Kent v Australia 1902-1926

Not a single Kent victory was achieved in the seven games played in the era before and after the devastation and loss of life in the first World War, writes Kent Cricket honorary curator David Robertson.

Five games ended in draws with the tourists victorious in the first two of the four that preceded the War, during which both Australia and England suffered grievous losses.

The era saw an appearance of players who were to live long in the memory, some who became legends in their time. It witnessed too, the birth of the Bradman phenomenon that was to grace grounds worldwide for a quarter of a century.

Large crowds were thrilled by the performances of Victor Trumper, Clem Hill, Monty Noble, Warwick Armstrong Joe Darling, Hugh Trumble and many others from Down Under, and by local favourites Colin Blythe, Frank Woolley, three outstanding captains in John Mason, Cloudesley Marsham and Ted Dillon followed by post-war heroes Wally Hardinge, Bill Ashdown, Percy Chapman and “Tich” Freeman.

The first of these games was in the wet and miserable summer of 1902. But this was a strong Australian side that did well, in unfamiliar conditions, to suffer only two defeats in their thirty-nine games.

They started with a serious setback however, being dismissed for just 36, their lowest ever Test score in the first game at Edgbaston in late May. Led by Joe Darling, the side included five newcomers along with established stars Trumper, Noble and Trumble.

As on previous tours, Trumble was the architect of the tourists’ victory at Canterbury, taking 8-30, his last seven wickets in one ball short of nine overs for just eleven runs.

He demolishing the hosts first innings for just 77. Only Sammy Day and James Seymour reached double figures, scoring 46 of the runs between them.

That was after Alec Hearne and Colin Blythe had restricted the visitors to a first innings 154. Australia’s second innings of 209 proved to be the highest of the game with Trumper’s 69 being the best individual score.

At stumps on day two Kent would have been optimistic for their chances of success having reached 135-4 chasing 287. But overnight rain seriously affected the wicket and the last six batsmen had no answer to the wiles of Trumble and the Victorian medium-pace left-arm spinner John Saunders who took 5-43.

Kent’s reply fell just short of 200 leaving them adrift by 89 runs. Trumble added three more wickets to his eight in the first innings.

Although three years later the Tourists, again led by Joe Darling, were defeated only three times, two of those defeats were in the Tests which saw them suffer a series defeat. But of the thirty-eight games they played, they were victorious on only sixteen occasions. One of those victories was against Kent and by the decisive margin of an innings and 35 runs. Up to that point it was Kent’s heaviest defeat in the eleven games played. On the opening day the visitors scored heavily, with 367-8 at the close. Skipper Darling led the way with his second century of the tour. He was given solid support by Trumper, Noble, the first of two Australians to exceed 2,000 runs on the tour, the other being Armstrong, and Charles McLeod, one of a family of seven brothers, three of whom played for Victoria and two for Australia. Kent quickly

finished off the visitor’s tail the following morning with Mason and Blythe being the pick of the bowlers.

The large crowd will have been disappointed with Kent’s reply. In under forty overs they were dismissed for just 116 with opener Dillon and three of the lower-order being the only batsmen to reach double figures.

None of the batsmen was able to cope with the furious pace of Albert Cotter, who was a favourite with spectators back home because of the frequency with which he broke batsmen’s stumps.

His seven wickets in eighteen overs cost just 58 runs. Following on, the home batsmen showed somewhat more application, comfortably taking the game into the third day, but six were dismissed after being well set.

Top scorer with 50 was opener Alec Hearne. Kent’s final tally of 252 was boosted by 37 byes due to wicket-keeper Kelly being forced to retire with a hand injury.

There was a four year gap before the Australian’s next visit in 1909, Kent’s second Championship winning season. Warren Bardsley and Vernon Ransford, both of whom played at Canterbury, had such an impressive tour that they won selection in the following year’s Wisden as two of its “Five Cricketers of the Year”.

Two of the others were Kent players, Arthur Percival Day and Douglas Ward Carr. Three of the four, the absentee being Day, played in this game.In this successful season for the County, when victory was achieved in sixteen of their Championship games with only two defeats, it was unfortunate that the match was badly affected by the weather.

There were five stoppages on the second day and because of further heavy overnight rain play was not possible until 3.20pm on the final day. Kent’s innings was completed just before the close on the first day, the main contributors in the total of 319 being Sam Day (74) and Frank Woolley (68).

Despite the second day stoppages, the large crowd was entertained with some outstanding batting by Vernon Ransford and Warwick Armstrong. Coming together when the third wicket fell at 162 they remained undefeated overnight with Ransford on 175 and Armstrong on 74. By the time play commenced on the final day there was no chance of a result.

Ransford took his score to 187 before being bowled by Ted Humphreys and Armstrong was caught and bowled by Woolley. The Tourists total of 522-9 was the highest score conceded by Kent throughout the season.

The weather had an even greater say on the Australians next visit to Canterbury in late August 1912. In that month it had been so bad that more than fifty days of first-class cricket were lost.

The first two days of this game were victims of heavy and consistent rain over a period of days and as had been anticipated, play proved impossible.

A dry Friday night and a sunny morning that followed, enable play to commence shortly after the scheduled starting time on the Saturday, albeit before an estimated crowd of less than 1,000.

The tourists had an unhappy summer. Of the 38 scheduled games, only nine were won with eight defeats and twenty-one unfinished including one that was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

There was also the complication of the Triangular Tournament involving England, Australia and South Africa, whilst in the run up to the tour quarrels within the Australian set up resulted in a number of the immediate past great players being replaced by inadequate substitutes.

