Spirit On The Water (3 page)

The other main attraction on the day, and at all subsequent matches, was Dick-a-Dick’s ability to ‘dodge’ cricket balls. Armed with a parrying shield and leangle (an Aboriginal war club),
Dick-a
-Dick played ‘dodge the ball’. For the price of a shilling, anyone could have a shy at him. Although standing no more than ten yards away, no one managed to hit him. He managed to parry or deflect every ball.

The tour moved south where a strong Kent side scored 298 against them. Mullagh again starred with 6 for 125 off 59 overs. It’s a shame he’s not around today to explain to England’s bowlers how to complete so many overs and still stay fit. Fred Trueman would no doubt have approved. The Australians only managed 123 in reply with Dick-a-Dick scoring 27 to at least show that he could bat a bit as well as dodge cricket balls.

The next game was against Richmond at Deer Park and Johnny Cuzens (aka Zellanach) made his first major contribution. He took 5 for 28 off 23 overs to help dismiss Richmond for 74. He then top scored with 24 in the Australian’s first innings total of 97. Richmond made a better fist of it in their second innings scoring 236 (Mullagh 4 for 65 and Cuzens 3 for 49). The Australians were 82 for 3 at the end of the last day and the match was drawn.

Despite taking a first innings lead against Sussex thanks to 63 from Lawrence and 39 from Mullagh, the Australians lost the match after collapsing in the second innings. It was becoming apparent
that they really only had three top class batsman – Lawrence, Mullagh and Cuzens. If they failed, then the team was in trouble.

The Australians moved on to Lewisham whom they beat to register their first win of the tour. This was a much-needed boost as their next match was to be the highlight of the tour – a game against the MCC at Lords.

In many ways, this was one of the most extraordinary cricket matches ever played. The visitors to Lords were a group of tribal Aborigines lead by a white Englishman (and not even an amateur at that!) The Aborigines were perceived as ‘savages’ by most of the country and referred to as “darkies” in the newspapers. Most of them had only been playing cricket for a few years. Nevertheless, there they were, in 1868, walking out at Lords to play an MCC team representing the English Establishment. Included in the team was the Earl of Coventry (MCC President in1859) and Viscount Downe (MCC President in 1872).

The MCC batted first and were all out for 164. Mullagh and Cuzens did the bulk of the bowling taking five and four wickets respectively. When the Australians batted, they were soon in trouble at 6 for 2 and then 43 for 4, but a brilliant 75 from Mullagh, supported by 31 from Lawrence, helped them to a first innings lead of 21. Cuzens bowled well when the MCC batted again, taking 6 for 65. Among his victims were an Earl, a Knight of the Realm and an Army Captain; quite an impressive hat trick! The Earl of Coventry was clean bowled for 0, Sir Frederick
Hervey-Bathhurst
was also clean bowled for 0 and Captain Trevor was bowled for 13.

At that point in this epic clash of cultures on the hallowed turf of Lords, it is fair to say that the Aborigines held the upper hand. They only needed to get 90 to achieve an historic victory. Unfortunately, things did not work out as they might have hoped.
First of all Bullocky, for no apparent reason, had failed to turn up on the second day. He was marked down in the score book as ‘Absent ill ….... 0’. It was never fully established what the problem was, but anyone who has been on a cricket tour can imagine the possible scenario. There you are at the bar drinking with your new mates, the Earl and the Viscount. They invite you on for a few more and before you know it, you are Brahms and Liszt and unable to get up in the morning. It could happen to anyone.

On top of this, Charles Lawrence was injured and had to have a runner. Almost inevitably there was a mix up and he was run out. Mullagh failed with the bat for once, Cuzens hit a brave 21 but the rest collapsed to the slow bowling of Charles Buller. The Australians were all out for 45 and the MCC had won.

The Aborigines had not disgraced themselves. Well, Bullocky had but I think he can be forgiven. After the match, Dick-a-Dick invited the MCC members to pay a shilling and try and hit him with a cricket ball. None succeeded and he walked away with a tidy sum.

