Tour of Australia & New Zealand 1946-47      Captain : Wally Hammond     

England’s 36th Test tour.

(September 1946 -

         April 1947)

21st Test playing tour of Australia by England

  (previous tour 1936-37)

Third Test playing tour of New Zealand by England

  (previous Test tour 1932-33)

The Australian Cricket Board voted in October 1945 to invite M.C.C. to tour Australia next season, and represented by their government's United Nations spokesman, Dr H.V.Evatt, pressed M C C very hard to make the tour in the interests of Anglo-Australian relations. While M.C.C. could agree that an Ashes Test series would symbolise the return to post-War normality, the club undertook its twelfth tour of Australia against its better judgement, sensing that English cricket needed another year or two to recover from six years of War.

Walter Hammond on his eighth and final Test tour was the captain. “Past his best physically at 43, he did not have the properties for leadership of a touring party but he might have made a better job of it if not dogged by such consistent ill-luck.” [Swanton in Australia] In the first Test Bradman won a crucial toss and, surviving a fair catch when 28 and going on to score 187, shifted the whole psychological advantage of the series, which was compounded when a unimaginable storm changed the Brisbane pitch into a unplayable surface when England came to bat.

Australia went on to inflict a heavy three-nil defeat in the Tests, and M C C ended up with the worst playing record by some measures of any English Test side in Australia since Stoddart's team in 1894-95.

Other England tours

Previous Test tour

South Africa 1938-39

Next Test tour

West Indies 1947-48

Next Test tour of Australia and New Zealand

1950-51

Members of the Test tour party (17)

Opening batsmen:  Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Laurie Fishlock

Middle-order batsmen Walter Hammond, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, Joe Hardstaff, Jack Ikin,

All-rounders: Norman Yardley, James Langridge

Wicket-keeper: Godfrey Evans, Paul Gibb.

Slow bowlers: Doug Wright, Peter Smith

Fast bowlers:  Alec Bedser, Dick Pollard, Bill Voce.

County representation:

Ex  -  Essex (1)

Gs - Gloucestershire (1)

Kt - Kent (2)

La - Lancashire (3)

Mx - Middlesex (2)

Nt - Nottinghamshire (2)

Sy - Surrey (2)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Yo - Yorkshire (3)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(29 November 1946) :

 33 yrs 7 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Hammond 80,  Voce 25,  Hardstaff 18,  Hutton 16,  Compton 11,  Wright 11,  Edrich 10,  Langridge 8,  Gibb 7,  Washbrook 4, Bedser 3,  Fishlock 3,  Ikin 2,  Yardley 1,  Evans 1,  Pollard 1,  Smith 1.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Sir Stanley Jackson (chairman),  Lord Cobham (M.C.C),  A J ‘Jack’ Holmes,  Walter Robins,  Brian Sellers, Pelham Warner and Walter Hammond (captain). 

Jackson was knocked down by a taxi in London on 31 July and did not attend later meetings.

Sellers and Warner were journalists and later reported on the team they had themselves selected.

Selection

Unavailable :  None.  Hammond had originally expressed some doubt whether he could go.

Tour Party Announced  :  The first twelve tourists were named on 19 July.  Smith and Pollard were added on 1 August, and the last three (Edrich, Fishlock, Langridge) on 11 August.

Tour party completed : 11 August 1946

Not selected:  John Clay, Eric Hollies or Tom Goddard might have been considered. There were too few specialist bowlers available for selection, and too many all-rounders who were really batting specialists.

Time between selection and departure from England

   days

 (11 August - 31 August)

Travel

Southampton   T    Fremantle

              ‘Stirling Castle’

Before sailing for Australia, the players were busy hunting round for spare clothing coupons. On 31 August 1946 the team took a train from Waterloo Station, London, to Southampton Docks and sailed on the Union Castle ship  ‘Stirling Castle’’.

They made only one stop at Port Said, to Fremantle, landing on 24 September 1946.

The ship called at Colombo, but for the first time since 1903-04 did not play a match.  “Nearly a month at sea on a crowded ship run on austerity lines by the Government - no classes and no drink” {Swanton]

The team arrived at Perth much earlier than anticipated so an extra minor match was arranged.

Time spent in Australia

    days

(24 September  - 

New Zealand       days

(24 October - 

On-tour selection panel

Walter Hammond (captain), Norman Yardley (vice-captain),  Bill Edrich.

 (Edrich had turned amateur at the beginning of the tour)

Reinforcements

None.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:  

 58 days

(24 September - 21 November)

Test appearances on tour

 (v Australia & NZ 1946-47)

6 -   Bedser,  Compton,  Edrich, Ikin,  Washbrook,  Wright,  Yardley.

5 -   Evans,  Hammond,  Hutton.

3 -   Smith

2 -   Voce

1 -   Fishlock,  Gibb,  Hardstaff,  Pollard.

0 -   Langridge.

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

Highlights

•  T

• 

• 

• 

Tour Summary

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

Return to England

Sydney   T    Southampton

        ‘’Largs Castle’’

After the Australian section of the tour, the bulk of the team flew by seaplane from Sydney to Auckland, then by road to Wellington for the first match in New Zealand.

Hutton flew home for a throat operation, arriving in England on 17 March.

Langridge (groin injury) had been unable to play for six weeks. With Gibb, Hardstaff, Eric Bedser (not an official member of the team) and Ferguson, he returned home in the ‘Largs Castle’, leaving Sydney on 18 March.

The main team returned by air in four groups, completed by the arrival of Hammond and Major Howard on 8 April.

Ikin had to remain in hospital at Rangoon for treatment to a septic arm wound.

Time away from England

  250 days  

(31 August - 8 April

Finances

£50,000 profit

Accounts of the tour

“Cricket Controversy”   by Cliff Cary  (Werner Laurie, 1948)

“Testing Time for England”   by Denis Compton  (Stanley Paul, 1948)

“Cricket Crisis – bodyline and other lines”  by Jack Fingleton  (Cassell, 1947,  and Pavilion Books, 1984)

“With England in Australia - the Truth about the Tests”   by Bruce Harris (Hutchinson’s, 1948)

 See also  Wisden Cricket Monthly  for Paul Gibb's tour diary

Postscript

The

Other Test tours in 1946-47

None