Lord Sheffield’s Tour of Australia 1891-92          Captain :  Dr W G Grace        

England’s tenth Test tour.

(October 1891-March 1892)

Ninth Test-playing tour of Australia by an English side

   (previous tours 1887-88)

An Australian tour had become a risky venture because of cricket's declining popularity in Australia since two English teams toured simultaneously, flooding the market, four years before.  So someone as wealthy as the Earl of Sheffield was needed to sponsor the enterprise and he in turn needed to attract Dr W G Grace as the star attraction and captain of the side.  Grace had not been to Australia since his 'honeymoon tour' nearly twenty years before. 

Harry Boyle, player-manager of the 1890 Australian touring side, first raised the possibility of an English team visiting. Frank Illingworth, former secretary of the East Melbourne Club, acted as the agent to make arrangements for the tour on behalf of Sheffied, until December 1890 when Major Ben Wardill took over.

Most of the odds matches were played twelve against twenty-two and, being of two innings each, failed to reach a conclusion. However, in the first-class matches England won all five but then lost the series against Australia by two Tests to one.

Despite a deficit of £2000 on the tour Lord Sheffield donated 150 guineas to promote the development of Australian cricket, and the gift was used to provide a shield for which the colonies (later states) could compete.

Lord Sheffield was intending to take another English team to Australia in 1892-93 for three Tests but this tour never materialised.

All England tours

Previous Test tour

South Africa 1888-89(Major Warton’s eleven)

Simultaneous Test tour

South Africa 1891-92  (W W Read’s eleven)

Next Test tour

Australia 1894-95(Stoddart’s)

Members of the Test tour party (13)

Opening batsmen:   W G Grace, Bobby Abel, Andrew Stoddart

Middle-order batsmen Owen Radcliffe, George Bean, Maurice Read

Wicket-keeper:Hylton Philipson, Gregor MacGregor

All-rounder:  Johnny Briggs

Slow bowler:Bobby Peel

Fast bowlers: Dick Attewell, George Lohmann, Jack Sharpe

County representation:

Gs -  Gloucestershire (2)

La  -  Lancashire (1)

Mx  -  Middlesex (2)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (1)

Sy  -  Surrey (4)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Yo  -  Yorkshire (1)

Cam U - Cambridge University (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(1 January 1892):

 30 yrs 3 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Briggs 16, Grace 13, Read 13, Lohmann 11, Peel 10, Attewell 7, Abel 5, MacGregor 2, Sharpe 1, Stoddart 1, Bean 0, Philipson 0, Radcliffe 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Selection

Before the 1891 season Lord Sheffield had arranged that Dr W.G.Grace would captain the side, and that four main bowlers who had all been to Australia before in 1887-88 (Lohmann, Briggs, Peel and Attewell) would tour.

Unavailable :  William Gunn and Arthur Shrewsbury declined the terms, preferring to work on their joint sports business in Nottingham.

Tour Party Announced  :

Time between selection and departure from England

     ? days

 (August - 2 October)

Travel

London      T    Adelaide

                ‘Arcadia’

On 2 October 1891 the tour party assembled at Liverpool Street for the short journey to Albert Docks, London, where they sailed on the P & O steamer 'Arcadia'.  Philipson, who had travelled overland, joined the ship at Brindisi.

They sailed via Malta (9 October); passing Suez a week later; and Colombo, where a match was played. The team arrived in Adelaide at noon on 9 November, leaving ten days for practice before the first match.

Time spent in Australia

    142 days

(9 November -  30 March)

Reinforcements

K MacArthur, who had also helped out the 1887-88 team, appeared in the match against Illawarra.  Lord Sheffield had proposed sending for Arthur Mold of Lancashire to strengthen the side after the 54-run defeat in the first Test.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:

  53 days

(9 November - 1 January)

Test appearances on tour

(v Australia 1891-92)

3 -  Abel,  Attewell,  Bean,  Briggs,  Grace,  Lohmann,  MacGregor,  Peel,  Read,  Stoddart.

2 -  Sharpe

1 -  Philipson.

0 -  Radcliffe.

Match appearances

T  Test match

x other match 

∙  played for opposition

W won  L lost  D drawn  

N no result   A abandoned  

u unknown result

The full team in the matches against Williamstown and  Illawarra are not known

England’s six previous Test tour results:

in South Africa 1888-89 (4 Tests)

 - won 2-0

in Australia 1887-88 (1 Test)

 - won 1-0

in Australia 1886-87 (2 Tests)

 - won 2-0

in Australia 1884-85 (5 Tests)

 - won 3-2

in Australia 1882-83 (4 Tests)

 - drew 2-2

in Australia 1881-82 (4 Tests)

 - lost 0-2

Highlights

•   Jack Sharpe took 6-84 in 51 overs at Melbourne - the six-ball over was now being used in Test cricket in Australia.

•   George Lohmann captured eight wickets for 58 runs in the first innings, and ten in the match, at Sydney

•   At Sydney Bobby Abel (132*) became the first England player to carry his bat through a completed Test innings

•   Johnny Briggs ended the Australians’ 2nd innings at Sydney with a hat-trick.

•   At Adelaide Drewy Stoddart scored 134 while Grace, Peel and Read also made fifties in England’s total of 499

•   Johnny Briggs was unplayable and captured 12 wickets (6-49 and 6-87) to beat Australia at Adelaide

•   This was England’s largest margin of victory so far, winning by an innings and 230 runs.

Tour Summary

Return to England

Adelaide    T     Plymouth

                ‘Valetta’

Lord Sheffield remained in Hobart when the team went to Adelaide for the final Test.

The team left King George's Sound on the 'Valetta' on Sunday 3 April 1892, having left Port Adelaide the previous Wednesday morning, 30 March.  There was a ten-day run to Colombo, afterwards docking at Aden, Suez, Malta, Brindisi and Gibraltar.

The ship reached Plymouth on 9 May where Dr W G Grace and family disembarked and caught the Bristol train.

Within a week of arriving home, the team was playing a benefit match for Alfred Shaw against Rest of England at Trent Bridge.

Time away from England

  220 days  

(2 October  - 9 May)

Finances

Dr W G Grace was paid 3,000 guineas in expenses, plus first class travel for his wife and two children to accompany him around Australia.

Accounts of the tour

“W G Down Under”   by Rick Smith and Ron Williams  (Apple Books, Tasmania, 1994)

Postscript

Tom Horan wrote  "The visit has caused a cricket revival which has surpassed even the most sanguine anticipations of those who viewed the tour favourably when it was first proposed"