1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England
Encyclopedia
The Australian Aboriginal cricket team in England in 1868 was a side composed of Australian Aborigines which toured England
between May and October of that year, thus becoming the first organised group of Australian cricket
ers to travel overseas. (The first tour by an Australian team classed as representative would not be made until 1878
.)
International sporting contact was rare in this era. Previously, only three cricket teams had travelled abroad, all English: to the United States
and Canada
in 1859, and to Australia in 1861–62 and 1863–64.
district in western Victoria, where many Aborigines worked as stockmen. The athletic skills of the Aborigines were so evident that a series of matches was eventually undertaken with the intention of forming the strongest-possible Aboriginal eleven.
The resulting team was coached principally by William Reginald Hayman with assistance from Tom Wills
. The latter captained the team in a match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
which began on Boxing Day
1866 and attracted 8,000 spectators. An entrepreneur, Captain Gurnett, persuaded the team to play in Sydney, with a planned expedition to Brisbane followed by a tour of England. However, after their arrival in Sydney, Gurnett embezzled some of the funds raised to finance the enterprise, leaving the team stranded.
professional cricketer Charles Lawrence
, who coached the Albert Club in Sydney, became coach and manager of a team which included some from the original 1867 tour of Eastern Australia, plus a handful of new faces.
During June, King Cole died from tuberculosis
and was buried in Tower Hamlets
in London
. Sundown and Jim Crow went home in August due to ill-health.
The team arrived in London in May 1868 and were met with a degree of fascination - that being the period of the evolutionary controversies following publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species
in 1859. Reaction was mixed. The Times
described the tourists as, "a travestie upon cricketing at Lord's
", and, "the conquered natives of a convict colony." The Daily Telegraph
said of Australia that, "nothing of interest comes from there except gold nuggets and black cricketers."
The first match was played at The Oval
in London and attracted 20,000 spectators. Presumably many of these spectators attended out of curiosity to see members of a strange-looking race perform athletically rather than merely to savour a cricket contest. The Times reported:
The Daily Telegraph wrote:
Altogether, the Aborigines played 47 matches throughout England over a period of six months, winning 14, losing 14 and drawing 19; a good result that surprised many at the time. Their skills were said to range from individuals who were exceptional athletes down to two or three other team members who hardly contributed at all. The outstanding player was Johnny Mullagh. He scored 1,698 runs and took 245 wickets. An admired English fast bowler of the time, George Tarrant
, bowled to Mullagh during a lunch interval and later said, "I have never bowled to a better batsman."
In addition to playing cricket, the Aborigines frequently put on an exhibition of boomerang
and spear
throwing at the conclusion of a match. Dick-a-Dick would also hold a narrow parrying shield
and invite people throw cricket ball
s at him, which he warded off with the shield. The Aborigines were narrowly beaten in a cricket-ball-throwing competition by an emerging English all-rounder of star quality, 20-year-old W. G. Grace
, who threw 118 yards.
the following year. Mullagh was employed as a professional with the Melbourne Cricket Club
and represented Victoria against the touring English team in 1879, when he top scored in the second innings.
The Central Board for Aborigines ruled in 1869 that it would be illegal to remove any Aborigine from the colony of Victoria without the approval of the government minister. This effectively curtailed the involvement of Aborigines in the game.
and Film Illawarra and directed by Geoff Burton described the background to each of the players and the matches in detail.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
between May and October of that year, thus becoming the first organised group of Australian cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
ers to travel overseas. (The first tour by an Australian team classed as representative would not be made until 1878
Australian cricket team in England and North America in 1878
In 1878, an Australian cricket team made the inaugural first-class tour of England by a representative overseas side. The tour followed one made by an England cricket team to Australia in 1876/77, during which the first Test matches were played....
.)
International sporting contact was rare in this era. Previously, only three cricket teams had travelled abroad, all English: to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1859, and to Australia in 1861–62 and 1863–64.
Background
From the early 1860s onwards, cricket matches between Aborigines and European settlers had been played on the cattle stations of the WimmeraWimmera
The Wimmera is a region in the west of the Australian state of Victoria.It covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range...
district in western Victoria, where many Aborigines worked as stockmen. The athletic skills of the Aborigines were so evident that a series of matches was eventually undertaken with the intention of forming the strongest-possible Aboriginal eleven.
The resulting team was coached principally by William Reginald Hayman with assistance from Tom Wills
Tom Wills
Thomas Wentworth "Tom" Wills was an Australian all-round sportsman, umpire, coach and administrator who is credited with being a catalyst towards the invention of Australian rules football....
