| 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) | A C
Bannerman | NSW
| 29 | RHB opener (RM) | | J M
Blackham | Vic
| 35 | WK | | G J
Bonnor | NSW
| 33 | RHB
| | H F
Boyle | Vic
| 40 | RM | | J D
Edwards | Vic
| 26 | RHB
| | J J
Ferris | NSW
| 21 | LM | | A H
Jarvis | SA | 27 | RHB
reserve WK | | S P
Jones | NSW
| 26 | RHB
opener RFM | | J J
Lyons | SA | 25 | RHB
RM | | P S McDonnell | NSW
| 27 | RHB opener
captain | | G H
S Trott | Vic
| 21 | RHB LB | | C T
B Turner | NSW
| 25 | RFM
| | J
Worrall | Vic
| 25 | RHB RM | | |
|  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 | C W
Beal | Manager
| C
Lord | Assistant
| F H
Farrands | Accompanying
Umpire | | |
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 | Norbury
(Streatham) | CI
Thornton's XI | Won
6 w | † Edgbaston | Warwickshire
| Won
inns 150 r | Kennington
Oval | Surrey | Won
inns 154 r | Oxford | Oxford University | Won
inns 19 r | Sheffield | Yorkshire | Won
inns 64 r | Old
Trafford | Lancashire | Lost
23 r | Lord's
| Gentlemen
of England | Drawn
| Kennington
Oval | Players
of England | Lost
10 w | Trent Bridge | Nottinghamshire
| Lost
10 w | Cambridge | Cambridge University | Drawn
| Leyton
| Oxford University Past & Present | Won
74 r | Lord's
| Middlesex
| Won
8 w | Edgbaston
| An England XI | Won
10 w | Lord's
| M C
C & Ground | Won
14 r | Bradford | Yorkshire | Drawn
| Old
Trafford | North
of England | Won
5 w | Aigburth,
Liverpool | Liverpool
& District | Won
130 r | † Leicester | Leicestershire
| Lost
20 r | † Derby | Derbyshire
| Won
inns 79 r | Stoke-on-Trent | A
Staffordshire England XI | Won
inns 135 r | LORD'S | ENGLAND
First Test | WON 61 r | Hove
| Sussex | Lost
58 r | Leyton
| Cambridge University Past & Present | Drawn
| Huddersfield | Yorkshire | Drawn
| Kennington
Oval | Surrey | Drawn
| Hastings | An
XI of England | Won
inns 27 r | Canterbury | Kent | Won
81 r | Clifton College | Gloucestershire
| Lost
257 r | KENNINGTON OVAL | ENGLAND
Second Test | LOST inns 137 r | Trent Bridge | Nottinghamshire
| Lost
inns 199 r | Cheltenham | Gloucestershire
| Lost
8 w | Crystal Palace | An England XI | Lost
78 r | Portsmouth | Oxford & Cambridge Past & Present | Drawn
| OLD TRAFFORD | ENGLAND
Third Test | LOST inns 21 r | Harrogate | An England XI | Won
56 r | Scarborough | Lord
Londesborough's XI | Lost
155 r | Holbeck,
Leeds | Shaw
& Shrewsbury's Australian team | Lost
4 w | Old
Trafford | Shaw
& Shrewsbury's Australian team | Lost
9 w | Hastings | South
of England | Won
9 w | Kennington
Oval | Surrey | Won
34 r | | | | Adelaide | South Australia | Lost
8 w | † Bendigo | 18
of Bendigo | Drawn
| Melbourne | Victoria | Won
inns 22 r | Sydney | New South Wales | Drawn
| † Brisbane | 18
of Queensland | Won
7 w | † Brisbane | 18
of Queensland | Drawn
| Sydney | The
Rest | Won
214 r | | | |
| † 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 • • | | |
| Tour Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | - | Other first-class matches | 34 | 16 | 11 | 7 | - | Minor matches | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | All Matches | 40 | 19 | 14 | 7 | - |
| | |
| 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 | | | |