Summary

Return to England

Melbourne     T    Plymouth

                ‘Chimbarazo’

The team left Melbourne on the Orient Line steamship 'Chimborazo' on 22 March and Adelaide two days later. Lillywhite hoped to play a further match against South Australia but it could not be arranged.

Sailing by way of Suez (23 April), the ship reached Naples on 2 May.  Midwinter, Bates, Barlow and Lillywhite went overland but the rest stayed on board until Plymouth on 11 May.  Selby and Ulyett had arrived home on 2 May, having disembarked at Suez and travelled overland from Brindisi.

Time away from England

  247  days  

(18 September - 11 May))

Finances

The Victorian Cricket Association decision to levy a charge of ten per cent on the gate receipts in Melbourne caused indignation but was backed by a threat to bar its best cricketers from playing against Shaw’s team.

Accounts of the tour

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Postscript