Golden Age of cricket
Encyclopedia
The Golden Age of Cricket is a term that has often been applied in cricket
literature to the period in English
, Australian
, and American
cricket from the formation of the official County Championship
in the 1890 season
to the outbreak of World War I
, which occurred just before the scheduled end of the 1914 season
.
ers were killed or wounded during the war, the deaths including seven Test
players: Colin Blythe
and Kenneth Hutchings
of England, Tibby Cotter
of Australia, and the four South Africans Reginald Hands
, Bill Lundie, Reggie Schwarz
and Gordon White
. The war years
also saw the deaths of W G Grace and Victor Trumper
, who both succumbed to illness in 1915.
Cricket of the period did feature numerous great names such as Grace, Trumper, Blythe, Wilfred Rhodes
, Jack Hobbs
, C B Fry
, K S Ranjitsinhji
, and Frank Woolley
, but that in itself is not unique, as any period in cricket history can boast its great players. As David Frith pointed out, the nostalgia "needed someone to put a perspective on it". In his 1939 autobiography, Fry wrote: "I have a notion that the cricket of the nineties and early nineteen hundreds was more amusing to watch, but I am not at all sure that the game of today is not more difficult to play."
, the period is also considered a golden age. Cricket writer Jack Pollard
wrote: "The golden age of cricket has always been regarded as the period between 1890 and 1914. For in all those years all the skills of the game flowered and an unprecedented array of great batsman and bowlers delighted informed and appreciative galleries. More importantly the players of that time set standards for sportsmanship that lifted cricket above other games and established it as a character-builder and an integral part of the social scene."
Writer Gideon Haigh
said of Australian batsman Victor Trumper
: "If it is possible for a cricketer to be their period, rather than merely part of it, then Trumper is the Golden Age of Cricket. In the gaiety and gallantry of his strokeplay, the charm of his personality, even in his frailty, transience and suddenness of death, Trumper personifies what we understand as the values and nature of his time."
. The two countries played 15 series between 1890 and 1914, including the 1912 Triangular Tournament
in which South Africa also took part. It was during the Golden Age that Test cricket first achieved its hegemony over other forms of first-class cricket. Overseas tours by English teams started being organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC) and were no longer private speculations.
England's captains against Australia were W G Grace, Andrew Stoddart
, Archie MacLaren, Plum Warner
, Stanley Jackson
, A O Jones
, Frederick Fane
, Johnny Douglas
, and C B Fry
. Australia's captains against England were Billy Murdoch
, Jack Blackham
, George Giffen
, Harry Trott
, Joe Darling
, Hugh Trumble
, Monty Noble
, Clem Hill
and Syd Gregory
.
South Africa had played their first Test in 1888-9, but initially they were very weak; up to 1898-9 they had played eight Tests against England and lost them all. They played Australia for the first time in 1902-3, and had the limited satisfaction of avoiding defeat in one of the three matches. However, in 1905-6, they beat England by four matches to one, thanks partly to the emergence of four googly bowlers: Reggie Schwarz
, Bert Vogler
, Aubrey Faulkner
, and Gordon White
. Schwarz had learnt how to bowl the googly from its originator, Bernard Bosanquet
, while in England and had passed on the secret to the others. On South Africa's next tour of England, in 1907, they narrowly lost the Test series one-nil with two matches drawn, but in 1909-10 won by three matches to two. After that, however, their results declined, although the 1910-11 series in Australia was competitive.
The Philadelphians played ten first-class games on their final tour in 1908, winning four and losing six. This tour was highlighted by Bart King
, who took 87 wickets and topped the England bowling averages with the figure of 11.01. This was not bettered until 1958 when Les Jackson
of Derbyshire
posted an average of 10.99.
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...
literature to the period in English
Cricket in England
Cricket is known to have been played in England since the 16th century. The Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lords, came up with the modern rules of play and conduct.-History:* History of English cricket to 1696* 1697 to 1725 English cricket seasons...
