| Tour
of England
1905 Captain : Joe Darling | |
| | |
| Eleventh Australian Test tour Eleventh Test-playing tour of England by Australia. (February - -
November 1905) | Joe
Darling was again elected captain and Noble, who had led the Australian side
in New Zealand,
became vice-captain at a meeting on 27 April.
It was the last time that the players appointed their own captain. Hill who was vice-captain in New Zealand
was made the third selector. William
Ferguson, who became renowned as the scorer and baggageman 'Fergie', was
persuaded by an acquaintance of Noble's in Sydney to apply for the job and came on the
first of his 39 tours. The
tourists had a great record outside the Test series but F S Jackson's captaincy
and all-round performances ensured
that England
won the Test series and retained the Ashes. Armstrong
fulfilled the promise he had shown in 1902.
He scored 2000 runs and took 200 wickets in the season. On the final afternoon of the tour Dr W G Grace declared the South's innings
closed to allow Armstrong time to achieve the feat. | Other
Australian Tours Previous
Test tour South Africa 1902-03 Next
tour England 1909 Next
tour of England 1909 | |
| Members of the Test tour party (15) Opening batsmen: Reggie Duff, Victor Trumper. Middle-order batsmen Syd
Gregory, Joe Darling, Monty Noble, Clem Hill, Frank Laver, Warwick Armstrong,
Algie Gehrs Wicket-keepers: Joe Kelly, Philip Newland Slow bowlers Charlie McLeod
(Noble) Fast bowlers:Jack Hopkins, Albert Cotter, Bill Howell | W W Armstrong | Vic | 26 | RHB RFM | | A Cotter | NSW | 21 | RF | | J Darling | SA | 34 | LHB captain | | R A Duff | NSW | 26 | RHB opener | | D R A Gehrs | SA | 24 | RHB | | S E Gregory | NSW | 35 | RHB | | C Hill | SA | 28 | LHB | | A J Y Hopkins | NSW | 31 | RFM | | W P Howell | NSW | 35 | RFM | | J J Kelly | NSW | 38 | WK | | F J Laver | Vic | 35 | RHB RM | | C E McLeod | Vic | 35 | RM | | P M Newland | SA | 29 | RHB reserve WK | | M A Noble | NSW | 32 | RHB OB/RM
vice-captain | | V T Trumper | NSW | 27 | RHB opener | | |
|  State
representation Sheffield Shield teams NSW New
South Wales (8) SA South
Australia (4) Vic Victoria (3) Qld Queensland
(0) Tas Tasmania
(0) WA Western
Australia (0) Average
age of team at time of first Test
match (29 May 1905) : 30 yrs
9 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 | Gregory 41, Hill 39, Kelly 31, Darling 29, Noble 27, Trumper 23, Howell 18, Duff 17, Armstrong 15, Hopkins 15, McLeod 12, Laver 6, Cotter 2, Gehrs 1, Newland 0. | | |
| Tour Officials | Frank Laver | Player-manager | William Ferguson | Baggageman/
scorer |
| | |
| Selectors | Monty Noble (New South Wales), Joe
Darling (South Australia), RW (Bob)
McLeod (Victoria). | | |
| Selection | Unavailable:: Hugh Trumble (retired from cricket); Joe Darling (at first - he was persuaded by those first selected
to put his name forward). The selectors met on 2
January and agreed the names of ten players definitely selected which were
then made known: Duff, Trumper, Gregory, Hopkins,
Kelly, Noble (NSW), Gehrs, Newland, Hill (South
Australia) and Armstrong (Victoria). Newland was reserve
wicket-keeper and had the advantage of business experience so that he could
assist the manager. Their selection was completed
in Sydney on
9 January with the addition of Darling, Cotter, Howell and McLeod. Tour Party Announced : 9 January
1905 Not selected : Jack Saunders was not
chosen because it was known that English umpires would no-ball him. Frank Johnson (NSW) - leg-break, Norman Claxton (South Aust) - RHB, Fred Collins (Victoria) - RFM. Darling was elected captain and Noble as
vice-captain, once in England,
on 28 April. | Time between selection and departure from Australia 23 days (9 January - 1 February) | |
| Travel Sydney T Auckland ‘Manuka’ Auckland T Vancouver ‘’Navua’ and ‘Miowera’ New York T Liverpool ‘Majestic’ | The team left Sydney on the 'Manuka'
for Auckland
on 1 February. Newland joined the team at Christchurch in mid-March. They left Auckland on the 'Navua' on 22 March, sailing to Fiji;
then by the Miowera to Vancouver, Canada,
arriving on 12 April; they visited Niagara Falls and left New York in the 'Majestic' on 19 April arriving at
Liverpool at 6 pm on Wednesday 26 April.
