Test Cricket Tours - Australia to England 1899

---

Tour of England 1899 Captain: Joe Darling

Ninth Australian Test tour

Ninth Test-playing tour of England by Australia

(March - October 1899)

The tour was arranged by the Melbourne Club and at its heart were players who wanted the colonial associations to dissociate from the Australian Cricket Council.

The team departed with 13 players but the selectors fortunately corrected their omission of Victor Trumper from the side, having seen him play in three pre-tour matches. He was asked to assist the manager and paid a half-share but this was later made up into a full share. He helped to make this the strongest Australian team yet sent to England.

Given conditions much to their liking in a summer of almost tropical weather, the Australians were at their best and won the first five-Test series played in England.

Middlesex and the Australians decided to give half the gate money from the Middlesex fixture as a benefit to Jim Phillips who played for the county for several years and was closely connected with Australian cricket.

The Australians abandoned plans to make a Test tour of South Africa on their way home

All Australian tours

Previous tour

England 1896

Next tour

England 1902

Members of the Test tour party (14)

Opening batsmen : Joe Darling, Jack Worrall, Frank Iredale

Middle-order batsmen:Clem Hill, Syd Gregory, Victor Trumper, Monty Noble, Frank Laver

Wicket-keeper: Jack Kelly, Alf Johns

Slow bowlers: Hughie Trumble, Charlie McLeod, (Noble)

Fast bowlers: Ernie Jones, Bill Howell.

J Darling	SA	28	RHB opener captain
S E Gregory	NSW	29	RHB
C Hill	SA	22	LHB
W P Howell	NSW	29	RFM
F A Iredale	NSW	31	RHB opener
A E Johns	Vic	31	LHB second WK
E Jones	SA	29	RF
J J Kelly	NSW	32	WK
F J Laver	Vic	29	RHB (RM)
C E McLeod	Vic	29	RHB RM
M A Noble	NSW	26	RHB OB / RM
H Trumble	Vic	32	OB / RM
V T Trumper	NSW	21	RHB
J Worrall	Vic	36	RHB opener

Average age of team at time of first Test match

(1 June 1899) :

29 yrs 2 months.

Colonial representation

Sheffield Shield teams

NSW - New South Wales (6)

SA - South Australia (3)

Vic - Victoria (5)

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

Gregory 19, Trumble 14, Darling 13, Iredale 11, Jones 9, Hill 8, Kelly 8, Worrall 7, McLeod 6, Noble 4, Howell 3, Johns 0, Laver 0, Trumper 0.

Tour Officials

Major B J Wardill	Tour manager
	Baggage / scorer

Selectors

The Melbourne Club appointed Joe Darling, Syd Gregory and Hugh Trumble.

Joe Darling and Syd Gregory were both aged 28, the youngest selectors that Australia has had, equal with Bruce in 1893.

Selection

The Australasian Cricket Council was sidelined and the Melbourne Club made the tour arrangements

Unavailable Harry Trott’s selection for the 1899 Australian team was thwarted by his illness so the Australian captaincy passed to Joe Darling.

Tour Party Announced ?

Not selected: Victor Trumper was not in the original tour party in 1899 but was added to it (as ‘Wardill’s assistant’) when they saw how good he was in the last of the warm-up matches. His fee was £200 instead of the £700 the existing team were getting, but later in the tour Darling got it raised.

Time between selection and departure from Australia x days

(? - 22 March)

Travel

Adelaide T Tilbury

‘Ormuz’

The team played three fixtures styled Representative XI v The Rest at Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne before finally sailing out of Largs Bay on the 'Ormuz' on 22 March.

The Orient liner sailed via Suez and Venice where Darling, Gregory and Kelly disembarked. (Peter Wynne-Thomas's book says that Noble, Iredale and Laver left at Naples while Johns, Kelly, Gregory, Darling, Hill and Jones left the ship at Marseilles). They arrived in London and moved into the team's London headquarters, the Inns of Court Hotel, on 26 April. The 'Ormuz' reached Tilbury with the remainder of the team on the afternoon of 28 April.

