Tour of England 1888            Captain: Percy McDonnell

Fifth Australian Test tour

Fifth Test playing tour of England by Australia

 (March - November 1888)

The colonies of New South Wales and Victoria intended there shouild be no more tours of England after what happened in 1886 but C W Beal, who had also managed the 1882 tour, broke ranks to  promote and manage this venture 

It was kept strictly secret that Jones caught smallpox shortly after his arrival in England. He could not play until the end of the tour so the team needed to manage with twelve players.  A short-term replacement, Sammy Woods, assisted the side in six matches but he was described in the press as “a decided failure”.

This was a bowlers’ tour and the series saw some of the lowest scoring seen in Test cricket : the first Test match produced the lowest aggregate total for any England-Australia Test and the third Test was the shortest, being complete by lunchtime on the second day.  The Australian batsmen averaged a paltry 8½ runs per innings for the series, and let down their new opening bowlers, Turner and Ferris, whose feats were extraordinary. The team lost the Test series as well as thirteen other matches, being beaten even by Leicestershire, then a second-class county.

Also touring England in the summer of 1888 was a Parsees team from Bombay, which played 31 matches.

All Australian tours

Previous tour

England 1886

Next tour

England 1890

Members of the Test tour party (12)

Opening batsmen:  Alick Bannerman, Percy McDonnell

Middle-order batsmen  George Bonnor, Jack Edwards, Sammy Jones

Wicket-keepers   Jack Blackham, Affie Jarvis

Medium-paced bowlers  John Lyons, Harry Boyle.

Spin bowlers  Jack Worrall, Harry Trott

Fast bowlers  Jack Ferris, Charlie Turner  (+ Sammy Woods (reinforcement)

Colonial Representation

NSW - New South Wales (6)

SA - South Australia (2)

Vic   - Victoria (5)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (16 July 1888) : 

      28 yrs  2 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 23,  Bannerman 19,  McDonnell 16,  Bonnor 14,  Boyle 12,  Jones 12,  Jarvis 5,  Ferris 3,  Turner 3,  Worrall 2,  Lyons 1,  Edwards 0,  Trott 0,  Woods 0.

Tour Officials

  Beal, Boyle, McDonnell and Turner formed the executive committee

Selector

C W Beal.

Selection

Unavailable  George Giffen refused to join the tour party;  Harry  Moses (banking career);  William Midwinter was in the team at first but his place went to Worrall; McIlwraithe; William Bruce; Hugh Trumble ; Fred Spofforth.

Tour Party Announced  : mid- February 1888.

Withdrawn:  Tom Horan, while Worrall and Alick Bannerman were added to the team in the middle of March

Not selected:  Kenneth Burn.

The team came in for criticism as the weakest touring team yet, even before it had left Australia.

Time between selection and departure from Australia  

    x days

(c 18 February - 23 March)

Travel

Melbourne T    Marseilles

                ‘Oceanien’

Paris         t      London

There were three pre-tour matches, the first on 24 February against Vernon and Shrewsbury’s 1887-88 English elevens, taking place because the colonies would not play them.

The New South Wales contingent left from Sydney and the Victorian element of the team joined the ship from Melbourne on 21 March 1888. They sailed on the steamer 'Oceanien', sailing by way of Adelaide (23 March), Aden and Suez.

Only twelve players made the journey from Australia : Bonnor, already in London as a representative for a pianoforte firm, joined the side when they arrived at Dover on 1 May. Half the team - McDonnell, Boyle, Blackham, Jarvis, Edwards and Ferris - had disembarked at Marseilles on 23 April to take the land route across France and the Oceanien reached London on 27 April.  The team were staying at their London headquarters Tavistock Hotel before beginning a week of practice at Mitcham Green.

Time spent in England      150 days

(27 April - 12 October)

On-tour selection

Percy McDonnell (captain),   Jack Blackham   Alick Bannerman.

Reinforcements

At the end of May Jones’s health declined and he was diagnosed with samllpox; this was announced as rheumatic fever.  There was speculation that Fred Spofforth might be considered as a replacement but it was Sammy Woods, a Cambridge University undergraduate, who assisted the team in six matches, including the three Test matches.

Fixtures/Results

After reaching England the team was to have a fortnight’s rest before commencing the tour, but decided a week’s practice at Mitcham and then some match practice was preferable so the first two matches were added to their programme

† not first-class

Time spent in England before First Test: 

  74 days

(3 May  - 16 July)

Test appearances on tour

3 -   Bannerman,  Blackham,  Bonnor,  Edwards,  Ferris,  McDonnell,  Trott,  Turner,  Woods,  Worrall.

2 -  Jarvis

1 -  Lyons

0 -  Boyle,  Jones.

Highlights

•  In a wet summer ‘Terror’ Turner took 283 first-class wickets on the tour and Jack Ferris took 199

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Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Tilbury     T    Adelaide

                ‘Cuzco’

At the end of the tour George Bonnor remained in England.

On Friday 12 October 1888 the team took a train from London's Fenchurch Street Station to Tilbury Docks and sailed on the ' Cuzco'.  Manager Beal who was unwell did not board the ship until Plymouth.  Trott and Turner travelled overland to Naples where they met the ship.

The ' Cuzco' passed Albanyon 19 November and reached Adelaide on 22 November.

The team played a match against South Australia between 23 and 26 November and then sailed on to Melbourne, and played six further matches during the 1888-89 season.

Time away from Australia 

      244 days  

(23 March  to 22 November)

Finances

Written accounts of the tour

Postscript