Tour of Australia  1903-04                 Captain : Pelham Warner                   

  (M.C.C. tour)

17th English Test tour

(September 1903 - April 1904)

Thirteenth Test-playing tour of Australia by an English side

   (previous tour 1901-02)

A.C. MacLaren was unable to raise the team he wanted and requested the tour be postponed until 1904-05, so, once it was clear that he would not be coming, the three principal cricket associations in Australia (New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia) invited the Marylebone Cricket Club to bring a team instead.  This would be M.C.C.’s first touring party abroad. Lord Harris's influence ensured that Pelham Warner would captain the party, though the M.C.C. selectors had at first wanted C.B.Fry or Stanley Jackson to lead it. However, Warner found his side weakened when a number of leading amateurs were unavailable, while Barnes and Lockwood were not considered.

After having lost four consecutive series against Australia, England at last won the rubber, by three matches to two… and this without Sydney Barnes whom Warner had wished to take, but MacLaren warned him against it.

The highlight of the whole tour was R E Foster’s 287 in the first Test match at Sydney. Wilfred Rhodes’ bowling was devastating in the early tour matches and he took his form into the second Test at Melbourne where he collected fifteen wickets. Each of these performances was the best in Ashes Tests for many years.

The third Test was lost but Bosanquet’s googly bowling brought England victory in the fourth. So England recovered the Ashes as Warner, who was widely admired for his captaincy, later wrote.

The only disappointment was that the tour made a large financial loss of £1500.

All England tours

Previous Test tour

Australia 1901-02(A.C. MacLaren’s team)

Next Test tour

South Africa 1905-06(M.C.C.)

Next Test tour of Australia

1907-08(M.C.C.)

Members of the Test tour party (14  + 1)

Opening batsmen:  Pelham Warner, Tom Hayward

Middle-order batsmen Johnny Tyldesley, Reginald Foster, Albert Knight, Albert Relf

Wicket-keeper: Dick Lilley, Herbert Strudwick

All-rounder:  Len Braund, George Hirst.

Slow bowlers: Wilfred Rhodes,  Bernard Bosanquet [and Braund]

Fast bowlers: Ted Arnold, Arthur Fielder [and George Hirst]

County representation:

Kt - Kent (1)

La - Lancashire (1)

Le - Leicestershire (1)

Mx - Middlesex (2)

Sm - Somerset (1)

Sy - Surrey (2)

Sx - Sussex (1)

Wk - Warwickshire (1)

Wo -  Worcestershire (2)

Y - Yorkshire (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(11 December 1903)

   29 years 1 month

Test Appearances made before the tour

Hayward 21,  Lilley 17,  Tyldesley 14,  Braund 10,  Hirst 9,  Rhodes 8,  Warner  2,  Arnold 0,  Bosanquet 0,  Fielder 0,  Foster 0,  Knight 0,  Relf 0,  Strudwick 0.

Tour Officials

Murdoch was the assistant secretary of M.C.C. at Lord’s. 

Selectors

A G Steel (chairman),  Hon Alfred Lyttelton, W H Patteson,  A J Webbe  and  Pelham Warner (captain).

However, Lord Harris and his chosen captain P F Warner were most influential in picking the side.

Selection

On 4 June 2003  MCC confirmed the invitation to Warner to captain the side had been accepted. C B Fry and F S Jackson both declined the captaincy.

On 24 July the names of twenty-four players were announced

Unavailable  :  Warner found that at least ten of the leading amateurs were unable to tour, including  C B Fry, E W Dowson, F S Jackson, G L Jessop, H Martyn, L C Palairet, K S Ranjitsinhji.  A C MacLaren declined to tour under Warner.

Tour Party Announced : end of July 1903.

Albert Knight  was a late addition to the side when R H Spooner, who was invited at the beginning of September, declined to tour. M.C.C. decided not to select a fifteenth player.

