Tour of England 1880                  Captain : Billy Murdoch

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Australian Test Tours

First Australian Test tour

 [Second tour of England]

First Test-playing tour of England by Australia

(March - November 1880)

An Australian team toured England in 1878 without playing a Test match so the second tour (1880) is the first to be regarded as an Australian 'Test cricket tour'.

This tour of England was the first on which the Australian team played a Test match abroad. Alluding to the physical assault upon Lord Harris in 1878-79 as well as disapproval of the huge earnings by 'amateur' cricketers in 1878, a cable was sent to discourage the Australians from making the tour at all. Though not deterred, the Melbourne Cricket Club organisers hesitated and did not make the final decision to proceed with the tour until late (Australian) summer. James Lillywhite, acting as agent for the Australians, had the tour confirmed but by then, he was told, fixtures for the 1880 English season were arranged. When he asked the counties to change their plans he was snubbed and failed to secure any matches on the main cricket grounds. He even resorted to placing an advertisement in 'The Sporting Life'  for matches.

Most games saw 18 men pitched against the Australian XI, and with victory usually being achieved easily within the three days allocated, a new match had to be started  to fill up the time. Their high standard of play soon reversed the tourists' misfortune. More teams offered to play them and by the end of the tour the programme was almost too full.

Charles Alcock who was the Secretary of Surrey Cricket Club and had staged the first football international at The Oval 1873 repeated his success with cricket.  Alcock saw to it that the return match against Surrey was replaced by a Test match at the Oval. Earlier WG Grace had attempted without success to arrange a match against England at Lord's.

The Australians did not lose any match until late in the tour when teams like Scarborough invited professionals of Test standard to join their side. During the Scarborough match Spofforth broke a finger batting against an illegal delivery from Franks of Yorkshire and missed the remainder of the tour, including the Test match.   

This team was Australia's youngest - only Pakistani touring parties of the 1960s recorded a lower average age.

All Australian tours

No previous Test tour

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England 1882

To England 1880

To England 1882

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To England 1902

To South Africa 1902-03

To England 1905

To England 1909

To England 1912

To South Africa 1914-15 &

  England 1916   cancelled

To England 1921

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To England 1926

To England 1930

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To England 1938

To New Zealand 1945-46

To England 1948

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To England 1953

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To England 1961

To England 1964

To India 1964-65

To Pakistan 1964-65

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To England 1972

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To England 1977

To West Indies 1977-78

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To Pakistan 1982-83

To Sri Lanka 1982-83

To West Indies 1983-84

To England 1985

To New Zealand 1985-86

To India 1986-87

   Sri Lanka 1987-88

   West Indies 1987-88

both cancelled

To Pakistan 1988-89

To England 1989

To New Zealand 1989-90

To West Indies 1990-91

To Sri Lanka 1992-93

To New Zealand 1992-93

To England 1993

To South Africa 1993-94

To Pakistan 1994-95

To West Indies 1994-95

To India 1996-97

To South Africa 1996-97

To England 1997

To India 1997-98

To Pakistan 1998-99

To West Indies 1998-99

To Sri Lanka 1999

To Zimbabwe 1999-00

To New Zealand 1999-00

To India 2000-01

To England 2001

To South Africa 2001-02

   Zimbabwe 2001-02

   cancelled

v Pakistan 2002-03 (SL)

To West Indies 2002-03

To Sri Lanka 2003-04

   Zimbabwe 2004

   cancelled

To India 2004-05

To New Zealand 2004-05

To England 2005

To South Africa 2005-06

To Bangladesh 2005-06

   Pakistan 2007-08

   cancelled

To West Indies 2007-08

To India 2008-09

To South Africa 2008-09

To England 2009

To New Zealand 2009-10

v Pakistan 2010 (in Eng)

To India 2010-11

To Sri Lanka 2011

To South Africa 2011-12

To West Indies 2011-12

To India 2012-13

To England 2013

To South Africa 2013-14

To    2014-15

To England 2015

Members of the Test tour party  (13)

Opening batsmen:  Alick Bannerman.

Middle-order batsmen  Percy McDonnell, Billy Murdoch, George Bonnor, Tom Groube, Jim Slight

Wicket-keepers    Affie Jarvis, Jack Blackham

Spin bowler  Joey (or Eugene) Palmer.

Medium-paced bowlers  William Moule, Harry Boyle

Fast bowlers  George Alexander, Fred Spofforth.

Colonial representation:

NSW   New South Wales (5)

S A    South Australia (1)

Vic    Victoria  (7)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (6 September 1880) :

   24 yrs  7 months.

