The second venture to go out to the Australian colonies under the
management of Shaw, Shrewsbury
and Lillywhite made a small profit of approximately £500.
James Lillywhite, now 42 years old, had more or less given up
cricket and played in only two matches. He acted as umpire until his
judgements became regarded as unreliable, and the Australian sides would not agree
to him standing.
The English team arrived in Australia before the 1884
Australian tourists got home from their own tour. A match arranged between
these two sides at Adelaide
was the opening match of the first ever five-Test series. A series of five
Test matches in England
was not arranged until 1899.
Before the First Test began, certain members of W L Murdoch's
1884 team were refusing to play for their states (then colonies) against
Shaw's team, and demanded to be paid the same as the English professionals.
This amounted to half of the takings from the gate in the 'Combined
Australia' matches at Adelaide and Melbourne (now regarded
as the first two Tests). After some negotiation, the South Australian Cricket
Association came to a financial arrangement with them and they played at Adelaide. But the
Melbourne Club would have none of it, and promptly dismissed the rebels from
the Australian side for the second Test.
A settlement was reached in time for the third Test and all were
available to play.From now on cricket
between Australia and England
was always a genuine match, the participants being the best players
available.At this point, however, a
dispute broke out within the English camp. William Barnes fell out with Shrewsbury and refused
when called upon to bowl.Australia
narrowly won the match and, as they also comfortably won the next, the series
stood level. England then
won the final Test at Melbourne
by an innings and 98 runs.
In all
matches Robert Peel took 356 wickets (in the odds match at Moss Vale his
figures were 18 wickets for 7 runs). William Barnes was the leading batsman; in the Test matches he recorded three fifties and a century. He
and Shrewsbury
averaged more than 40 in the first-class matches.
John
Conway stood down after the third Test because the Australians would not play
Shrewsbury’s
team while he was associated with them.
Selectors
Shaw, Shrewsbury
and Lillywhite chose the team.
Selection
Unavailable :Dick
Barlow declined an invitation to tour and recommended that Johnny Briggs should be
taken instead.
Also not available : wicket-keepers Mordecai Sherwin and Dick Pilling,
left-arm fast bowler Walter Wright and amateur batsmen Walter Read and E J
Diver.
Tour Party Announced : ?
Withdrawal :William Gunn.
Hunter, Briggs and Peel
were the last to be chosen.
Time between final selection and departure
from England
xdays
(August - 18 September)
Travel
PlymouthTAdelaide
‘Orient’
Departure was from Plymouth
on 18 September 1884.The ss 'Orient',
due to call at Naples, had to avoid this port
because of a cholera outbreak and steamed on to Suez, arriving on 2 October 1884 where it
was arranged to play a match against the British residents and servicemen and
see the Pyramids.
Sailing on via Aden (7 October), the 'Orient'
reached Port Adelaide on 29 October, before the 1884 Australians had arrived
home.Within a month the two sides
were engaged in what later became recognised as the first Test of the series.
Time spent in Australia
159 days
(29
October - 6 April)
Reinforcements
Alfred Shaw played in only ten minor matches and Lillywhite in
two. The eleven members of the team had little rest from playing. Shrewsbury took over as
captain.
The services of G F (George)
Hearne, the MCC pavilion clerk at Lord's who had visited Australia for
the benefit of his health, were enlisted.Likewise, Surrey batsman Robert
Henderson, sent to Australia
at his county's expense for health reasons, played in one match. Both had
travelled to Australia
on the RMS Orientwith the team.
G.F.Vernon fielded
for Bates in the final Test, as did Affie
Jarvis of the Australian side.
•England fielded an unchanged side
throughout the five-match Test series, and indeed through most of the tour.
•By contrast the Australians’ second Test side showed 11 changes because
the whole team from the opening Test demanded 50 per cent of the gate money to
play at Melbourne,
which was refused.
•William Barnes struck 134
in the first Test and Johnny Briggs 121 in the second, both match-winning
centuries.
•Barnes also took 9 wickets
in the 2nd Test but he argued with Shrewsbury
and refused to bowl in the next match
•Wilfred Flowers and Maurice Read shared a stand of 102 as England
approached its third Test target of 214 runs
•With the series level at 2-2, England
won the final Test at Melbourne
to retain the Ashes
•Arthur Shrewsbury became the first England captain to score a Test
century (105*) in this 5th Test victory.
Tour
Summary
P
W
L
D
Aban
“Test” Matches
5
3
2
0
-
Other first-class matches
3
3
0
0
-
†Minor matches
26
10
0
16
-
All Matches
34
16
2
16
-
Return
to England
AdelaideTPlymouth
‘Potosi’
Shaw left Australia on the ‘Liguria’ on 23 February having
been engaged by the Earl of Sheffield to coach the Sussex team beginning on 10
April.
On 6 April 1885 the team sailed
home from Adelaide on the Orient Line steamer ss
'Potosi', via Suez
into the Mediterranean Sea.At Naples
half of the players (Attewell, Barnes, Scotton, Ulyett, Lillywhite, Flowers)
chose to travel overland across Italy
and France, reaching England (their destination Nottingham)
on 12 May,
The remainder, Shrewsbury,
Read, Bates, Briggs, Hunter and Peel sailed on through the Bay of Biscay,
arriving in Plymouth
on 15 May, by which date the other group were already playing in a county
match.
Time away from England
239 days
(18
September - 15 May)
Finances
Their proposal that the Australians would take half the gate
money in the first two Tests was turned down. For their part in boycotting
the matches the Victorian players were suspended
Accounts
of the tour
"Shaw & Shrewsbury's team in Australia"written by themselves (facsimile published by J W McKenzie, 1985)
Postscript
Shaw joked that his team were “providentially-sent water diviners
who produced deluges at call. Rain accompanied us all round Australia. The
up-country people thanked us for breaking the drought, and asked us to come
again whenever their land was afflicted with an abnormally dry season.”
On
return, Shaw arranged a match against the eleven on behalf of the Earl of Sheffield. In
September the touring team, assisted by one Derbyshire player, W.Chatterton, and Mr
Martin Riley of Yorkshire, played two
further matches.