, Australian
Cricket in Australia
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Australia, at international, domestic and local levels. Unlike most other sports played in Australia, cricket generates equal interest in all states of the nation. In 2007, a survey by Sweeney Sports found that 52% of the Australian public have an...
, and American
Cricket in the United States
Cricket in the United States is a sport played at the amateur, club, intercollegiate, and international competition levels. There have also been several recent attempts to form professional cricket leagues in the United States.-History:...
cricket from the formation of the official County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
in the 1890 season
1890 English cricket season
The 1890 English cricket season was the first year the County Championship was officially held, which Surrey won after winning nine out of fourteen games...
to the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which occurred just before the scheduled end of the 1914 season
1914 English cricket season
The 1914 English cricket season was called off at the end of August because of the outbreak of the First World War. The last four matches to be played all finished on 2 September and the remaining five scheduled fixtures were cancelled....
.
Nostalgia
The period became infused with a nostalgic yearning, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game". More poignantly, the nostalgia was due to loss of life in the Great War and a hankering for those happier times before the war's outbreak. A number of first-class cricketFirst-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
ers were killed or wounded during the war, the deaths including seven Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
players: Colin Blythe
Colin Blythe
Colin Blythe , also known as Charlie Blythe, was a Kent and England left arm spinner who is regarded as one of the finest bowlers of the period between 1900 and 1914 - sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age" of cricket.-Career:Blythe first played...
and Kenneth Hutchings
Kenneth Hutchings
Kenneth Lotherington Hutchings was a cricketer who played for Kent and England....
of England, Tibby Cotter
Tibby Cotter
Albert "Tibby" Cotter was an Australian cricketer who played in 21 Tests between 1904 and 1912....
of Australia, and the four South Africans Reginald Hands
Reginald Hands
Reginald Harry Myburgh Hands was born in Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa and died in France as a result of injuries sustained on the Western Front during the first Great War, aged just 29. He was a South African cricketer who played in one Test match in February 1914...
, Bill Lundie, Reggie Schwarz
Reggie Schwarz
Major Reginald Oscar Schwarz MC, known as Reggie was a South African cricketer and international rugby union footballer.-Early life:...
and Gordon White
Gordon White
Gordon Charles White was a South African cricketer who played in 17 Tests from 1906 to 1912.White was born in Port St Johns, Cape Province. He died in 1918 in Gaza, Palestine.-References:*...
. The war years
Cricket in the Great War
The onset of World War I in 1914 brought an end to the "Golden Age" of English cricket. Surrey called off their last two matches without forfeiting their position at the top of the County Championship, which they thus won for the first time since 1899, and the County Championship was then...
also saw the deaths of W G Grace and Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby...
, who both succumbed to illness in 1915.
Cricket of the period did feature numerous great names such as Grace, Trumper, Blythe, Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets in and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches...
, Jack Hobbs
Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry "Jack" Hobbs was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches from 1908 to 1930....
, C B Fry
C B Fry
Charles Burgess Fry, known as C. B. Fry was an English polymath; an outstanding sportsman, politician, diplomat, academic, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer...
, K S Ranjitsinhji
K S Ranjitsinhji
Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji, Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar was an Indian prince and Test cricketer who played for the English cricket team...
, and Frank Woolley
Frank Woolley
Frank Edward Woolley was an English cricketer, one of the finest all-rounders the game has seen. In a career lasting more than thirty years, he scored more first-class runs than anyone but Sir Jack Hobbs, and took over 2,000 wickets at an average of under 20...
, but that in itself is not unique, as any period in cricket history can boast its great players. As David Frith pointed out, the nostalgia "needed someone to put a perspective on it". In his 1939 autobiography, Fry wrote: "I have a notion that the cricket of the nineties and early nineteen hundreds was more amusing to watch, but I am not at all sure that the game of today is not more difficult to play."
The Golden Age in Australia
In Australian cricketCricket in Australia
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Australia, at international, domestic and local levels. Unlike most other sports played in Australia, cricket generates equal interest in all states of the nation. In 2007, a survey by Sweeney Sports found that 52% of the Australian public have an...
