Part 10 of an exquisitely detailed biography of Billy Midwinter by Pradip Dhole. The travelling cricketer played four Test matches for England, sandwiched between eight Tests Australia and holds a unique place in cricket history as the only cricketer to have played for both Australia and England in Test Matches against each other
Part 1
Part2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
At the end of the 1881/82 English tour of Australia, Midwinter decided to remain in Australia for a while, settling down in the Bendigo (or Sandhurst) region associated with his Australian childhood. It was around this time, that Billy Murdoch and Harry Boyle were in the process of selecting a team for Australia’s 2nd Test playing tour of England. Members of England’s 3rd Test playing tour of Australia, of which Midwinter had been a part, had just completed their tour and had departed for England from Melbourne on the Orient Line steamship Chimborazo on 22 Mar/1882.
In the interim, Mr Henry Perkins, Secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club, had been busy promoting the 2nd Test playing tour of England by an Australian team for the English summer of 1882, and, as mentioned above, Billy Murdoch and Harry Boyle were given the responsibility of selecting the touring team. Despite some last-minute reshuffling of the personnel of the squad, with Spofforth being confirmed and Massie being granted permission to tour by the bank in which he worked, and even with Ted Evans opting out on health grounds, the final 13-member team-sheet did not have the name of Billy Midwinter printed on it, although speculation had been rife that he would surely figure among the numbers. The team set off from Melbourne on the RMS steamer Assam on 16 Mar 1882, only 2 days after the 4th Test match ended, and even before the English guests had departed from Australia.
The Birth of The Ashes
Back in England for the 1882 English season to honour his contract with Gloucestershire, Billy Midwinter ended his tenure with the county with his 13th match for them in the season, against Surrey, the game ending on 9 Sep/1882. That he was in the process of gradually winding up his career as a professional cricketer in England was further evident when he voluntarily and quite abruptly withdrew from his MCC contract as a net bowler. However, Grahame Parker mentions one particular game in which he had played under MCC colours in the 1882 season.
It was a second-class game between MCC & Ground and Leicestershire, played at Lord’s over 1 and 2 June 1882. Leicestershire batted first and were dismissed for 152, with Midwinter, representing the MCC team, capturing 4/31 and Billy Bates netting 3/44. The fall of the 2nd MCC wicket at the total of 19 brought Barnes and Midwinter together at the crease. When the day ended, MCC were 283/2, with Barnes batting on 146* and Midwinter on 120*. On the second day, the partnership grew to 454 runs before Barnes (266, with 26 boundaries, and 1 six) was dismissed. Midwinter (187, with 12 boundaries, and 1 six, his highest documented individual score in any form of cricket) was dismissed 1 run later. The game ended in a draw when Leicestershire finished at 164/8, Midwinter capturing 3/45. There could hardly have been a more bravura performance to round off a career with any particular team.
Not being a part of the official touring Australian side in England in 1882, Midwinter was not part of the melodrama surrounding the only Test of the 1882 English summer, played at The Oval over 28 and 29 Aug/1882, that had been so tantalizingly poised towards the end, and which had finally resulted in victory for Australia by the slender margin of 7 runs. It may be remembered that the unexpected and mortifying result had led to a mock obituary of English cricket being written by the young journalist William Shirley Brooks and being published in The Sporting Times of 2 Sep 1882, lamenting the death of English cricket and speaking of how the “body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia”, that would later spawn the whole legend of the Ashes and lend spice to one of the greatest of cricket rivalries of all time.
The mock obituary in The Sporting Times of 2 Sep 1882
St Ivo’s Quest
At the end of the 1882 English season, Midwinter joined the touring Australians as they made a detour to North America towards the end of 1882, playing 2 second-class games between 9 and 13 Oct 1882. Midwinter stood as one of the umpires in the first of these games against XVIII of All New York on 9 and 10 Oct 882.
Hot on the heels of the returning Australians had been the members of the 4th Test playing tourists from England led by the Hon. Ivo Bligh, leaving Gravesend on board the ship Peshawur on 14 Sep/1882 and reaching Port Adelaide/Glenelg on 10 Nov/1882, being delayed on the way because of a collision with another vessel off the coast of Ceylon. The returning 1882 Australian tourists reached Sydney harbour on 18 November, having made a short detour to North America on the way home, as mentioned above.
If he had expected a warm welcome back in Australia, Midwinter was severely disappointed and certainly disillusioned. Not amused by his inter-hemispheric peregrination, The Sydney Mail, echoing public sentiment, asked the acerbic question: “Are the cricketers of the Colony, and especially those of Victoria, to submit to another season of vagueness from this very slippery cricketer? One day he is an Australian and the next day an English player."
The Hon. Ivo Bligh
As usual, the arrival of a touring English team to Australian shores set off several rounds of social engagements for the visitors. The Mercury (Hobart) of 2 Feb/1883 carried the following story: “On the return of the Australian cricketers from their victorious English campaign it will be remembered that they were feted by the Mayor of Melbourne at the Town Hall. Amongst the guests were the English team with their captain, the Hon. Ivo Bligh. In responding to the toast of ‘The Englishmen,’ this gentleman took occasion to remark that he and his fellow cricketers had come out to the Australias (sic) with the firm determination to carry back with them to the Old Country the ‘revered ashes of English cricket.’”