The tour moved on with games in South Wales, Yorkshire and Lancashire. The team found themselves travelling very long distances due to the itinerary being put together as they went along. Invitations to play were accepted and games arranged on an ad hoc basis with the result that they criss-crossed the country, on one occasion travelling from Rochdale to Swansea and then back the next day to Bradford.

While in Yorkshire, they played the Gentlemen of Sheffield at Bramhall Lane. Sheffield batted first and scored 233 with Mullagh taking 6 for 95. The Australians replied with 185, of which Mullagh scored 55. The most remarkable event was achieved by Twopenny (aka Murrumgunarrimin) in his innings of 22. He managed to score nine runs (all run, with no overthrows) in one hit. There is
no record in any cricket match of this ever having been achieved either before or since.

The cricket correspondent for the
Sheffield Independent
described Twopenny’s extraordinary achievement:

This wonderful description of the fielder saying that he “did not offer for some time to go for the ball and when he started it was at a slow pace” could have come from almost any Ash Tree CC match in recent memory. I’ve no doubt that it will also strike a chord with many other Taverners players around the country.

The Australians were now halfway through their tour. So far it had been a great success. The English public seemed to take to the Aborigine players. They played the game in a good spirit, applauding their opponents onto the pitch and were clearly enjoying themselves. Although the team relied heavily on their three top players, the rest were excellent fielders and always entertaining. However, one thing had occurred that depressed and disheartened the whole touring party. One of their players had been taken ill suddenly.

King Cole had played in every game up to and including the match at Lords. He played in the next game at Southsea but soon afterwards developed a heavy chest cold that rapidly got worse. The tour moved on to Bishop Stortford but Lawrence took King Cole to London for treatment. They went by train to Paddington and then took a cab to Guy’s Hospital.

King Cole’s chest cold developed into pneumonia. There were no antibiotics to counter pneumonia in 1868 and the indigenous Australians were particularly susceptible to such illnesses. So it proved for King Cole. His condition deteriorated and he died in hospital four days later on 24
^th
June.

It was a terrible blow for Lawrence and his team but the tour had to go on. They continued moving around the country. They beat Tynemouth and drew with Northumberland, Middlesborough and then Scarborough. Johnny Mullagh almost single-handedly beat Bootle. He scored 51 in the first innings and then 78 in the second. He also took eleven wickets in the match.

He wasn’t quite so successful with his boomerang display after the game. He threw his boomerang and a sudden gust of wind took it off course. Instead of coming back to him, it swooped over the crowd. One man did not duck in time and it hit him a resounding blow on the head. A doctor patched him up and all was well in the end.

Notwithstanding the boomerang incident, the Bootle captain presented Mullagh with fifty shillings after the game saying that he did not think that there was a better batsman in England.

The touring party moved south and had a return match against Sussex. The Australians did much better second time around and had the better of a drawn match. They also drew with Middlesex at Islington and with Surrey at the Oval again.

Twopenny had not been called upon to bowl much on the tour but he was let loose on East Hampshire at Southsea in the 43
^rd
match. He had the remarkable figures of 9 for 9 in the first innings and 6 for 7 in the second. The opposition found his pace and hostility virtually unplayable. He bowled again in the next match against Hampshire and took 9 for 17 and 3 for 39. In two matches he had taken an incredible 27 wickets.

So why hadn’t Lawrence used him earlier in the tour? The most likely explanation is that his action was a bit suspect and Lawrence didn’t want to risk having him called for throwing early in the tour. If that had happened then it would have been bad publicity for the Australians and might have put future matches in jeopardy.

Twopenny became the first Aborigine to play first-class cricket on his return to Australia, when he played for New South Wales against Victoria in 1870. He failed to take a wicket in his 30 overs (0 for 56) and scored just eight runs. Although he was never called for throwing, it seems there was enough doubt to make it suspicious and he was not invited back to play.

There were just three matches to go on their tour of England. The Australians demolished a side from Reading. Mullagh got back in the action, taking 8 for 9 in the first innings and then went out and scored 94, the highest individual score on the tour. A draw against Godalming followed and then it was back to the Oval for one last game against Surrey.