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

Blackham 3,  Murdoch 2,  Spofforth 2,  Bannerman 1,  Boyle 1,  Alexander 0,  Bonnor 0,  Groube 0,  Jarvis 0,  McDonnell 0,  Moule 0,  Palmer 0,  Slight 0.

Tour Officials

John Conway, pioneer of the 1878 tour, was sidelined. The manager was George Alexander.  Harry Boyle shared the managerial duties.

Alexander would also manage the English 1882-83 side and the Australians in England 1884.

Selectors

The team was chosen by Billy Murdoch and Harry Boyle.

Selection

Unavailable:  Frank E Allan,  George Bailey, Tom W Garrett, Dave Gregory,Tom Horan.

Tour Party Announced :  early January 1880.

Not selected :   Evans,  Horan,  Garrett

Withdrawal:  Charles Bannerman (unwell) and his place was taken by Affie Jarvis. 

Harry Boyle, the original captain, was deposed en voyage by his fellow players, who elected Murdoch in his place.

Time between selection and departure from Australia       x days

(January    - 19 March

Travel

Melbourne  T   London

                ‘Garonne’

The tour began with a series of matches on Australian soil. The team started their eight-week voyage on the ss 'Garonne' from Melbourne on 19 March 1880.

They arrived in Plymouth on 4 May, from where Alexander and Boyle went overland to London to find that only five fixtures had been arranged. After a week of practice at Mitcham, their first match took place at Southampton.

Time spent in England    

  145 days

(13 May  - 5 October)

Reinforcements

E Torkington fielded substitute for the Australians at Stockport when John Slight was delayed, arriving late because of illness. When he left the tour, needing an operation,  W A Giles and A McDonald played. The Australians played ten men and borrowed a fielder also against Northern Players and Nottinghamshire.

In the final match Bannerman fielded on the first day but, as he did not bat or bowl, he was regarded as a substitute and Spofforth batted (making second top-score). In the supplementary match afterwards, -.Wilkinson played.

Fixtures/Results

⋆  Pre-tour games:

ϯ  Victoria XV   (lost)

v Bendigo XXII   (won)

v New South Wales XV   (won)

v Bathurst XVIII     (won)

v Northern N S W XV    (won)

v Orange  XXII  (won)

v Daylesford XXII  (lost)

v  Victoria XV    (lost)

v South Australia  XVI  (lost)

 (2) Two days were allocated to the match   (3) Three days   (¬)a second match was started.

† not first-class

(2) Two days were allocated to the match   

(3) Three days allocated

¬ second match started.

Time spent in England before First Test: 

  116 days

(13 May - 6 September)

Test appearances on tour

1 -  Alexander, Bannerman,  Blackham,  Bonnor,  Boyle,  Groube,  McDonnell,  Moule,  Murdoch,  Palmer,  Slight.

0 -  Jarvis,   Spofforth.

Highlights

•  In all matches Spofforth took 391 wickets at an average of 5 runs each, while both Boyle and Palmer took 250 each.

•  Billy Murdoch scored 153 runs in the 'Test' match at Kennington Oval.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

London  t  Suez

Suez    T   Adelaide

          ‘Deccan’

The tourists were keen to play a match in September for the benefit of the Seaton Colliery Explosion Fund but lack of time prevented it. 

The Lord Mayor of London invited the team to dine with him at the Mansion House on 4 October before departure. The team were presented with some pieces of silver plate by Australian colonists in London

Next morning (5 October) the team left Charing Cross on the 7.40 train for Dover and travelled, via Calais, Paris and Venice to Suez by the fast overland route to ensure they could fulfil cricketing engagements in Australia.   From Suez they embarked on the P & O steamer 'Deccan'  and reached Adelaide on 15 November 1880.

The eleven continued to play matches around Australia and did not finally disband until March 1881.

Time spent away from Australia 

 241 days  

(19 March  to 15 November)

Finances

No statement was released as to the financial results but, even in the matches against XVIIIs, attendances were usually large, and the tourists took 75 per cent of the gate money. Overall the tour was such a financial success that, after paying back the Melbourne Club its investment money, there was a handsome profit to be divided among the players.

Written accounts of the tour

Descriptions of all tours may be found in Wisden’s Cricketers Almanack (in this case, Wisden 1881)

See also -  James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual (“Red Lilly”) 1881.

“Never a Gentlemen’s Game”   (2012)  by Malcolm Knox  (Hardie Grant Books)  covers all the early tours between England and Australia until 1912.

Postscript