Tour of Australia 1936-37                  Captain :  Gubby Allen             

First England Test tour.

(October 1936 - March 1937)

First Test playing tour of Australia by England

First Test playing tour of New Zealand by England

  (previous tour 1932-33)

This has become known as the ‘goodwill tour’.  Gubby Allen was appointed England captain and charged with restoring good relations with Australia after the ill-feeling created by the ‘bodyline tour’.

England made a great start by winning the first two Test matches in the series but the Australians recovered and won the next three matches. This was the only time a side winning the first two matches has lost a five-Test series.

England had bad luck. Injury problems were a constant disruption to Allen’s plans and almost half the side had to miss long stretches of the tour while recovering. Weather and the toss also went against the tourists but the England team was not a great one. Hammond scored a double century in the second Test which ensured victory in the match but apart from him, Barnett and Leyland, the batting looked frail. Fortunately, Compton, Hutton and Washbrook were to emerge during the 1937 season.

The matches were played before huge crowds - the record attendance of 350,534 in the Third Test, and 945,513 for the whole series

All England tours

Previous Test tour

West indies 1934-35

Next Test tour

South Africa 1938-39

Next tour of Australia

1946-47

Members of the Test tour party (17  +  1)

Opening batsmen: Charles Barnett, Arthur Fagg, Laurie Fishlock, Stan Worthington

Middle-order batsmen Walter Hammond, Joe Hardstaff, Morice Leyland, Bob Wyatt

Wicket-keepers: Les Ames, George Duckworth (+ Tom Wade reinforcement)

All-rounder:  Walter Robins

Slow bowlers: Jim Sims, Hedley Verity

Fast bowlers: Gubby Allen, Bill Copson, Ken Farnes, Bill Voce

County representation:

Dy - Derbyshire (2)

Ex  -  Essex (1)

Gs - Gloucestershire (2)

Kt - Kent (2)

La - Lancashire (1)

Mx - Middlesex (3)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (2)

Sy - Surrey (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Y - Yorkshire (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(4 December 1936) : 

30 yrs  4 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

‡  not to New Zealand

Test Appearances made before the tour

Hammond 57,  Wyatt 38,  Leyland 32,  Ames 32,  Duckworth 24,  Verity 24,  Voce 18,  Allen 17,  Robins 12,  Worthington 6,  Barnett 5,  Farnes 4,  Hardstaff 3,  Fishlock 2,  Sims 2,  Fagg 2,  Copson 0,  Wade 0.

Tour Officials

⋆Selectors

Sir Stanley Jackson (chairman),   Lord Cobham,  Henry Leveson-Gower,  Gubby Allen (captain),  Tommy Higson,  Peter Perrin and  Pelham Warner chose the team.

Selection

Gubby Allen was given the captaincy at the end of March 1936.

The first announcement about members of the team came on 20 July when seven players (Allen, Hammond, Hardstaff, Leyland, Robins and Verity) were named, with Captain Rupert Howard of Lancashire as manager.

On 29 July M.C.C. invited Copson, Duckworth, Fagg and Worthington ; on 8 August Barnett, Farnes, Sims, Voce and Holmes ; on 25 August Ames's name was added.

Withdrawal : E.R.T.Holmes withdrew because of his father's illness.  On 29 August R.E.S.Wyatt replaced Holmes.

Also Unavailable:  Harold Larwood, Cyril Walters (no cricket In 1936).

Tour Party Announced :  8 August 1936.

Time between selection and departure from England

   34 days

 (8 August - 11 September)

Travel

Southampton    T    Fremantle

                      ‘Orion’

Sydney      T      Wellington

            ‘Wanganella’

Before leaving for Australia members of the team played a ‘festival match’ in Scarborough against  H.D.G.Leveson-Gower's XI

The team’s departure from England took place on 11 September 1936.  The team sailed from Southampton on RMS "Orion" on the last day of the season. Sailing via Gibraltar, Toulon, Port Said, Suez, they played a match at Colombo.

The 'Orion' arrived at Fremantle on 12 October.

Travel to New Zealand

After the Australian tour, Barnett, Fagg, who was ill, and Robins, who had broken a finger, did not go to New Zealand.

The remainder of the team sailed from Darling Harbour, Sydney, on 14 March on the "Wanganella". The ship sailed to Wellington, arriving on 17 March, and travelled directly on to Christchurch.

Time spent in Australia

    153 days

(12 October -  14 March)

Time spent in New Zealand

    18 days

(17 March -  4 April)

On-tour selection panel

Gubby Allen (captain),  Walter Robins (vice-captain),  Bob Wyatt,  Walter Hammond,  Morice Leyland (senior professionals).

Reinforcements

On 28 October M.C.C. announced that Tom Wade, who was on holiday in Australia, would play temporarily as wicket-keeper while Les Ames (in hospital with a swollen knee) and George Duckworth (who fractured the index finger of his left-hand at Sydney) were unfit.

Walter Robins broke a finger at the start of the tour;   

Morice Leyland missed early matches owing to a kidney ailment.

Bob Wyatt, who fractured a bone in his left arm, missed the first three Test matches.

Arthur Fagg went into hospital in Adelaide with a swollen knee at the start of February.  He had rheumatic fever, and had to go home early.

Laurie Fishlock broke a finger and could not play throughout February so manager Rupert Howard played in three minor matches.

Gubby Allen strained a leg muscle and did not play between the 4th and 5th Tests in an attempt to get fit again.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:  

 53 days

(12 October - 4 December)

Test appearances on tour

    (v Australia 1936-37)

5 -  Allen,  Ames,  Barnett,  Hammond,  Hardstaff,  Verity,  Voce.

4 -  Robins.

3 -  Worthington.

2 -  Fagg,  Farnes,  Leyland,  Sims,  Wyatt.

0 -  Copson,  Duckworth,  Fishlock,  Wade.

Match appearances

 (in Australia and New Zealand   

                      1936-37)

T  Test match

x other match 

p  practice match

 W won  L lost  D drawn  T  tied

N no result   C  cancelled 

A abandoned

u unknown result

The matches v Victoria Country and v Universities 12-a-side

Highlights

•  T

•   Walter Hammond scored a double century in the second Test at Sydney.

• 

• 

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost  

D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to England

Sydney      T      Los Angeles

              ‘Mariposa’

New York      T      Plymouth

              ‘’Queen Mary’

On 4 April the team sailed from Auckland on the ‘Mariposa’, via Honolulu, to America and disembarked in Los Angeles where they paid a visit to Hollywood.

Crossing the United States by rail, they caught the ‘Queen Mary’ from New York, which docked at Plymouth on 26 April. From here the team took a train to London’s Paddington Station.

Time away from England

  227 days  

(11 September  - 26 April)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

"Australian Summer"  by Neville Cardus (Cape, 1937) 

“1937 Australian Test Tour"  by Bruce Harris (Hutchinson, 1937)

"So this is Australia" by William Pollock  (Arthur Barker, 1937)

“From a Window at Lord's”  by E H D Sewell  (Methuen, 1937)

Postscript

On return H.D.G.Leveson-Gower's XI and Rest of England XI