But back to the game. Had it been a one day, one innings affair, Kent would have been able to claim victory. In a total of 170-6 declared, Frank Woolley contributed what Wisden describes as a magnificent display in scoring 86.

When the visitors batted they were on the receiving end of an outstanding bowling performance by Douglas Carr who made the most of the conditions and was almost unplayable. In 41.5 overs they were dismissed for just 137 with Carr taking 7-46 in 14.5 overs.

It was to be nine years, and a changed world, before Canterbury was to welcome again the cricketers of Australia.

A massive 14,000 were at the St Lawrence ground to welcome the tourists after an absence of nine years.

Three of those who appeared in 1912 were included in the team: Macartney, Bardsley and Mayne, as were also Armstrong, Bardsley and wicket-keeper Carter from the 1909 side. On a perfect wicket, four of those made decisive contributions to the team’s score of 676. That remains the highest innings total against Kent by any side.

Edgar Mayne led the way with an undefeated 157, closely followed by Charlie Macartney with 155.

Warwick Armstrong was run out on 102 and Yorkshire born Hansen Carter, regarded as a very useful lower-order batsman and on his third England tour, contributed a useful 57.

Rain curtailed the first day when the score was 297-4. Macartney reached his 2000 runs and Armstrong his 1000 for the tour during the day. But the innings was not without criticism.

Armstrong had made it his policy to play those games leading up to each of the Test Matches without taking any risk of defeat, continuing the innings until little more than an hour remained on the second day.

Stanley Cornwallis, who was captaining the home side, used nine bowlers with Godfrey Bryan, one of three brothers who played for the County at that time, being the most successful with a return of 5-148 from 35.5 overs.

At the close of the second day Kent had scored 40 but in the process had lost John Bryan and James Seymour. By this time the game was effectively dead, but the Kent batsmen made every effort to entertain.

Amateur Arthur Bickmore and Wally Hardinge led the onslaught, adding 100 in an hour and 154 in partnership. Frank Woolley disappointed, being out for 12, whilst wicket-keeper George Wood was the only other batsman to reach double figures.

Kent were dismissed for 237 and there was much newspaper criticism of Armstrong for not enforcing the follow on, but approaching the end of a long tour during which up to that point they remained undefeated, and with the final Test due to start the following day, he decided that his bowlers should have a rest, preferring to give his batsmen more practice!

1926 was another of those seasons when the weather played a large part in the results, with the Australians again suffering, especially during the early part of the tour when wet conditions seriously affected practice.

Almost every one of their games up to the middle of June was affected by rain interruptions. Although only suffering one defeat – albeit the final Test Match in mid-August following four draws – they managed only twelve wins in their forty games.

The side was captained by Herbert Collins of whom it was said that his spiritual homes were the dog and racing tracks, where he worked as a bookmaker, and the gaming tables of Monte Carlo.

By the time they arrived at Canterbury in late August, the Ashes had been lost. Led by the charismatic Percy Chapman, who replaced Stanley Cornwallis as Captain for this game, Kent won the toss and decided to bat on what was described as a splendid batting wicket.

They were approaching the end of a successful Championship season, during which victory was achieved in fifteen of their games with only two losses.

They finished in third place. Three batsmen, Hardinge, Woolley and Ashdown, each scored well over 1,000 runs, with Hardinge exceeding 2000. “Tich” Freeman, approaching the height of his career took 163 wickets whilst fast bowler Albert (Charlie) Wright took 101.

Chapman was also enjoying a highly successful season, finishing top of the batting averages. Only Wright of those six named, was not playing in this game, aalthough he did appear as a substitute fielder.

In front of large tourist match crowd, estimated at 12,000 by afternoon, Kent got off to a good start with Hardinge and Ashdown putting on 85 for the first wicket after a slow start.

Ashdown was dismissed for 42 and Hardinge went for 52 with the score on 122. Woolley (64) Seymour (22) J.L. Bryan (61) and Chapman (36) all got good starts but their failure to consolidate will have been a disappointment.

Kent’s total of 321 all out at close of play was well below expectations, given the favourable batting conditions.

Five wickets went to leg-break and googly bowler Arthur Mailey, who was on his second tour of England. Heavy overnight rain did not deter 15,000 spectators from turning up to see the Australians bat and they will not have been disappointed. They witnessed the tourists completing their innings of 386 off 113 overs in the day, with Freeman taking 6-133.

Pick of the batsmen was the tall hard-hitting Victorian John Ryder, who survived a stumping chance when on five. He went on to reach 109 which included a hit into the pavilion reportedly caught by Macartney who was sititng watching, having been dismissed earlier for 37.

Collins, who opened the innings was second top-scorer with 86 and there were useful contributions from the dashing right-handed batsman Thomas Andrews and deputy wicket-keeper John Elllis.

With only the two first innings completed, at the end of day two a draw was the expected result. And that proved to be the case, but not before Kent had provided alarms for their supporters.

Having been sixty-five runs in arrears on first innings, they slumped to 32-5 before the rescue act led by Frank Woolley who scored 88 and supported by amateur Charles Knott with a half-century and G J Bryan (36) took them to 219-9 declared.

Architect of these alarms was fast bowler John Gregory, a member of the most famous Australian cricketing family, who had been suffering from leg trouble for most of the season. Needing 147 to win in 75 minutes the Tourists initially went for the runs. But with two early wickets and a further two by Freeman, the chase was abandoned.

Australia begin the 2015 Ashes Tour in Canterbury with a four-day match at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence.

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