Tour of England 1912                   Captain : Syd Gregory

Thirteenth Australian Test tour

Thirteenth Test-playing tour of England by Australia.

(March -

      - November 1912)

The Triangular Tournament - a Test championship between England, Australia and South Africa - was conceived by the South African financier and President of the South African Cricket Board, Sir Abe Bailey. It was to have been held in 1909 but the Australian Board turned this down.

The Australian Cricket Board appointed one of its own members as ‘secretary’ whose salary of £400 would come from tour profits, although it had agreed in 1906 that a touring team could manage its own affairs including picking its own manager. Australia's six leading players wanted Frank Laver as tour manager but the Board would not allow this because they considered Laver's conduct on and after the 1909 tour disloyal to the Board.  The six rebels in turn would not agree to tour without Laver

Clem Hill was to be captain and the sole on-tour selector but, as his replacement,  Syd Gregory's leadership was weak.  The scorer Ferguson said he allowed the players to do just as they pleased, and they were an unruly bunch.  As the weaknesses of the side were exposed, on 1 August the Board's chairman McElhone, presuming to speak for the Board, sent word that it was not advisable to continue with the Triangular Tournament, and that it was unfair to expect county clubs to suffer by financing two visiting teams in one season.

Crouch was unable to maintain discipline either and, as the tour went on, some members of the team's behaviour deteriorated further.  Matthews, Carkeek and David Smith were reprimanded for misconduct.The manager's report said that the misbehaviour was so bad it even caused the tour party to be socially ostracised, but the Board swept his findings under the carpet because they would only highlight how poor his appointment had been and that Frank Laver would have been a better manager.

Other Australian Tours

Previous Test tour

England 1909

Next tour

South Africa 1914-15cancelled

Next tour of England

1921

Members of the Test tour party  (15)

Opening batsmen:  Warren Bardsley, Claude Jennings.

Middle-order batsmen  Syd Gregory, Edgar Mayne, Charles Kelleway, Charlie Macartney, Dave Smith, Roy Minnett

Wicket-keepers   Barlow Carkeek, Harold Webster

Slow bowlers  Jimmy Matthews, Syd Emery, Gerry Hazlitt

Fast bowlers  Bill Whitty, Jack McLaren.

State representation

  Sheffield Shield teams

NSW -  New South Wales (7)

Qld -  Queensland (2)

SA -   South Australia (3)

Tas  - Tasmania (0)

Vic -   Victoria (3)

WA -  Western Australia (0)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

 (27 May 1912) :

   27 yrs  5 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 52,  Macartney 15,  Bardsley 14,  Kelleway 9,  Whitty 8,  Minnett 5,  Hazlitt 3,  Matthews 2,  McLaren 1,  Carkeek, 0,  Emery 0,  Jennings 0,  Mayne 0,  Smith 0,  Webster 0.

Tour Officials

In 1910 the Australian Cricket Board had arrogated the players' right to choose their own manager.  George 'Chum' Crouch, born in London in 1878,  was a 33 year-old butter broker from Brisbane. He was invited to be manager on 2 February, accepted on 16 February, and his appointment was announced on 10 March.

Selectors

The selectors were originally Clem Hill,  Frank Iredale  and  Percy McAlister.

Iredale threatened to resign, although eventually it was Hill who walked out, upon which Ernie Mayne was appointed to the selection panel (rather than the other likely candidate, Charles Dolling)

Selection

Unavailable:  Dr H V (‘Ranji’) Hordern declared himself unavailable on 24 January.

Invitations were sent out on 7 February 1912 to ten players, including Armstrong, Carter, Cotter, Hill, Ransford and Trumper (“the Big Six”), Hordern (who had already said he was not available), Carkeek, Minnett and Bardsley. These last three accepted on 17 February.

On Monday 19 February Armstrong, Carter, Cotter, Ransford and Trumper sent an acceptance conditional on the touring side being allowed to pick its own manager but in 1910 the Australian Cricket Board had unilaterally removed the players' right to choose their own.  Their acceptance was ignored and the Board gave them 24 hours to accept unconditionally.  When this was not forthcoming, the selectors invited Gregory, Hazlitt and McLaren in place of Armstrong, Cotter and Trumper; then invited Macartney and Webster in place of Ransford and Carter.

On Sunday 25 February six more players were chosen : Emery, Jennings, Kelleway, Matthews, Mayne (one of the selectors) and Whitty. All accepted.

At this point Australian prime minister Mr McGowen interceded without success.

On 27 February Hill was informed that his conditional acceptance was rejected and he was given 24 hours to decide if he wished to be captain

For the last tour place, the selectors found that R J (Jack) Massie was unavailable and the following were considered: Seitz, Smith (Vic), Barbour, Kortland (NSW), Fennelly (Q) and Dolling (SA).  Smith won the final place.

