Spirit On The Water (2 page)

We don’t question an opposition player’s parentage when he comes out to bat. We only appeal when we think someone is actually out. We would rather spend a month on a desert island with Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh listening to X-Factor contestants, than claim a catch that we knew hadn’t carried. (Actually, I’ll probably have to check on that one.) We try to win, and sometimes we do, but if we lose it’s not the end of the world (unless it’s the Congleton Gnomads, then we can get a little bit upset.)

Back home, once Zimbabwe had finished their two-match series, another cricket tour was about to begin. The West Indian tourists had arrived. They had successfully defended the Wisden Trophy for twenty seven consecutive years. Ray Illingworth was the last England captain to hold the trophy in 1969. The West Indians arrived with Walsh and Ambrose leading their attack and Brian Lara restored to the side after a self imposed absence.

The Windies won the first Test comfortably by an innings and 93 runs. They had a first innings lead of 133 in the second Test at Lords. What could possibly go wrong? A combination of complacency from the West Indian batsmen and excellent seam bowling from Caddick, Gough and Cork saw the West Indies bowled out for 54 in the second innings. England needed 188 to win and they scraped home by two wickets, helped by an enterprising 33 not out from Dominic Cork. On the Friday, the second day of the Test match, 21 wickets fell in 75 overs. It is the only Test match out of over 1,500 Tests ever played where some part of all four innings took place on the same day.

The Third Test at Old Trafford was drawn. This was followed by a two-day defeat for the West Indies at Headingley, which included being bowled out for 61 in the second innings. Caddick, who always seemed to bowl better in the second innings of a match,
got four wickets in an over. The tour management must have been tempted to ask a watching Viv Richards to swap his microphone for a bat and give the West Indies a hand. Even in his late forties, and not having played for a few years, he would undoubtedly have strengthened both the batting and more importantly the resolve of the West Indies team.

England clinched the series with a win at the Oval. It was a sorry way for Walsh and Ambrose to play their last Test matches in England. In a sense, the West Indies have never really recovered from that series. During the build-up to the final Test, Roger Harper, their coach at the time, said that the players were “very low” and were “just waiting for it to end”. A sad comment on any cricket tour but somehow even sadder because it was the West Indies.

The Ash Tree tour to Menorca, on the other hand, was deemed a success. The weather had been glorious. We’d had a few beers and made some new friends. We had even played some cricket.

If a team of Aborigines toured England this year playing cricket against various clubs and counties, including the MCC at Lords, it would be a pretty extraordinary event. Imagine what it must have been like in 1868, for that is when it happened. An official Australian team had yet to tour England. The first Test match between England and Australia was still ten years away.

Charles Lawrence was the man responsible for making the tour happen. Lawrence was a professional cricketer who had led a peripatetic life before arriving in Australia with an England cricket team in 1861. His cricketing jobs had taken him from Merton in Surrey, to Perth in Scotland, back to London and then to Dublin.

While in Scotland, he had been the professional at the Perth cricket club. At the age of twenty, he had played for a Scotland Twenty-Two against William Clarke’s celebrated All England XI at Edinburgh in May 1849. England won the match but Lawrence was the star of the show. He took all 10 wickets in England’s second innings. His figures were 10 for 53, coincidentally exactly the same analysis as those of Jim Laker when he took all ten Australian wickets in the second innings at Old Trafford in 1956.

The England team that turned out against Scotland in 1849 contained many of the famous players of the day, including John Wisden and George Parr. When Lawrence bowled Nicholas Felix, one of England’s leading batsmen, Felix was so impressed that he walked up to him, took a half-crown out of his pocket and said:
“Take this in remembrance of me.” The true spirit of cricket! Perhaps Kevin Pietersen could be encouraged to do the same sort of thing when he is out to a particularly good ball? Or maybe Ricky Ponting could be persuaded to go up to a fielder after he has been run out and say: “Jolly good throw Gary. Here’s a fiver to remember me by.”

William Clarke’s All England XI was a band of professional cricketers who toured the country playing wherever they could. Clarke was a very successful bowler taking over 2,000 wickets. Seemingly, his only fault was that he would continue to bowl himself for too long ‘always expecting to get a wicket in his next over’. I’m sure we all know captains like that.

Richard Daft, the Nottinghamshire batsman and member of Clarke’s team, wrote: “What fun we had in these matches to be sure! We would arrive early, breakfast on bread, cheese and bottled ale. Tom Forster would leave his umpire’s post and come into the pavilion for more at the fall of each wicket.”

Apart from the “arrive early”, it seems very reminiscent of Taverners cricket today! It is good to know that these traditions go back such a long way.

