New Norcia Cricket Team
Encyclopedia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
between about 1879 and 1906. The team was established by the Abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of the New Norcia
New Norcia, Western Australia
New Norcia is a town in Western Australia, north of Perth, along the Great Northern Highway. It is situated next to the banks of the Moore River, in the Shire of Victoria Plains.New Norcia is the only monastic town in Australia...
settlement, Rosendo Salvado
Rosendo Salvado
Dom Rosendo Salvado Rotea OSB was a Benedictine monk, missionary, bishop, and bestselling author, as well as the founder and first Abbot of New Norcia, in Western Australia.-Early life:...
who was a regular cricket watcher and believed that the formation of the team was "one more humanising and Christianising element" in his mission to Aboriginal people.
History
The monasticMonasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
township of New Norcia was established as a small missionary settlement by the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
s for the spiritual and welfare needs of local aboriginal people in 1847. It is about 130 km (81 mi) north-east of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
—team members walked to Perth for their matches against the metropolitan teams.
Several years before the establishment of the Western Australian Cricket Association
Western Australian Cricket Association
The Western Australian Cricket Association is the governing body for cricket in Western Australia.-History:The WACA was formed on 5 November 1885...
(WACA) in 1885, the team appeared on the struggling local cricket scene, dominating the Perth and Fremantle metropolitan clubs. Teams from Perth and Fremantle had been playing regularly since their first match on the Old Recreation Ground in Wellington Square
Wellington Square, Perth
Wellington Square is a public park located on Wellington Street in the suburb of East Perth in Perth, Western Australia.-History:The park was originally a swamp and was drained in the 1830s. It was originally used to exercise horses. The ground was known as the Recreation Ground or the "Rec"...
in November 1852. It wasn't until the mid 1880's that the cricket establishment managed to excise part of the so-called New Recreation Ground (today's Esplanade) for a dedicated cricket facility. A few years later, in 1889, the association finally secured a 999 year lease on the then swampy 14½ acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
patch of land to house the WACA Ground.
New Norcia was within the Victoria Plains region north of Perth, an area dominated by the pioneering Lefroy family. A son, H.B. Lefroy
Henry Lefroy
Sir Henry Bruce Lefroy KCMG was the eleventh Premier of Western Australia.-Biography:Lefroy was born in Perth, Western Australia on 24 March 1854. His father was Anthony O'Grady Lefroy, Colonial Treasurer of Western Australia for over 30 years...
had taken over his father's Walebing
Walebing, Western Australia
Walebing is a small town in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia. Located at in the Shire of Moora, it takes its name from the original homestead established by Anthony O'Grady Lefroy in the 1840s....
property in 1873 and regularly coached and captained the New Norcia team which initially played matches against teams from nearby Northam
Northam, Western Australia
Northam is a town in Western Australia, situated at the confluence of the Avon and Mortlock Rivers, about north-east of Perth in the Avon Valley. At the 2006 census, Northam had a population of 6,009. Northam is the largest town in the Avon region...
and York
York, Western Australia
York is the oldest inland town in Western Australia, situated 97 km east of Perth in the Avon Valley near Northam, and is the seat of the Shire of York...
. Lefroy had a close association with a number of influential Perth men including J.C.H. James
John Charles Horsey James
John Charles Horsey James was a magistrate in Western Australia and the inaugural president of the Western Australian Cricket Association from 1885....
, a magistrate and cricket enthusiast who would become the inaugural president of the Western Australian Cricket Association
Western Australian Cricket Association
The Western Australian Cricket Association is the governing body for cricket in Western Australia.-History:The WACA was formed on 5 November 1885...
in 1885. This association no doubt assisted in bringing the New Norcians as they were commonly known, to Perth and Fremantle in 1879 to help stimulate the local cricket scene. Henry Lefroy became Premier of Western Australia
Premier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...
in 1917.
The local press generally reported on the team patronisingly, particularly in the early 1879 tour matches, but with acknowledgement and a degree of admiration for their skills. In what was clearly a surprise result, in their first match with Fremantle it was reported that "the poor despised blacks gained a victory by eight runs". In later matches the "noble savages" were described as having "remarkable agility and smartness". In the next match in Perth the home side needed eight runs to win in the second innings, but "owing to excellent fielding, six wickets fell for seven runs". In the second innings of match against Fremantle in 1881, Fremantle began needing just 49 runs to win. Soon however, the Aboriginal team had removed Fremantle for 17 runs - "the fielding was nearly perfect throughout. As catch after catch was taken, a perfect panic seemed to set in."
A few weeks after the Perth and Fremantle matches, a team from the Metropolitan Cricket Club (which had merged with the Perth Cricket Club in March 1878 and ultimately became the nucleus of the WACA) travelled to New Norcia where they stayed at the Mission building overnight. The following day's match saw the visitors win by a narrow margin.
The New Norcians often entertained the crowds before and after matches with athletic demonstrations such as throwing and running. One player, Johnny Walley had outstanding throwing skills and demonstrated his talent at a Perth match by throwing a ball at a bell-topper hat, placed on the ground 100 yards (91.4 m) away and successfully demolishing the hat on the first throw. At Fremantle he hit a folded umbrella fixed into the ground at a distance of 108 yards (98.8 m).
The star player however was all-rounder Johnny Blurton. Not usually the regular wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
, on one occasion he took the gloves and within a few minutes had effected a spectacular stumping. In 1881 The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
newspaper described him as "the best all round cricketer" in that team, "and perhaps in the colony". "Not only was his defence first rate but he drove the ball well, and always full and fairly with the face of the bat, his wrist play being so strong that he can hit a ball farther than men twice his weight and strength".
Other noted players were Johnny Maher, an opening bowler and prolific wicket taker and Jackimarra, a left-handed bowler. As well as Blurton, noted batsmen within the team included Walley, Jackimarra and Yappo. In a February 1886 match against the fancied Metropolitans, the New Norcians dismissed their opponents for 13 runs in their first innings. Maher took 6 wickets for 2 runs.
The team went into hiatus for several years, and was resurrected briefly in the early 1900s.