Of the 20 games played by the touring Englishmen in the Australian summer of 1882/83, only 7 were first-class matches, including the 4 Tests. Midwinter was not in the colonial team when Victoria took on Ivo Bligh’s Englishmen at the MCG from 17 Nov/1882, the initial first-class match of the tour. The Englishmen won the game rather easily by 10 wickets. The winning target for the visitors had been only 1 run in the last innings, ‘Paddy’ McShane had bowled only 1 delivery that had gone for 4 byes.
Billy Murdoch
There have been numerous stories told about the origin of the Ashes Trophy over the years. The archives of the State Library of Victoria contain an article entitled The Women Who Invented the Ashes Urn, written by the noted Australian cricket historian Gideon Haigh. “You might know the nub of the story already,” says Haigh, “how the amateur members of Bligh’s team (eight out of the touring squad of 12) were guests of the Clarkes (land baron Sir William and philanthropist Lady Janet) at their Sunbury property, Rupertswood, at Christmas 1882; how they played a muck-up match against locals and won a joke trophy; how Bligh fell in love with Lady Janet’s companion Florence (and later married her); how on Bligh’s death (he had by then become Lord Darnley), Florence presented that joke trophy to the Marylebone Cricket Club, whose Lord’s citadel it never leaves…” The parentheses have been inserted by the narrator.
England team in Australia 1882/83
Standing (L to R): W Barnes, F Morley, CT Studd, GF Vernon, CFH Leslie.
Centre Row (L to R): GB Studd, EFS Tylecote, Ivo Bligh (captain), AG Steel, WW Read.
Front Row (L to R): RG Barlow, W Bates.
What was burnt?
Haig explains that in addition to being the President of the Victorian Football Association, Sir William Clarke, “the wealthiest man in the colony,” was also the President of the Melbourne Cricket Club and had been instrumental in bringing the English team over for the 1882/83 tour of Australia. A widower, Sir William Clarke had employed a teen-aged girl from Victoria’s Goulburn Valley named Janet Snodgrass as governess for the children from his marriage with his first wife Mary. Despite their substantial difference in age, Sir William had later married Janet, who had then come to be known as Janet Lady Clarke.
Over time, the energetic Lady Clarke had gradually become one of the best-known philanthropists of her time, being associated with numerous charities, schools, hospitals, and the like. Janet Lady Clarke had later employed a lady about 9 years junior to her in age as her companion and music teacher for the children. Florence Morphy, from Beechworth, a town in north-east Victoria made famous by the Australian Gold Rush, had fallen on difficult times consequent upon the demise of her father, a local Magistrate. Lady Janet and Florence soon became very close.
Haigh muses: “One imagines the two of them, in anticipation of the Rupertswood social cricket game, preparing a 10.5 cm terracotta urn previously used perhaps for perfume, chortling over their inspiration.” The question that has intrigued cricket enthusiasts over the years concerns the nature of the contents of the enigmatic urn. Several theories have been postulated over the years. A popular concept, propagated by a notification by the Rupertswood Club in Feb/2013, is that the urn had originally contained “the ashes of a burnt bail, burnt on the blacksmith’s fire.” A website: https://www.ashesbail.com.au/history also suggests the following as being the possible contents of the mystical urn: “a cricket ball, a stump, the cover of a ball, or even a lady's veil.”
The State Library of Victoria provides the following information about the famous urn: “This glazed pottery urn, sealed with a cork and probably containing the ashes of a bail, was created by Janet Lady Clarke. It was presented by Janet Clarke to England cricket captain Honourable Ivo Bligh (afterwards Lord Darnley) as a gift during the English team’s tour of Australia in 1882–83. It was an impromptu gift and the origin of the urn itself is uncertain. It may have been a trinket, possibly a perfume bottle, picked up by the Clarke family in their travels. Attached is a hand-written label, ‘The Ashes’, and below it a poem cut from Melbourne Punch dated 1 February 1883. Around 1945 the urn was mounted onto an ash wood base by Lord’s groundsman ‘Bosser’ Martin.”
The probability is that the poem from Punch had been pasted on the urn at a later date. The poem cut out from the Melbourne Punch dated 1 Feb 1883 is reproduced below:
“When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn.”