. The latter captained the team in a match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
which began on Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
1866 and attracted 8,000 spectators. An entrepreneur, Captain Gurnett, persuaded the team to play in Sydney, with a planned expedition to Brisbane followed by a tour of England. However, after their arrival in Sydney, Gurnett embezzled some of the funds raised to finance the enterprise, leaving the team stranded.
Team members
The Aborigines returned to Victoria and a second attempt to organise a tour of England was initiated by new financial backers. The former SurreySurrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
professional cricketer Charles Lawrence
Charles Lawrence (cricketer)
Charles Lawrence was a Surrey cricketer, represented England but is most notable as the captain-coach of the Aborigine cricket team that toured England in 1868, the first ever tour of England by an Australian team....
, who coached the Albert Club in Sydney, became coach and manager of a team which included some from the original 1867 tour of Eastern Australia, plus a handful of new faces.
- Johnny MullaghJohnny MullaghJohnny Mullagh , was part of the famous 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England. He was a skilful all-rounder, being a right arm bowler and right-handed batsman....
- traditional name: Unaarrimin - Bullocky - traditional name: Bullchanach
- Sundown - traditional name: Ballrinjarrimin
- Dick-a-DickDick-a-DickDick-a-Dick was an Australian Aboriginal tracker and cricketer, a Wotjobaluk man of the people who spoke the Wergaia language in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia...
- traditional name: Jungunjinanuke - Johnny Cuzens - traditional name: Zellanach
- King Cole - traditional name: Bripumyarrimin
- Red Cap - traditional name: Brimbunyah
- Twopenny - traditional name: Murrumgunarriman
- Charley Dumas - traditional name: Pripumuarraman
- Jimmy Mosquito - traditional name: Grougarrong
- Tiger - traditional name: Boninbarngeet
- Peter
- Jim Crow
During June, King Cole died from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and was buried in Tower Hamlets
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Sundown and Jim Crow went home in August due to ill-health.
The tour
The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the...
in 1859. Reaction was mixed. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
described the tourists as, "a travestie upon cricketing at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
", and, "the conquered natives of a convict colony." The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
said of Australia that, "nothing of interest comes from there except gold nuggets and black cricketers."
The first match was played at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
in London and attracted 20,000 spectators. Presumably many of these spectators attended out of curiosity to see members of a strange-looking race perform athletically rather than merely to savour a cricket contest. The Times reported:
"Their hair and beards are long and wiry, their skins vary in shades of blackness, and most of them have broadly expanded nostrils. Having been brought up in the bush to agricultural pursuits under European settlers, they are perfectly civilised and are quite familiar with the English language."
The Daily Telegraph wrote:
It is highly interesting and curious, to see mixed in a friendly game on the most historically Saxon part of our island, representatives of two races so far removed from each other as the modern Englishman and the Aboriginal Australian. Although several of them are native bushmen, and all are as black as night, these Indian fellows are to all intents and purposes, clothed and in their right minds.
George Tarrant
George Frederick Tarrant was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1860 to 1869...
, bowled to Mullagh during a lunch interval and later said, "I have never bowled to a better batsman."
In addition to playing cricket, the Aborigines frequently put on an exhibition of boomerang
Boomerang
A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced...
and spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...
throwing at the conclusion of a match. Dick-a-Dick would also hold a narrow parrying shield
Shield
A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....
and invite people throw cricket ball
Cricket ball
A cricket ball is a hard, solid leather ball used to play cricket. Constructed of cork and leather, a cricket ball is heavily regulated by cricket law at first class level...
s at him, which he warded off with the shield. The Aborigines were narrowly beaten in a cricket-ball-throwing competition by an emerging English all-rounder of star quality, 20-year-old W. G. Grace
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace, MRCS, LRCP was an English amateur cricketer who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time, having a special significance in terms of his importance to the development of the sport...
, who threw 118 yards.
Aftermath
The team arrived back in Sydney in February 1869. They played a match against a military team the following month, then split up. Twopenny later moved to New South Wales and played for the colony against Victoria in 1870. Cuzens died of dysenteryDysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
the following year. Mullagh was employed as a professional with the Melbourne Cricket Club
Melbourne Cricket Club
The Melbourne Cricket Club is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia....
and represented Victoria against the touring English team in 1879, when he top scored in the second innings.
The Central Board for Aborigines ruled in 1869 that it would be illegal to remove any Aborigine from the colony of Victoria without the approval of the government minister. This effectively curtailed the involvement of Aborigines in the game.
Film
A 2002 documentary film — A fine body of Gentleman made by the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
and Film Illawarra and directed by Geoff Burton described the background to each of the players and the matches in detail.