John Constable Gregory, who had played twenty three first-class matches for Middlesex and Surrey, hit an undefeated 121, out of a Surrey total of 173. The Australians disappointed with the bat and were bundled out for 56 of which Bullocky top scored with 24. They batted much better in the second innings led by a fine knock of 63 from Johnny Cuzens, but Surrey only needed 27 to win which they scored, losing only one wicket.

The tour was over. The Australians had played forty seven games in 115 days. They had won 14, lost 14 and drawn the rest. The tour had been a financial success but none of the money went to the Aborigine players. They received no payment at all for the tour. On their return to Australia, they played a few games to wind down the tour and then the team dispersed.

As far back as 1860, the Central Protection Board for the Protection of Aborigines had been established in Victoria. In 1869, the State of Victoria passed the Aboriginal Protection Act. The word ‘protection’ was something of a euphemism. The Act gave the colonial Governor the power to control where each Aborigine lived, worked and carried out their business. The Board had wanted to stop the 1868 tour going ahead but did not have the statutory right to do so. Now they did.

Their argument was that they did not want Aborigines to be exploited. To an extent, the Aborigines that Lawrence took to England in 1868 were exploited by him. They received no payment for their efforts. The number of games they played and the huge amount of travelling involved must have been incredibly tiring. They had to put on a show after every game to demonstrate their native skills and entertain the English public.

And yet, and yet. They were welcomed everywhere they went. They were treated as equals in a way that they never were in their homeland either before they left or when they got back. They clearly enjoyed their cricket and showing off their skills with boomerang, spear and whips. And they got to play at Lords!

Of all the Aborigine players on the tour, Johnny Mullagh was the undoubted star. He was considered by many as the equal of any batsman in England at the time. He played in 45 of the 47 matches and scored 1,698 runs at an average of 23.65. This was at a time when any batting average over 20 was considered to be extremely good indeed. Many of the pitches were in a very poor state, and batting was significantly more difficult than it is today. He also bowled 1877 overs, taking 245 wickets at an average marginally over 10 apiece.

On his return, he joined Melbourne Cricket Club as a professional. For whatever reason, it didn’t really work out for him. He only played
six games, with moderate success, and he went back to his club side the following season. He scored so many runs for them that, nine years later, in 1879, he was picked to play for Victoria against Lord Harris’s England side. He top scored in the second innings and the
Melbourne Argus
praised him for his “long reach, his cool artistic style, his judicious treatment of dubious balls and his vigorous drives”.

Despite this performance, Mullagh was not selected for Victoria again. One can only speculate about the reasons for this. He went back to his job as a shearer and continued playing for his club side. In 1884, at the age of forty three, he was picked for a combined club side at the Adelaide Oval. He scored 43 not out against an attack that included George Giffen, the Australian all rounder. Johnny Mullagh continued playing cricket until a few months before his death in 1891 at the age of fifty.

No Aborigine player, or player who acknowledged that he had Aborigine blood, represented Australia for the next one hundred years. At least three Aborigine players during that period were generally considered good enough to play for Australia – Alec Henry, Jack Marsh and Eddie Gilbert – but none of them did. The reason that they didn’t was almost certainly due to overt racism in Australian society during that time. All three were ‘no balled’ at the height of their powers; in Gilbert’s case, days after clean bowling Don Bradman in a Sheffield Shield match for a duck.

Many years later, in 1996, Jason Gillespie became the first male cricketer
4
who acknowledged his Aboriginal heritage to play for Australia. Gillespie’s father is of Scottish, German and Aboriginal ancestry, while his mother has a Greek and Irish background. Gillespie did not make a big issue of his Aboriginal heritage but
he did not deny it. It is believed that other players before him had Aborigine blood but could not admit it because of the prevailing prejudice of the time. Graeme Thomas toured South Africa in 1965/66 and there was some speculation at the time that he had Aborigine blood. South Africa would probably have refused him entry (as they did with D’Oliveria in 1969) and the Australian cricket authorities encouraged the thought that Graeme Thomas was of North American origin. Apparently that was acceptable to Mr Vorster and his cronies.