On 4 March Syd Gregory was invited to captain the side and his choice was confirmed on 10 March, with Claude Jennings as vice-captain. 

Tour Party Announced :  10 March 1912.

Not selected : Warwick Armstrong, Sammy Carter, Tibby Cotter, Clem Hill, Vernon Ransford, Victor Trumper

On 17 March, only two days before the team sailed from Melbourne, Ransford was re-invited and replied with another conditional acceptance, which was ignored.  When it was learned that Trumper would be in England working as a reporter, the selectors again invited him to appear in the Test matches.

Time between selection and departure from Australia

       3 days

(10 March    - 13 March

Travel

Sydney     T    Southampton

               ’Otway’

On departure from Circular Quay, Sydney, on 13 March 1912, the team held up a banner saying, "We'll do our best to bring back The Ashes" … However, the urn was not at stake in 1912. The New South Wales and Queensland representatives left Sydney on the RMS 'Otway', calling at Melbourne (18-20 March) and Adelaide (22 March) to pick up players from other states. 

There were matches in Perth (while the Otway  was in Fremantle port for ten hours on 26 March)  and Colombo (4 April) en route to England. The ship also berthed at Port Said, Naples, Toulon and Gibraltar.

Manager George Crouch and vice-captain Claude Jennings disembarked at Toulon (21 April) and travelled to England overland. The 'Otway'  reached Plymouth (where Macartney disembarked) on 26 April and Tilbury Docks the next day.

Time spent in England    

  144 days

(27 April  - 18 September)

On tour selection

Syd Gregory (captain),  Claude Jennings (vice-captain),  Warren Bardsley.

Reinforcements

Dick Arnst, a New Zealander, the world champion sculler, guested for the Australians at Colombo.

Warren Bardsley decided not to join the private tour of America.  E N Penfold assisted the ten-man team in their matches in Philadelphia, failing to score in any of his six innings. The press reported sometimes that he was an Australian student, sometimes that he was English, and that his name was Victor. He was the son of Mr E Penfold who hosted a function at Covent Garden on the eve of the team's departure from England.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in England before First Test: 

  30 days

(27 April  - 27 May)

Test appearances on tour

6  -  Bardsley,  Carkeek,  Gregory,  Hazlitt,  Jennings,  Kelleway,  Macartney,  Matthews,  Whitty.

4  -  Emery,  Minnett

2  -  Mayne,  Smith

0  -  McLaren,  Webster.

Highlights

•   Syd Gregory was on his eighth tour of England, equalling Jack Blackham’s record.

•   Bardsley and Macartney, the team’s only Test-class batsmen, shared a stand of 362 against Essex

•   Jimmy Matthews took two hat-tricks in one day against South Africa at Old Trafford.

•   

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Southampton   T  New York

                     ‘ ?’

Vancouver  T  Melbourne

                ‘Ramana’

The tour concluded on 14 September.  Ten members of the team, plus Penfold, were seen off at Waterloo Station on 19 September for the United States on a private venture to play matches in Philadelphia, New York, Winnipeg and British Columbia. They sailed from Southampton on the  “  … “

Bardsley, Hazlitt, Macartney, Minnett and the manager sailed back separately by different ships.

Macartney, on the Moldavia, was first to arrive in Sydney on 26 October; Crouch arrived on the next mail boat. Hazlitt sailed on the Marathon, leaving London on 12 October and reaching Sydney via the Cape on 2 December. Minnett left London on 11 October and Bardsley in December but he stopped off in Ceylon. Jennings stayed in England for three months working in London and left in January.

The American tour party sailed home from Vancouver on the RMS 'Ramana',  via Auckland and Sydney, and the ship docked at Melbourne on 25 November. During the voyage across the Pacific passengers objected to two members of the team who became continually intoxicated and made a nuisance of themselves.

Time spent away from Australia 

 257 days  

(13 March  to 25 November)

Finances

Only four players had opted to take the £400 flat fee offered rather than a share of the profits. Expenses exceeded income.  The tour loss was £1286 and the other players found themselves with £190 each.

Written accounts of the tour

"Before the Lights Went Out"  by Patrick Ferriday  (2011)  Von Krumm Publishing.

Postscript

McElhone of the the Australian Board won his struggle with the players, who from now on now had no influence at all on the running of overseas tours.  But the Board suffered seriously from the 1912 venture, not only from losing money and disastrous playing results, but also from damage to the reputation of Australian cricket because of the drunken antics of the players.

With the 1914-15 tour of South Africa being cancelled, this was Australia’s final Test tour until 1921.