Tour of South Africa 1898-99                 Captain : Lord Hawke                

England’s 15th Test tour.

(December 1898 - April 1899)

Fourth Test-playing tour of South Africa by an English side

   (previous tour 1895-96)

The team was met at the quayside in Cape Town by an old friend George Lohmann, who had come out some years before to make his home at Matjesfontein for the benefit of his health.  He agreed to manage the team but did not play any cricket for them.

An unofficial recruit, the Hon Eustace Fiennes, was secretary to Frank Rhodes, brother of Cecil, and a great friend of Lord Hawke. He later became a baronet, Governor of the Seychelles and a Member of Parliament. His grandson, Ranulph, successfully undertook the Transglobe Expedition some eighty years later.

Pelham Warner wrote "We had a strong bowling side with a good deal of variety, and a sound if not brilliant lot of batsmen, while in the field we were up to, if not above, the average of county elevens." (Cricket in Many Climes, 1900).  In reality, the side was too strong : it stood well below England's full strength, but overwhelmed all the opposition.  This was the last occasion on which such unbalanced matches were played and by 1905-06 South African cricket had caught up.

 All England tours

 Previous Test tour

 Australia 1897-98(Stoddart’s)

 Next Test tour

 Australia 1901-02(MacLaren’s)

 Next tour of  South Africa

 1905-06(M.C.C)

Members of the Test tour party (12)

Opening batsmen:  Pelham Warner, Frank ‘Mike’ Mitchell

Middle-order batsmen Lord Hawke, Willis Cuttell, Johnny Tyldesley, Clement Wilson

Wicket-keeper: Jack Board, Alfred Archer

All-rounder:  Albert Trott

Spin bowler:  Willis Cuttell

Fast bowlers: Schofield Haigh, Frank Milligan, Hugh Bromley-Davenport

County representation:

Gs -  Gloucestershire (1)

La  -  Lancashire (2)

Mx  -  Middlesex (3)

Yo  -  Yorkshire (5

Archer, of Free Foresters and Shropshire at the time, later played for Worcestershire.

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(14 February 1899):

 28 yrs 8 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Bromley-Davenport 3, Hawke 3, Trott 3 for Australia, Archer 0, Board 0, Cuttell 0, Haigh 0, Milligan 0, M itchell 0, Tyldesley 0, Warner 0, Wilson 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Lord Hawke made all the choices, and picked four fellow Yorkshiremen.

Selection

Unavailable /Not considered: 

Tour Party Announced  :

Withdrawn:.

Time between selection and departure from England

   days

 (  ? -   3 December)

Travel

Southampton   T     Cape Town

                       ‘Scot’’

On Saturday 3 December 1898 the team left Waterloo Station for Southampton where they disembarked on the 'Scot' and sailed via Madeira and Tenerife.

On 20 December the ship arrived at Cape Town where it was met by George Lohmann. 

Frank Milligan had travelled out a fortnight earlier on the 'Briton'.

Time spent in South Africa

    106 days

(20 December - 5 April)

Reinforcements

Clement Wilson was unwell at the start of the tour but, generally, the team escaped injuries.

The Hon Eustace Fiennes, who provided a picnic on New Year's Day at the Government Farm at High Constantia, played for Hawke's team against Western Province XIII and again, with three officers of the Fleet, against The Navy & The Army.

R.G.Relf (King's Royal Rifle Corps) substituted for Warner in one match, as did baggageman Kirk and Henry Lund, Milligan's servant.  The tour promoter Mr J D Logan played in the extra game at Kimberley and at Matjesfontein.

Tour manager George Lohmann played for XXII of Matjesfontein against the tourists.

Fixtures/Results

The match at Port Elizabeth (g) was originally planned to be the first Test against South Africa.

There were no matches in Natal owing to a disagreement between the Sout African Cricket Association and that colony

† not first-class

Time spent in South Africa before First Test:

  56days

(20 December  - 14 February)

Test appearances on tour

(v South Africa 1898-99)

2 -   Board,  Cuttell,  Haigh,  Hawke,  Milligan,  Mitchell,  Trott,  Tyldesley,  Warner,  Wilson.

1 -   Archer, Bromley-Davenport,

Match appearances

T  Test match

x other match 

∙  played for opposition

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned  

u unknown result

The three other players against the Navy & Army at Simon’s Bay are not known.

England’s six previous Test tour results:

in Australia 1897-98 (5 Tests)

 - lost 1-4

in South Africa 1895-96 (3 Tests)

 - won 3-0

in Australia 1894-95 (5 Tests)

 - won 3-2

in South Africa 1891-92 (1 Test)

 - won 1-0

in Australia 1891-92 (3 Tests)

 - lost 1-2

in South Africa 1888-89 (4 Tests)

 - won 2-0

Highlights

•  Pelham Warner carried his bat for 132 in the Test match against South Africa at Johannesburg.

•  Against Transvaal XI three centuries were scored in Hawke’s Team’s total of 539 for six wickets.

•   Johnny Tyldesley scored 112 against South Africa at Cape Town.

•   Albert Trott took 168 wickets on the tour at an average of 9.67 runs each, while Haigh had 107 at 8.18

Tour Summary

Return to England

Cape Town  T    Southampton

                 ‘Norman’’

The tour ended at Cape Town where the team embarked on the Union Line mailboat 'Norman'. The ship sailed at 8 pm on Wednesday 5 April, arriving at Southampton docks on the morning of 21 April.

Frank Milligan remained in South Africa, where he was later killed in the Boer War.

Time away from England

  139 days  

(3 December - 21 April)

Finances

The amateurs were paid their travelling and accommodation expenses.

Accounts of the tour

"Cricket in Many Climes"  by P.F.Warner, pp 175-271.

Postscript

Warner concluded:     “To the enthusiastic cricketer there is nothing more enjoyable than a tour abroad with jolly good fellows as companions.  Perhaps, too, these touring teams do something from a political point of view in bringing our cricketing kinsmen across the seas in touch with those of the mother-country.”