Some years later, William Clarke helped to secure an appointment for Charles Lawrence as professional at the Phoenix Club in Dublin. It would be gratifying to be able to say that the future Ashes series arose out of his time at the Phoenix but that would be stretching things a bit too far.

In 1858, Lawrence captained an All Ireland XI at Lords. He took eight wickets against a team of English gentlemen (professionals were not allowed to play for the MCC at the time). Lawrence was an adventurer as well as a cricketer and he would have been interested in George Parr’s plans to tour North America in 1859. Lawrence didn’t make that trip but he was invited to be part of
the 1861/62 tour of Australia that was led by H.H. Stephenson, the Surrey captain.

Around the same time, Charles Dickens was offered
£
10,000 to undertake a reading tour of Australia. His tours of North America had been interrupted rather inconveniently by the American Civil War. In the end, he didn’t go but finished off
Great Expectations
instead; an appropriate theme for that first tour of Australia and indeed all subsequent ones.

Stephenson’s England team sailed from Liverpool on 20
^th
October in the
Great Britain
, arriving in Melbourne on Christmas Eve. The Australians embraced the visitors with open arms in 1861, much like they do today but possibly for different reasons. Unlike today, the Australians were not expecting to win every match. Links with the mother country were still very strong and any contact was welcome. 15,000 people turned up to watch the first game on New Year’s Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

To make the games more even, most of the Australian teams fielded twenty-two players, as in Twenty-Two of Victoria and Twenty-Two of Castlemaine. The tourists played twelve matches, but they were not classified as first-class. They won six and lost two, with four drawn. It was very much a goodwill tour with the Australian hospitality often overwhelming. William Caffyn wrote “Scarcely a day passed without our being entertained to champagne breakfasts, luncheons and dinners.” In the circumstances, they did well to lose only two games!

In January 1862, they played a match at Sydney. The Secretary for Lands, John Robertson, controversially allowed the promoters to charge admission to the public while arranging a free stand for parliamentarians. Some things never change!

Towards the end of the tour, Stephenson’s team divided for a match at the MCG that was billed as The World versus a Surrey XI
and was designated as a first-class match. The six Surrey players were joined by five locals, who supposedly had Surrey affiliations, to form the Surrey XI. The World XI was made of the six
non-Surrey
tourists and another five locals. The World XI won by six wickets thanks to an impressive all-round performance by George Bennett who scored 72 and then took 7 for 30 and 7 for 85.

The tour was a great success and Charles Lawrence enjoyed himself so much that he accepted an invitation to stay on as professional cricket coach at the Albert Club in Sydney. He thought that there was money to be made in Australia and tried to persuade some of the other members of the team to stay on. However, they all sailed home to England leaving Lawrence with his dreams and plans.

He recorded in his diary that he had formed the idea of teaching the Aborigines cricket after seeing them throwing boomerangs and spears. He felt sure that, if he could take them to England, he would make his fortune.

Australia rather than North America became the preferred destination for cricket tours from England. George Parr brought another England team back to Australia in 1863/64 and the game really began to take off. Meanwhile in North America, baseball was establishing itself as the national game. If it hadn’t been for the American Civil War, the development of cricket might have been very different.

Babe Ruth would probably have made a useful cricketer, but the Australians would have had a great time sledging a player whose first name was Babe and second name was Ruth. Joe DiMaggio was six years younger than Don Bradman and could have been a serious rival. I’m sure that Marilyn Monroe would have been welcomed at Lords, but obviously would not have been allowed in the Long Room.

Meanwhile, Charles Lawrence was pursuing his dream of taking an Aborigine team to England. Aborigines had been playing cricket for a few years and he got together a group of players with the intention of taking them to England. They had a number of warm up games before departing from Sydney on 8
^th
February 1868. Also on board the ship to England was a much-travelled clergyman, Henry Nisbett, who wrote about his travels. His journal has daily entries from the time they left Sydney to when they docked at Gravesend on 13
^th
May. At no point does he mention that there were thirteen Aborigines on board. Did he fail to notice them? Did he think they were not worth mentioning?

The only conclusion one can draw is that it reflects the
narrow-minded
thinking of some people at the time. It just wouldn’t do to acknowledge the existence of some ‘dark skinned’ chaps on the same ship as him. Best to adopt the ostrich approach and pretend they aren’t there. Maybe they would go away. It must have been very difficult for the Reverend, so far from home, to have the company of thirteen Aborigines on a three month boat journey. We can only hope that if he met them on board, they worked hard to put him at his ease.

