| Tour
of England
1890 Captain: Billy
Murdoch | |
| | | | |
| Sixth Australian Test tour Sixth
Test-playing tour of England
by Australia (March - November 1890) | Harry
Boyle became the organiser of the next tour. Billy Murdoch was re-instated as
captain after six years. Following his
marriage he had played relatively little cricket as he was working in his law
practice at Cootamundra, but on this tour he showed he had lost none of his
skill and batted well enough to score most runs and top the batting averages.
Bannerman
and Bonnor withdrew after agreeing to be part of the team, presumably because
they disagreed with the other selections or the financial arrangements. The
ship taking the tourists to England,
the 'Liguria',
was in collision with two other ships at Gibraltar
but none of the team came to harm. Turner
and Ferris were as formidable as in 1888.
On the whole tour they took 179 and 186 wickets respectively, the next
best being Trumble with 52. However,
the team's batting was relatively weak. After a strong start winning five
matches by the end of May, the Australians suffered the worst number of
defeats in first-class matches (16) of any tour, including losing both Tests
in which play was possible. Alarmingly for the players, since the tour was
for them a financial speculation, the
spectating public mostly showed less interest the touring side's matches than
they had done in the past or in the current county championship. England won the first Test decisively but the second was
hard-fought to the bitter end. Both
Barrett and Charlton were medical practitioners, though it was Roly Pope who
served as the team's doctor in an honorary position. At the
last moment the Australians declined invitations to add tours of South Africa and Bombay to the programme. A
Parsee team was scheduled to tour England in 1890 but this fell
through. | All Australian tours Previous tour England 1888 Next tour England 1893 | |
| Members of the Test tour party (13) Opening batsmen : Jack Barrett, John Lyons, Sammy Jones Middle-order batsmen: Billy
Murdoch, Syd Gregory, Harry Trott, Frank Walters, Kenny Burn Wicket-keeper: Jack Blackham Slow bowler:Hugh Trumble Fast bowlers:Jack Ferris, Charlie Turner, Percie Charlton. Comments on players by “Mid-on” p 3, The West
Australian 6 Oct 1890 | J E
Barrett | Vic | 23 | LHB
opener | A
thoroughly conscientious and enthusiastic cricketer. As a stonewall, a
worthy substitute for Bannerman. | J M
Blackham | Vic | 37 | RHB WK
| Has
not performed well with the bat but remarkable retention of form shown
behind the wickets. | E J
K Burn | Tas | 27 | RHB | Had
few early opportunities but has performed very moderately considering the
form shown in his native colony | P C
Charlton | NSW | 23 | RFM | Early
success under discouraging circumstances. Seldom found wanting and
amply justified his inclusion in the team. | J J
Ferris | NSW | 23 | LFM | Pluck
and determination with the bat. Fully maintained the high reputation made a
couple of years previously | S E
Gregory | NSW | 20 | RHB | At
the outset gave promise of a leading position in the batting averages but
seemed to suddenly collapse | S P
Jones | NSW | 28 | RHB opener | His
performances have been woefully disappointing - a succession of failures at
critical times | J J
Lyons | SA | 27 | RHB opener
RM | Has
done good service, rarely failing to make runs and frquently playing
brilliant cricket | W L
Murdoch | NSW | 35 | RHB captain
| Several
fine appearances justified the opinion that he has not lost form but
patchy, the result of having responsibility | G H
S Trott | Vic | 23 | RHB LB | The
non-success of Trott and Jones had more than aught else to do with
crippling the team. | H
Trumble | Vic | 23 | OB | Scored
well on 2 or 3 occasions but deprived of the chance of making runs by going
in last | C T
B Turner | NSW | 27 | RFM | Bowling
honours pretty evenly divided with Ferris. When being punished, was
too long persisted with. | F H
Walters | Vic | 30 | RHB | Not
himself when the occasion is one of importance. Evidently incapable of
playing his best in big matches and unlikely to have another chance | |
|
Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (21 July 1890) : 27
yrs 0 months Colonial representation NSW - New
South Wales (6) SA - South
Australia (1) Tas - Tasmania
(1) Vic - Victoria
(5) 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
26, Murdoch 16, Jones 12, Ferris 6, Turner 6, Trott 3, Lyons 2, Walters 1, Barrett 0, Burn 0, Charlton 0, Gregory 0, Trumble 0. | | |
| Tour Officials | Harry
Boyle | Tour
manager | Dr
Roland J Pope | Assistant | - Batchelor | Scorer |
| | |
| Selectors | A
group of senior players had agreed upon Harry Boyle as manager, and he alone
chose the touring eleven. | | |
| Selection | The
preliminary selections were being made in June 1889, and some nine or ten
names were already settled before the 1889-90 Australian season had started. Unavailable:
George Giffen refused to jon the group, thinking it unlikely the tour would
be a sporting or financial success; Harry
Moses; Affie Jarvis; Charlie McLeod, Bob McLeod (both Victorian all-rounders). Billy
Murdoch was persuaded to tour again. Not selected: James Burn.