Five days of practice began at Lord's (except for Howell who had a muscle strain) on 1 May.

Time spent in England

x days

(26 April - 15 September)

On-tour selection panel

Darling, Gregory and Trumble.

Reinforcements

None, although Hill was unable to play in the second part of the tour. Iredale missed matches in mid-tour with measles, and Worrall missed matches between the 3rd and 4th Test with a leg injury.

Fixtures/Results

Sydney	The Rest	Won 7 w
Melbourne	The Rest	Won 4 w
Adelaide	The Rest	Won 9 w
Crystal Palace	South of England	Drawn
Leyton	Essex	Lost 126 r
Kennington Oval	Surrey	Won inns 71 r
Eastbourne	An England XI	Won 172 r
Sheffield	Yorkshire	Drawn
Old Trafford	Lancashire	Won inns 84 r
Oxford	Oxford University	Drawn
TRENT BRIDGE	ENGLAND First Test	DRAWN
Lord's	MCC & Ground	Won 8 w
Cambridge	Cambridge University	Won 10 w
Bradford	Yorkshire	Drawn
LORD'S	ENGLAND Second Test	WON 10 w
Portsmouth	Oxford University	Won 10 w
Leicester	Leicestershire	Won 248 r
Derby	Derbyshire	Won inns 249 r
HEADINGLEY	ENGLAND Third Test	DRAWN
Trent Bridge	Nottinghamshire	Drawn
Truro	An England XI	Won 8 w
Edgbaston	Midland Counties	Won 44 r
Bristol	Gloucestershire	Won 6 w
OLD TRAFFORD	ENGLAND Fourth Test	DRAWN
Crystal Palace	WG Grace's XI	Drawn
Kennington Oval	Surrey	Lost 104 r
Hove	Sussex	Drawn
Lord's	MCC & Ground	Won 9 w
Southampton	Hampshire	Drawn
Edgbaston	Warwickshire	Won 9 w
Canterbury	Kent	Lost 2 w
KENNINGTON OVAL	ENGLAND Fifth Test	DRAWN
Cheltenham	Gloucestershire	Drawn
Lord's	Middlesex	Won inns 230 r
Taunton	Somerset	Drawn
Aigburth, Liverpool	Lancashire	Drawn
Scarborough	CI Thornton's XI	Drawn
Hastings	South of England	Won 110 r

† not first-class

Time spent in England before First Test:

x days

(26 April - 1 June)

Test appearances on tour

5 - . Darling, Gregory, Howell, Jones, Kelly, Noble, Trumble, Trumper

4 - Laver, Worrall

3 - Hill, Iredale

2 -

1 - McLeod

0 - Johns

Highlights

• Victor Trumper made 0 in his first innings against England but in the next match scored a century at Lord's.

• Ernie Jones took 7 for 88 at Lord's - he had 26 wickets in the series.

• Clem Hill's 135 was instrumental in winning the second Test, the only match to produce a result.

• Noble scored 60 not out and 89 at Old Trafford Test - both fifties being scored on the second day of the match.

• Hugh Trumble achieved the 'double' of scoring 1000 runs and taking 100 wickets in an English season.

Tour Summary

	P	W	L	D	Aban
Test Matches	5	1	0	4	-
Other first-class matches	30	15	3	12	-
ϯ Minor matches in England	0	-	-	-	-
ϯ Minor matches in Australia	3	3	0	0	-
All Matches	38	19	3	16	-

Return to Australia

Tilbury T Southampton

‘Oruba’

There was a farewell dinner on 11 September. The first batch of players travelled home aboard ss 'Oruba', leaving Tilbury on 15 September, while the others remained in England for three further weeks' holiday.

Time away from Australia x days

(22 March - )

Finances

Written accounts of the tour

"The 1899 Australians in England" Peter Sharpham (published by J W McKenzie, 1997).

Postscript

A tour of South Africa on the way home was cancelled because the British were fighting the Boer War there and did not take place until 1902.

Australia became a Commonwealth on 1 January 1901 when the six colonies federated.