Time between selection and departure from England

   days

 (July - 26 September)

Travel

Tilbury  T    Adelaide

           ‘Orontes’

The team left St Pancras Station by rail for Tilbury Docks where they boarded the 'Orontes. They sailed on 26 September 1903.  Six members of the team (Hayward, Tyldesley, Arnold, Lilley, Hirst and Rhodes) would join the ship at Marseilles, as would Bosanquet who was too late to board the steamer.

The ship stopped at Plymouth, Gibraltar, Marseilles (to pick up the rest of the team), Naples, Port Said and Colombo.  Again there was no match in Ceylon. 

The ship reached Fremantle on 29 October and Adelaide four days later.

Time spent in Australia

    144 days

(29 October -  21 March)

On-tour selection panel

 Warner alone chose the team.

Reinforcements

George Drummond, 20, an old Harrovian who toured West Indies with Lord Brackley's team the following year, was accompanying the team.  G.S. Whitfield (who would appear in 3 matches for Sussex in 1908), 25, appeared in two minor matches each, when Ted Arnold was unfit.

Fixtures/Results

The programme of fixtures was arranged by the Melbourne Club.

The Tests were timeless

Originally the programme was intended to end with matches against Western Australia and a Goldfields XI

† not first-class

Time spent in Australia before First Test:  

 43 days

(29 October - 11 December)

Test appearances on tour

 (v Australia 1901-02)

5 -  Braund, Foster, Hayward, Hirst, Lilley, Rhodes, Tyldesley, Warner.

4 -  Arnold, Bosanquet.

3 -  Knight

2 -  Fielder, Relf

0 -  Strudwick.

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

•   Arnold took Trumper's wicket with his first ball in Test cricket.

•   Also on debut at Sydney, R.E.Foster's score of 287 stood as the record individual Test score for 26 years.

•   England’s innings reached 577, Len Braund scoring 102. and Wilfred Rhodes 40* in a record last wicket stand of 130

•   Rhodes with 15 wickets on a wet pitch at Melbourne had the best match figures in Test history at that time, and with 31 wickets in the series was consistently good throughout.

•   Googly bowler Bosanquet's 6-51, including a spell of 5-12, secured the Ashes in the return at Sydney.

Tour Summary

Return to England

Adelaide T    Marseilles

              ‘Orontes’

Marseille    t     London

On 17 March 1904 the team sailed from Adelaide on the RMS 'Orontes'.  On arrival at Fremantle on 21 March, they disembarked for a few hours and played a football match but they did not play any cricket, as had been hoped for.

The ship passed Perim in the Red Sea on 7 April, and reached Marseilles on Saturday 16 April. It proceded to London after the team had disembarked to travel overland to Paris.

They caught the boat train, crossing from Dover to Calais on the 'Queen', and pulled in to Victoria Station on 17 April - without Foster, who had remained in Paris.

Time away from England

  204  days  

(26 September -17 April )

Finances

The Marylebone Club had sent out a side on the same basis that Australian teams toured England, namely half the proceeds on the gate. This income was needed to cover all the amateurs’ expenses,  with £300 and expenses for the professionals plus, it was hoped, a bonus.

Accounts of the tour

"How we Recovered the Ashes"  by P F Warner  (Chapman & Hall,  London 1904)  and (Centenary Edition, Methuen Publishing Ltd 2004)  

"Bringing Back The Ashes"  by 'Looker on' (J H Stainton) ;

"Warner's Team"  by Archibald Sinclair  (Cricket Press : Edmund Seale, 1904)

“The M C C Tour to Australia 1903-04”   by Ronald Cardwell  (Cricket Publishing Company, Sydney, 1988) – limited edition of 287 copies

“Australia 1903-04”   tour diary of R E Foster – ms in MCC Library at Lord’s

“A E Relf’s tour diary” – ms in Sussex CCC Library at Hove

Postscript

It was generally accepted in Australia that private tours had had their day. In future teams of English cricketers would come under the aegis of the Marylebone Club who would like to make a profit but regarded even more important its role to promote cricket outside England and bind the Empire to the mother country.