, the period is also considered a golden age. Cricket writer Jack Pollard
Jack Pollard
Jack Ernest Pollard OAM was an Australian sports journalist, writer and cricket historian.-Early life:Born in Sydney, New South Wales on 31 July 1926, Pollard began his journalism career in 1943 as a copy boy at Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper...
wrote: "The golden age of cricket has always been regarded as the period between 1890 and 1914. For in all those years all the skills of the game flowered and an unprecedented array of great batsman and bowlers delighted informed and appreciative galleries. More importantly the players of that time set standards for sportsmanship that lifted cricket above other games and established it as a character-builder and an integral part of the social scene."
Writer Gideon Haigh
Gideon Haigh
Gideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport and business. He was born in London of a Yorkshire father and an Australian mother, and was raised in Geelong, Victoria.- Career :Haigh has been writing about sport and business for over...
said of Australian batsman Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby...
: "If it is possible for a cricketer to be their period, rather than merely part of it, then Trumper is the Golden Age of Cricket. In the gaiety and gallantry of his strokeplay, the charm of his personality, even in his frailty, transience and suddenness of death, Trumper personifies what we understand as the values and nature of his time."
Test cricket
Test cricket between England and Australia was well established by the time the Australians visited England in the 1890 season1890 English cricket season
The 1890 English cricket season was the first year the County Championship was officially held, which Surrey won after winning nine out of fourteen games...
. The two countries played 15 series between 1890 and 1914, including the 1912 Triangular Tournament
1912 Triangular Tournament
The 1912 Triangular Tournament was a Test cricket competition played between Australia, England and South Africa, the only Test-playing nations at the time....
in which South Africa also took part. It was during the Golden Age that Test cricket first achieved its hegemony over other forms of first-class cricket. Overseas tours by English teams started being organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
(MCC) and were no longer private speculations.
England's captains against Australia were W G Grace, Andrew Stoddart
Andrew Stoddart
Andrew Ernest Stoddart was an English cricketer and rugby union player. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1893.-Cricket career:...
, Archie MacLaren, Plum Warner
Plum Warner
Sir Pelham Francis Warner MBE , affectionately and better known as Plum Warner, or even "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket was a Test cricketer....
, Stanley Jackson
Stanley Jackson
Sir Francis Stanley Jackson, GCSI, GCIE, PC, KStJ , known as the Honourable Stanley Jackson during his playing career, was an English cricketer, soldier and Conservative Party politician.-Early life:...
, A O Jones
Arthur Jones (cricketer)
Arthur Owen Jones , was a cricketer, noted as an all-rounder.He was born in Shelton, Nottinghamshire, and educated at Bedford Modern School and Jesus College, Cambridge. He played for Cambridge University, Nottinghamshire, London County and England...
, Frederick Fane
Frederick Fane
Frederick Luther Fane was born in Ireland, but played cricket for the England cricket team in 14 Test matches...
, Johnny Douglas
Johnny Douglas
John "Johnny" William Henry Tyler Douglas was a cricketer who was captain of the England team and an Olympic boxer.-Early life:...
, and C B Fry
C B Fry
Charles Burgess Fry, known as C. B. Fry was an English polymath; an outstanding sportsman, politician, diplomat, academic, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer...
. Australia's captains against England were Billy Murdoch
Billy Murdoch
William Lloyd Murdoch was an Australian cricketer, who captained the Australian team on tours to England in 1880, 1882 , 1884 and 1890...
, Jack Blackham
Jack Blackham
John McCarthy Blackham was a Test cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia.A specialist wicket-keeper, Blackham played in the first Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877 and the famous Ashes Test match of 1882...
, George Giffen
George Giffen
George Giffen was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order and often opened the bowling with medium-paced off-spin, Giffen captained Australia during the 1894–95 Ashes series and was the first Australian to score 10,000 runs and...
, Harry Trott
Harry Trott
George Henry Stevens "Harry" Trott was an Australian Test cricketer who played 24 Test matches as an all-rounder between 1888 and 1898. Although Trott was a versatile batsman, spin bowler and outstanding fielder, "... it is as a captain that he is best remembered, an understanding judge of...