All the Aborigines had ‘nicknames’ given to them by their original employers when they worked on the land in Australia. This was because the newly arrived white landowners struggled to pronounce their tribal names. Arrahmunijarrimun was, perhaps understandably, known as Peter. Jungunjinanuke acquired the name of Dick-a-Dick. Bripumyarrimin was known as King Cole. Pripumuarraman, aka Charley Dumas, was not much of a cricketer but gained his place in the squad because he was an expert with the boomerang. The star of the team was Unaarrimin, better known as Johnny Mullagh. Only injury prevented him from playing for the Victoria State side before the 1868 tour of England.

According to Lawrence’s own diary, the Aborigines were very popular with other passengers on board. They drew pictures of animals and birds for the children and also made toys and other implements out of wood. Luckily, it seems that not everyone was as uptight as the Reverend.

Even so, Lawrence must have been concerned as they sailed up the Thames and docked at Gravesend. How would the team be received? Had enough games been arranged? How would the Aborigines handle the strange environment and new experiences? Would he make enough money to justify the trip?

Lawrence’s partner, William Hayman was there to meet them. He had left Australia six weeks earlier in order to arrange the tour itinerary. He had good connections with Kent and this had helped him arrange some early games but the full tour was by no means agreed. Lawrence himself was well known at Surrey, having played for them before leaving for Australia. He also had some influence at the MCC through his earlier association with Ireland.

Using his contacts from Surrey and Ireland, Lawrence managed to persuade the MCC to play his team at Lords on the 12
^th
and 13
^th
of June. The success of his tour was then assured. Once the MCC agreed to play them, many other offers of games were forthcoming. In the end, the team played a total of forty seven matches, crisscrossing the country by train and carriage.

After only two weeks to acclimatise and get fit, the first ever touring side from Australia took on Surrey at the Oval. It was a strong Surrey side which batted first and scored 222 before an enthusiastic crowd of over 7,000. Johnny Mullagh took 3 for 100 off 52 overs and Lawrence bowled 49 overs taking 7 for 91. Four
balls per over was the norm in those days, but nevertheless they were impressive figures.

The visitors each wore a different coloured sash that ran from the left shoulder to the right waist. The colours were printed on the scorecard so spectators could easily identify each player. Lawrence of course didn’t need a distinguishing coloured sash.

On the second day, before an even bigger crowd, the Australians managed only 83 with Johnny Mullagh top scoring with 33. Following on, they did rather better scoring 132. Johnny Mullagh again top scoring with 73. Considering they had only been playing cricket for a few years and had to adapt very quickly to unusual English conditions (in every sense), the Aborigines had done remarkably well.

Johnny Mullagh had been the star with both bat and ball. After the match had finished, in a forerunner for future man of the match awards, he was presented with a gold sovereign, together with a watch and chain. A bit classier than the ubiquitous magnum of champagne and oversized cheque that gets handed out today.

During the lunch break on the first day, George Tarrant, one of England’s top fast bowlers, took the opportunity to bowl at Mullagh in the nets. Charles Lawrence had been telling everyone how good he was and Tarrant wanted to test him out. At the end of a fifteen-minute net session, Tarrant walked up to Mullagh and said: “I have never bowled to a better batsman.” Praise indeed!

After the game against Surrey, Lawrence and his team were invited to go to the Derby at Epsom. The crowd at the racetrack cheered them. Seemingly, the Aborigines encountered very little overt racism in England. There was curiosity from the general public and what today we would regard as racist comments but not hostility.

More insidious was the attitude of the press.
Bell’s Life in London
had this article about the arrival of the team:

It presumably did not occur to the writer that the fact that the Aboriginal race was “fast disappearing” may have had something to do with the arrival of European settlers in Australia. They may have brought cricket with them but they also brought disease, destruction and discrimination to the Aborigines.

The Times
was dismissive of the Australian team and after the first few games, barely mentioned them. The
Daily Telegraph
commented at the time that “Nothing of interest comes from Australia except gold and black cricketers.” When the first official Australian touring party came to England in 1878, many of the spectators were surprised that the players were not black. Murdoch, Bannerman, Spofforth et al were no doubt not amused.

After the Epsom Derby, the team returned to the Oval for a day of sports and entertainment. 4,000 people turned up to watch. The Aborigines, dressed in traditional costume, started with a mock hunt. This was followed by a spear throwing display and then several of the team demonstrated their expertise with the boomerang.

The athletics events were keenly contested. A certain E. Ford of Lambeth won the 100 yards dash and the 440 yards race but
the Aborigines won most of the other events. It is recorded
3
that after Bullocky (aka Bullchanach) won the throwing the cricket ball event with a throw of 105 yards, he was challenged by a
nineteen-year
-old W.G. Grace who was in the crowd. W.G., presumably without his distinctive beard at that point, beat him with a throw of 118 yards.