Tasmania's Ken Burn, selected as
wicket-keeper though he had never done the job in a serious match, was picked
in preference to Sidney Deane (NSW), 24, who the New
South Wales men wanted and Jack Harry (Victoria),
who was the choice of the Victoria
men. It tuned out that the player
Boyle had intended to pick was James Burn from Hobart. Withdrawal : Alick Bannerman (NSW), 36, and George
Bonnor (NSW), 35, withdrew at the last moment on 7 March. Syd
Gregory was added to the team on 11 March. | Time between selection and departure from Australia x days (? - 14 March) | |
| Travel Melbourne T Tilbury ‘Liguria’ | Murdoch left Australia with his wife some weeks before the
rest of the team, arriving in London
on 7 April. The team left Melbourne on 14 March 1890 in the 'Liguria'. On 22 April the ship collided with two
others entering Gibraltar
Harbour. During the delay for repairs, the team
played a match against Gibraltar Garrison, and Turner took nine wickets for
fifteen runs. The ship reached Plymouth on 26 April,
and sailed on to Tilbury the next day. | Time spent in England 156 days (27 April - 7 October) | |
| On-tour selection | Harry Boyle and Billy Murdoch. | | |
| Reinforcements | Jack
Lyons fell off a trapeze while on board the Liguria Murdoch
missed only two matches on the tour (and those because of a broken
finger). Sammy Jones was afflicted by
illness for the second tour in a row
and did not play at all after the second Test. Sammy
Woods who had assisted the 1888 side was invited to join the tour party but
declined to do so. Roland Pope (NSW) 26 played in three matches and Harry Boyle, the manager, now 43,
played in one match. For the
match in Ceylon
on the way home the Australians called upon F S Symonds, Dr Cater, A T
Pritchard and Captain White of the ship's company. | | |
| Fixtures/Results | † Gibraltar | Gibraltar Garrison XVI | Won | | | | Uckfield
| Lord
Sheffield's XI | Won
inns 34 r | † Edgbaston | Warwickshire
| Won
132 r | Westbury
| W H
Laverton's XI | Lost
181 r | Oxford | Oxford University | Won
inns 61 r | Kennington
Oval | Surrey | Won
8 w | Sheffield | Yorkshire | Lost
7 w | Old
Trafford | Lancashire | Won
inns 155 r | Lord's | M.C.C.
and Ground | Lost
7 w | Cambridge | Cambridge University | Drawn | Lord's | Middlesex | Drawn | Trent Bridge | Nottinghamshire | Lost
inns 26 r | Kennington
Oval | South
of England | Lost
97 r | Lord's | Players
of England | Lost
inns 263 r | Bradford | Yorkshire | Lost
8 w | Old
Trafford | North
of England | Drawn | † Derby | Derbyshire | Drawn | Stoke-on-Trent | Staffordshire
England
XI | Won
88 r | † Leicester | Leicestershire | Won
inns 64 r | Bristol | Gloucestershire | Drawn | Sheffield | Players
of England | Lost
9 w | Kennington
Oval | Surrey | Drawn | LORD'S | ENGLAND
First Test | LOST 7 w | Brighton | Sussex | Won
inns 45 r | Maidstone | Kent | Won
9 w | Barnes | Lyric
Club & Ground | Lost
96 r | Canterbury | Kent | Lost
108 r | Leyton | Cambridge University Past & Present | Drawn | KENNINGTON OVAL | ENGLAND
Second Test | LOST 2 w | Portsmouth | Oxford and Cambridge Past & Present | Drawn | Trent Bridge | Nottinghamshire | Lost
20 r | Cheltenham | Gloucestershire | Won
8 w | OLD TRAFFORD | ENGLAND
Third Test | ABANDONED | † Stoke-on-Trent | Staffordshire | Won
inns 28 r | Headingley
| North
of England | Won
160 r | Scarborough | Lord
Londesborough's XI | Won
8 r | Lord's | M C
C & Ground | Lost
4 w | East
Moseley | Hurst Park Club | Lost
34 r | Hastings | South
of England | Lost
10 w | Old
Trafford | An England XI ¬ | Drawn | | | | † Colombo | Ceylon | Drawn | | ¬The last fixture against An
England XI was arranged to compensate for the third Test being abandoned | |
| † not first-class Time spent in England
before First Test: 62 days (27 April - 21 July) | |
| Test appearances on tour | 2
- Barrett,
Blackham, Burn, Charlton,
Ferris, Gregory, Lyons,
Murdoch, Trott, Trumble,
Turner. 0
- Jones, Walters. | | |
| Highlights | • In the first Test at Lord's
Barrett carried his bat for 67 not out.. • Lyons
captured 5 wickets for 30 runs at Lord's, having earlier hit fifty runs in a
record 36 minutes. • Ferris took 4-25 and 5-49 in the Test
match at Kennington Oval on a helpful pitch. | | |
| Tour Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Other first-class matches | 32 | 10 | 14 | 8 | - | Minor matches | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | - | All Matches | 41 | 14 | 16 | 10 | 1 |
| | |
| Return to Australia Gravesend T Sydney ‘Ormuz’ ‘Oceana’ | Murdoch and Dr Barrett remained in England at
the end of the tour. Leaving England on 25 September 1890,
seven cricketers - Blackham, Boyle, Burn, Gregory, Lyons, Trott and Walters -
returned home in the 'Ormuz', After thick fog delayed them for a day at
Gravesend, they sailed on to Naples and Colombo where they played a match
against a Ceylon XI (21 October), The Ormuz
called at Adelaide and Melbourne but the players remained on board until it
reached Sydney on 11 November. Turner, Ferris, Charlton and Trumble -
the main bowlers in the team - departed from England later on the P & O
liner ' Oceania', reaching Largs
Bay on 10 November and arriving home in Sydney on 16 November. Jones had to remain in hospital in England for a
further fortnight before he could leave for home on the ‘Sabraon’. | Time away from Australia 228 days (28 March to 11 November) | |
| Finances | | | |
| Written accounts of the tour | | | |
| Postscript | In
1891 Ferris settled in Bristol, was employed
by a bank and later played for Gloucestershire and for England. | | |