Tour of Australia 1887-88                    Captain : G F Vernon                

England’s eighth Test tour

(September 1887 – April 1888)

Eighth Test-playing tour of Australia by an English team

        (previously1886-87)

In 1886 the Melbourne Club had abandoned its intention to promote an 1886-87 cricket tour of Australia by its chosen English team. Now, on behalf of the Club, Major Ben Wardill arranged for eight English amateurs and five professionals to visit Australia in 1887-88 instead.  Mr G F Vernon, the original choice as captain, acted as the Club's agent in England and gathered a team but eventually there was a complete change in the personnel, and few of those first talked about as possibilities for the tour accepted places. 

Lord Hawke (as he became on his return) was the newly-appointed captain, and started the tour but had to sail back to England early because of the death of his father, so Vernon took over the captaincy after all.  Vernon himself had missed the first few games of the tour after falling down a gangway on board the ship 'Iberia'. The team also lost the services of Willie Bates who was struck in the eye by a ball at net practice and had to go home. Yet the side lost only one match.

Largely because of the competition from Shrewsbury's rival English team, the Melbourne Club lost approximately £3000 on the venture.

Members of the Test tour party

 (13)

Opening batsmen:   Bobby Abel , Andrew Stoddart

Middle-order batsmen Martin Hawke,  Walter Read,  George Vernon, Tim O’Brien

Wicket-keeper:Arthur Newton, Monty Bowden

Slow bowlers:Bobby Peel, Willie Bates

Faster bowlers: John Rawlin, John Beaumont, William (Dick) Attewell.

County representation:

Mx  -  Middlesex (3)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (1)

Sm - Somerset (1)

Sy  -  Surrey (4)

Yo  -  Yorkshire (4)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(10 February 1888) :

28 yrs 10 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Bates 15,  Mr Read 9,  Attewell 5,  Peel 5,  Mr O'Brien 1,  Mr Vernon 1,  Abel 0,  Beaumont 0,  Mr Bowden 0,  Mr Hawke 0,  Mr Newton 0,  Rawlin 0,   Mr Stoddart 0.

Tour Officials

Jim Phillips was a Victorian. He went to England at the end of the tour to join the MCC groundstaff as a bowler

Selectors

The team selection was made by G F Vernon and Walter Read. Major B J Wardill, secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club, indicated players he would like to be brought but did not take part in selection of the team).

Selection

Unavailable :  Dr W G Grace was made an offer of £1500 plus expenses to join the team but turned it down.

Mr E H Bowley (Sy),  Mr K J Key, Mr W H Patterson, Mr A G Steel, Mr G B Studd, Stanley Scott (Mx), Mr J G Walker, E F S Tylecote (Kent)  were among those reported to have been asked to tour but declined

Tour Party Announced  :  ?

Withdrawn:. Mr W.E.Roller of Surrey withdrew and county team mate Abel took his place.

Time between selection and departure from England

   days

 ( ? - 15 September)

Travel

 Tilbury     T    Adelaide

                ‘Iberia’

With Mr Newham and Mr Smith of the rival New South Wales-sponsored team aboard, members of the Melbourne Club's  tour party left Tilbury on the 'Iberia' on Thursday 15 September 1887, calling at Plymouth where they stayed until Saturday morning. 

The ship reached King George’s Sound, Albany, on 21 October, and Adelaide on Wednesday 26 October where the team stopped to play a match, but Shaw & Shrewsbury’s team sailed on to Sydney.

Time spent in Australia

    143 days

(26 October -  17 March)

On-tour selection panel

Reinforcements

Vernon slipped on the companionway and injured himself and could not play for the first three weeks.

Bates was struck in the eye by a ball at net practice in Melbourne on 21 December and did not play again on the tour.  He left Melbourne on the 'Orizaba' on 3 February and arrived home on 10 March, reportedly trying to commit suicide on the voyage.

The touring umpire, Jim Phillips, played in one minor match, as did Australians, F H (Frank) Walters and F.Williams. K.MacArthur, who played at Goulburn because “Mr Read did not come having gone on a trip to Tenterfield”, took two brilliant catches at cover point.

Fixtures/Results

A special general meeting of the Melbourne club on 21 January 1887 decided to invite an English team. The club arranged the programme of fixtures

‡   Combined English XI

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

  107 days

(26 October - 10 February)

Test appearances on tour

1  -    Attewell,  Peel,  Read,  Stoddart

0  -    Abel,  Beaumont,  Bowden,  Newton,  O'Brien,  Rawlin,  Vernon;   Hawke, Bates.

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 1886-87 (2 Tests)

 - won 2-0

in Australia 1884-85 (5 Tests)

 - won 3-2

in Australia 1882-83 (4 Tests)

 - drew 2-2

in Australia 1881-82 (4 Tests)

 - lost 0-2

in Australia 1878-79 (1 Test)

 - lost 0-1

in Australia 1876-77 (2 Tests)

 - drew 1-1

Highlights

•  The team was all out for 31 at Goulburn, the lowest score made by an English team in Australia,

•  While four players appeared in every match except one, Peel played in them all. He therefore had the opportunity to capture 213 wickets (at 7.53 each). He bowled nearly 1400 overs.

• 

Tour Summary

Return to England

Melbourne T    Tilbury

                ‘’Austral’

On Tuesday 13 March the Melbourne Club gave a farewell dinner.

The team returned on the Orient Line steamer 'Austral ', without Lord Hawke and W.Bates (who had left Australia earlier in December and February respectively), skipper G F Vernon, who followed later, and Andrew Stoddart (who remained to play on a rugby football tour arranged by Shaw and Shrewsbury). 

The 'Austral ' left Melbourne on 17 March 1888. It sailed via Albany and Naples, reaching Plymouth on 27 April and sailing on to Tilbury.

Stoddart did not return home until 11 November 1888. The Blackheath rugby football star was not only manager of the rugby tour of New Zealand and Australia; he took over the captaincy, too, after the death of R.L.Seddon of Broughton Rovers.

Time away from England

  225 days  

(15 September - 27 April)

Finances

The tour made a huge loss of £3382, which the Melbourne club had to bear.

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

The tour incurred such a loss that no English teams were invited to Australia for four more years and then only because Lord Sheffield bore the cost.