The train to London
arrived at Euston Station at 11 pm and was met by Pelham Warner. Darling came from Adelaide separately on the P & O liner Marmora by the conventional route,
through Suez,
and arrived on 25 April. Scorer Ferguson and some
of the players’ wives came to England
on the ‘Suevic’. | Time spent in England 145 days (26 April - 5 October) | |
| On tour selection | Joe Darling (captain), Monty Noble (vice-captain), Clem Hill; with contributions from Laver and Trumper. | | |
| Reinforcements | None, although Laver injured his knee badly on the voyage. Saunders and Windsor were on engagements in
England
and could have been used in an emergency. | | |
| Fixtures/Results | † Auckland | XV of
Auckland | Won
inns 160 r | † Wellington | XV of
Wellington | Drawn | Christchurch | Canterbury | Won 8
w | Dunedin | Otago | Won
inns 173 r | Christchurch | Combined
New Zealand | Drawn | Wellington | Combined
New Zealand | Won
inns 358 r | † Suva | Fiji (1-day) | Drawn | | | | Crystal Palace | The
Gentlemen | Drawn | Trent Bridge | Nottinghamshire | Drawn | Kennington
Oval | Surrey | Drawn | Oxford | Oxford University | Won
200 r | Lord's | The
Gentlemen | Won
inns 189 r | Sheffield | Yorkshire | Won
244 r | Old
Trafford | Lancashire | Won
244 r | TRENT BRIDGE | ENGLAND First Test | LOST 213 r | Cambridge | Cambridge University | Won
169 r | Bradford | Yorkshire | Drawn | Lord's | MCC
and Ground | Drawn | Leicester | Leicestershire | Drawn | LORD'S | ENGLAND Second Test | DRAWN | † Dublin | Dublin University Past & Present | Won
231 r | Leyton | Essex | Lost
19 r | Edgbaston | Warwickshire | Won
inns 51 r | Bristol | Gloucestershire | Drawn | HEADINGLEY | ENGLAND Third Test | DRAWN | Southampton | Hampshire | Won
inns 112 r | Derby | Derbyshire | Won
105 r | Bath | Somerset | Drawn | Edinburgh | Scotland | Drawn | † Glasgow | XV of
Scotland | Drawn | OLD TRAFFORD | ENGLAND Fourth Test | LOST inns 80 r | Kennington
Oval | Surrey | Won
22 r | Hove | Sussex | Won | Worcester | Worcestershire | Drawn | † Cardiff | South Wales | Drawn | Lord's | Middlesex | Won
132 r | KENNINGTON OVAL | ENGLAND Fifth Test | DRAWN | Northampton | Northamptonshire | WON
inns 329 r | Aigburth
Liverpool | Lancashire | Won
inns 67 r | Canterbury | Kent | Won
inns 35 r | Cheltenham | Gloucestershire | Drawn | Bournemouth | An England
XI | Won | Leyton | Essex | Drawn | Scarborough | C I
Thornton's XI | Drawn | Hastings | South
of England | Drawn | | | |
| † not first-class
Time spent in England
before First Test: 33 days (26 April - 29 May) | |
| Test appearances on tour | 5
- Armstrong, Darling,
Duff, Hill, Kelly,
Laver, McLeod, Noble,
Trumper 3
- Cotter, Gregory, Hopkins 1
- Gehrs 0
- Howell, Newland. | | |
| Highlights | • | | |
| Tour Summary | | P | W | L | D | Aban | Test Matches | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | - | Other first-class matches | 30 | 15 | 1 | 14 | - | Minor matches | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | - | Pre-tour matches in NZ | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | - | All Matches | 45 | 19 | 3 | 23 | - |
| | |
| Return to Australia London T Sydney ‘Omrah’ ‘Chine’ ‘Orontes’ ‘Barbarossa’ ‘Oruba’’ | Trumper
left England
with his wife on Monday 11 September for a short holiday on the
continent. They sailed home on a
German liner ‘Barbarossa’ from Genoa. McLeod left by the ‘Oruba’ Darling,
Gregory, Howell and Kelly left Tilbury on the 'Chine' on Friday 15
September. The ship arrived in Adelaide
where Darling disembarked on Saturday 21 October. The other three continued
to Sydney. Hill,
Newland, Armstrong, Duff and Cotter left Gravesend on the 'Omrah', via Marseilles
and Naples, and reached Sydney on 2 November. Noble,
Hopkins, Laver and Gehrs returned by the RMS ‘Orontes’ leaving London
on 22 September. At Perth
he said the fact that the team returned by different ships did not mean they
had quarrelled “There was not the
slightest vestige of a quarrel from start to finish” | Time spent
away from Australia 274
days (1
February to 2 November) | |
| Finances | The Melbourne Club invested £ for overheads before the tour and these
were paid off by 21 June. profits of
the tour resulted in £900 per man | | |
| Written
accounts of the tour | "Jackson's Year" (1965)
by Alan Gibson [Cassell, London]. | | |
| Postscript | The Australians’ defeat made it yet more likely that the “closed
shop” of the 1905 team would be replaced by a central authority and an
Australian Cricket Board of Control was soon formed. | | |