, Joe Darling
Joe Darling
Joseph "Joe" Darling CBE was an Australian cricketer who played 34 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1894 and 1905. As captain, he led Australia in a total of 21 Tests, winning seven and losing four. In Test cricket, he scored 1657 runs at an average of 28.56 per innings, including...
, Hugh Trumble
Hugh Trumble
Hugh Trumble was an Australian cricketer who played 32 Test matches as a bowling all-rounder between 1890 and 1904. He captained the Australian team in two Tests, winning both. Trumble took 141 wickets in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of...
, Monty Noble
Monty Noble
Montague Alfred Noble was an Australian cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-hand batsman, right-handed bowler who could deliver both medium pace and off-break bowling, capable fieldsman and tactically sound captain, Noble is considered as one of the great Australian...
, Clem Hill
Clem Hill
Clement "Clem" Hill was an Australian cricketer who played 49 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1896 and 1912. He captained the Australian team in ten Tests, winning five and losing five...
and Syd Gregory
Syd Gregory
Sydney Edward Gregory , sometimes known as Edward Sydney Gregory, was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. At the time of his retirement, he had played a world-record 58 Test matches during a career spanning 1890 to 1912...
.
South Africa had played their first Test in 1888-9, but initially they were very weak; up to 1898-9 they had played eight Tests against England and lost them all. They played Australia for the first time in 1902-3, and had the limited satisfaction of avoiding defeat in one of the three matches. However, in 1905-6, they beat England by four matches to one, thanks partly to the emergence of four googly bowlers: Reggie Schwarz
Reggie Schwarz
Major Reginald Oscar Schwarz MC, known as Reggie was a South African cricketer and international rugby union footballer.-Early life:...
, Bert Vogler
Bert Vogler
Albert Edward Ernest Vogler was a South African cricketer.Vogler was born in Swartwater, Queenstown, Eastern Cape. He began his cricket career for Natal as an attacking lower order right-handed batsman and fast medium bowler before acquiring the googly from Reggie Schwarz on that player’s return...
, Aubrey Faulkner
Aubrey Faulkner
George Aubrey Faulkner was a leading cricketer for South Africa for two decades.-Early life:...
, and Gordon White
Gordon White
Gordon Charles White was a South African cricketer who played in 17 Tests from 1906 to 1912.White was born in Port St Johns, Cape Province. He died in 1918 in Gaza, Palestine.-References:*...
. Schwarz had learnt how to bowl the googly from its originator, Bernard Bosanquet
Bernard Bosanquet (cricketer)
Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet was an English cricketer best known for inventing the googly, a delivery designed to deceive the batsman. When bowled, it appears to be a leg break, but after pitching the ball turns in the opposite direction to that which is expected, behaving as an off break instead...
, while in England and had passed on the secret to the others. On South Africa's next tour of England, in 1907, they narrowly lost the Test series one-nil with two matches drawn, but in 1909-10 won by three matches to two. After that, however, their results declined, although the 1910-11 series in Australia was competitive.
Philadelphian cricket
The period also saw the brief flowering of Philadelphian cricket. Three tours were undertaken to England during which the side played on level terms with the leading counties.The Philadelphians played ten first-class games on their final tour in 1908, winning four and losing six. This tour was highlighted by Bart King
Bart King
John Barton "Bart" King was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King was one of the Philadelphian cricketers that played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I...
, who took 87 wickets and topped the England bowling averages with the figure of 11.01. This was not bettered until 1958 when Les Jackson
Les Jackson
Les Jackson was an English cricketer. A fast or fast-medium bowler renowned for his accurate bowling and particular hostility on uncovered wickets, he played county cricket for Derbyshire from 1947 to 1963, and was regularly at, or near the top of, the English bowling averages...
of Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
posted an average of 10.99.
See also
- History of Test cricket from 1890 to 1900
- History of Test cricket from 1901 to 1914