Tour of Australia 1928-29                    Captain :  Percy Chapman             

   (M.C.C. tour)

England’s 27th Test tour

(October 1928 - March 1929)

18th Test playing tour of Australia by England

  (previous tour 1924-25)

In the Ashes series of 1926, after four drawn matches against Australia, the England selectors had installed Percy Chapman as the new captain for the final Test at The Oval and he immediately achieved a 289-run victory. He retained the captaincy for the 1928-29 tour of Australia.

Rather than the M.C.C. Committee choosing the team as was customary, a special panel was appointed.These selectors chose to omit Woolley, but took in any case a surplus of batsmen such that Mead, Tyldesley and Leyland were left out of the Test side apart from one match each.

During the tour Hobbs said that, if England won the third Test and thus retained the Ashes, he would stand down from the team and retire from Test cricket. However, the selection committee prevailed upon him to play again.

The manager, Francis Toone, making his third tour of Australia, received a knighthood in the 'Birthday Honours' on his return. There was an unsuccessful attempt to attract M.C.C. to play in New Zealand after the tour.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

South Africa 1927-28

Next Test tours

New Zealand 1929-30

West Indies 1929-30

Next tour of Australia

1932-33

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen:  Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe.

Middle-order batsmen Patsy Hendren, Douglas Jardine, Ernest Tyldesley, Phil Mead, Morice Leyland, Percy Chapman.

Wicket-keeper: Les Ames, George Duckworth

All-rounder:  Wally Hammond

Slow bowlers: Jack White, Sam Staples, Tich Freeman.

Fast bowlers: Maurice Tate, Harold Larwood, George Geary.

County representation:

Gs - Gloucestershire (1)

Ha - Hampshire (1)

Kt -  Kent (3)

La - Lancashire (2)

Le - Leicestershire (1)

Mx - Middlesex (1)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (2)

Sm -  Somerset (1)

Sy - Surrey (2)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Y - Yorkshire (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(30 November 1928) :

 33 yrs  6 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

Hobbs 50,  Hendren 23,  Sutcliffe 23,  Tate 18,  Mead 16,  Chapman 13,   Tyldesley 13, Freeman 9,  Hammond 8,  Geary 5,  Larwood 4,  Staples 3,  Duckworth 2,  Jardine 2,  White 2,  Leyland 1,  Ames 0.

Tour Officials

⋆ Selectors

Lord Harris (chairman),  Johnny Douglas,  Arthur Gilligan,  Henry Leveson-Gower,  Frank Mann and Pelham Warner, with Jack Hobbs brought in as advisor.

Selection

Unavailable:    Vallance Jupp.

Tour Party Announced : 30 July 1928.

Not selected : Frank Woolley.

Time between selection and departure from England

   days

 (30 July  - 15 September)

Travel

Tilbury      T      Fremantle

               ‘Otranto’

There was a ‘pre-tour match’ against  C.I.Thornton's XI

Jardine, Geary and Staples, with the manager and Mrs Hobbs, left St Pancras railway station, London, on the morning of 15 September 1928 for Tilbury where they boarded the 'Otranto'. The other players were detained in England by a match between Lancashire, the champion county, and The Rest. They left Victoria Station on 20 September for Folkestone to join the Otranto next morning at Toulon.

On 26 September the ship reached Port Said (where M.C.C. declined an invitation to play against the local club), and on 5 October reached Colombo (where a match was played next day). Finally, they berthed at Fremantle on 16 October.

Time spent in Australia

    161 days

(16 October -  26 March)

On-tour selection panel

Percy Chapman (captain),  Jack White (vice-captain), Douglas Jardine,  Jack Hobbs and Ernest Tyldesley (senior professionals).

Reinforcements

Sam Staples was unwell on the voyage with severe rheumatic pains and returned home in mid-December without playing a match. 

Frank Bryant (Western Australia's 12th man) had to field for M.C.C. when Duckworth had influenza and Hammond kept wicket. 

Ames (finger fractured), Chapman (influenza) and Sutcliffe (shoulder) were unfit for the closing matches of the tour.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:  

  45 days

(16 October - 30 November)

Test appearances on tour

(v Australia 1928-29)

5 -    Duckworth,  Hammond,  Hendren,  Hobbs,  Jardine,  Larwood,  Tate,  White.

4 -    Chapman,  Geary,  Sutcliffe

3 - 

2 - 

1 -    Leyland,  Mead,  Tyldesley

0 -    Ames,  Freeman,  Staples.

Match appearances

T  Test match

x other match 

p  practice match

 W won  L lost  D drawn

N no result   C  cancelled 

A abandoned

u unknown result

Highlights

•  T

• 

• 

• 

Tour Summary

F  Fixtures   W  Won   L  Lost   D Drawn   T  Tied  Canc  Cancelled  Aban  abandoned

Return to England

Sydney      T      Toulon

             ‘Ormonde’

Toulon      t      London

The Fifth Test was 'timeless' (played to a finish). Douglas Jardine left Melbourne on 14 March as soon as he was out, because he had business to attend to in the Far East, so Percy Chapman had to field. If the Fifth Test had extended into Saturday, preventing the team from catching the train to Perth, they would have had to sail from Melbourne in the 'Ormonde' and abandon the match in Western Australia. 

As it was, the team took a train from Melbourne (where Chapman bade his farewell) to Perth, a four-day journey across the Nullarbor Plain. Hobbs was delayed in Adelaide so, with Ames and Sutcliffe unfit, there were only eleven players available for the match v Australian XI in Perth.

They then played the traditional football match, after which on 26 March the players sailed on the 'Ormonde'.

Players disembarked at Toulon, then travelled by rail overland to Calais. After crossing the Channel in the 'Invicta', their train pulled into Victoria Station on 20 April.  The team went to watch the Cup Final before dispersing.

Chapman took a holiday in New Zealand with his wife, who was born there. They returned from New Zealand on 4 June.

Time away from England

     217 days  

(15 September  -20 April )

Finances

Accounts of the tour

“Cricket Sketches 1928-1929”   by Arthur Mailey  (Sydney, 1928)

"The Turn of the Wheel"  by Percy Fender  (Faber & Faber, 1929)

"The Fight for the Ashes"   by Monty Noble (Harrap, London, 1929)

“The Jack Ryder Book – a souvenir of the 1928-29 Tests” (26 pages, scores, stats, edited by R H Campbell.

“The Story of the Tests”   by Kenyon Wynne (London Book Company, 1929)

Postscript

There were two matches in 1929 which reunited the team:

Other tours in 1928-29

None