There is another little issue associated with the great Ashes legend, and it concerns the Ashes Bail. The interesting episode can be found on the following website: https://www.ashesbail.com.au/history . It may be remembered that the original plan had been for a series of 3 Test matches on the 1882/83 tour. At the end of the 3rd Test match, the series had gone to the visiting Englishmen 2-1. Well, the story goes that the winning English captain, the Hon. Ivo Bligh had made a present of one of the bails from the last Test to Janet Lady Clarke in 1883. By then, the bail had been “delicately crafted and reborn as a letter opener before presentation.” A delicately carved ivory handle had been added, and the following inscription had been added on it:
“ENGLAND V AUSTRALIA
JANUARY 26, 1883
ENGLAND WON
BY 69 RUNS
THIS BAIL
was knocked off
by the last ball
bowled
IN THE MATCH”
It is well-known, of course, that the Hon. Ivo Bligh had wooed Florence Morphy very passionately, writing long and loving letters to her. Janet Lady Clarke and Sir William had been willing accomplices in the inter-continental romance, and Sir William had finally arranged for the nuptials of the couple to be conducted at St. Mary’s Church, Sunbury on 9 Feb/1884. It is also common knowledge that the Hon. Ivo Bligh had later succeeded to the title of 8th Earl of Darnley upon the demise of the 7th Earl, his elder brother, Edward Henry Stuart, on 31 Oct/1900. After the death of the 8th Earl, Lady Darnley had donated the famous Urn, hitherto adorning a mantlepiece in the Darnley seat of Cobham Hall, to the MCC Museum at Lord’s.
That the iconic Ashes Bail, referred to above, is inextricably woven into the mystical legend of The Ashes is evident from the following comments from an article entitled The History of the Ashes Bail from the website mentioned above: “a report of the urn in the Sydney Morning Herald on 18 July 2009 which relies heavily on quotes by the MCC Assistant Curator, has suggested that the urn may have been presented twice, once on Christmas Eve, most likely without the burnt ashes, and later after the Tests had been completed, then containing the burnt ashes from the bail used after the final Test match. This allows the possibility, (that) the bail featured in the victory of the first Ashes series 1882-1883 and presented to the family (modified as a letter opener), is in fact the 'partner' of the cremated bail, encased in the urn known as the Ashes urn.”
The Tests
There were 6 debutants for England, including skipper Ivo Bligh, when Australia won the 1st Test of the series at the MCG from 30 Dec 1882 by 9 wickets. Midwinter, however, had not been selected for the home team. The hero of the Australian victory had been the right-arm medium-pace and off-break bowler ‘Joey’ Palmer with figures of 7/65, his best Test performance, and 3/61.
Billy Bates was easily the most valuable performer for England when the visitors won the 2nd Test at the MCG from 19 Jan/1883 by an innings and 27 runs. Bates had figures of 7/28 in the Australian 1st innings total of 114 all out, and registered an analysis of 7/74 in the Australian 2nd innings total of 153 all out, following on. Midwinter did not figure in this Test for Australia either
Midwinter was also not in the Australian 3rd Test line-up when play began at the Association Ground, Sydney, from 26 Jan/1883. England won this Test by 69 runs to make it 2-1 in the scheduled 3-Test rubber. One of the heroes of the 3rd Test for England was Dick Barlow, with scores of 28 & 24 and bowling figures of 1/52 and 7/40. Barlow’s all-round performances in the 3rd Test had inspired some friends in Australia to present him with the wonderful sterling silver trophy shown below, with the following inscription on it: “Presented to R.G. Barlow by a few friends in Australia for his excellent batting & bowling against the Australian Eleven. January 29th 1883..”
Dick Barlow’s silver trophy
The local Australian media had added another nugget of mystique to the legend of The Ashes by mentioning the name of a Mrs. Annie Fletcher, wife of the Secretary of the Paddington Cricket Club, who had been Ivo Bligh’s host at the time. It seems that after the 3rd Test, which England had won, Mrs. Fletcher had presented Ivo Bligh with an elaborately embroidered velvet bag to place the Ashes in. This is believed to be the same bag which used to repose in splendour in the Lord’s Museum along with the legendary Urn.
The extra Test
At the end of the scheduled 3-Test series, it was decided by mutual consent to play an additional Test at the Association Ground of Sydney from 17 Feb/1883. In a departure from the usual protocol of the times, however, it was decided that each of the 4 innings would be played on a different pitch, a rather novel experiment. This time, Billy Midwinter was in the Australian starting line-up, and was about to play in his first Test of the series, his 3rd under Australian colours.
Even before the last Test began, there were some caustic comments in the Australian media, known to be brutally forthright, about Australian skipper Murdoch, and about the general boredom with a surfeit of cricket. The Bulletin of 17 Feb 1883 said: “Cricket of late has been the same thing ‘over’ and ‘over’ again.” Their comments about the national skipper were not very complimentary either: “Billy Murdoch, the champion batsman, has, we are afraid, had his day. Every man, we have heard it remarked, has his day. Billy is getting too fat. Fat is the word. Massie’s batting, on the other hand, is getting very thin.”
The famous Ashes Urn and the velvet bag
The Hon. Ivo Bligh won the toss for England on Saturday, 17 Feb/1883 and sent Dick Barlow, the recipient of the magnificent trophy for his exploits in the previous Test, and Charles Studd, the Cambridge University alumnus, and a Christian missionary in his later life, to open the batting. The first day ended with England on 263/9. The hero of the day was Allan Steel, another Cambridge University alumnus and a lawyer by profession, who scored his maiden Test century and remained undefeated at stumps on 135*, the runs coming in a shade below 4 hours, and containing 15 boundaries. The other significant innings had been played by Studd (48, in a patient 2 ½ hours, off about 150 deliveries faced). The innings ended at the overnight total, with Steel remaining not out on his overnight score at the end of the innings. For Australia, six bowlers were deployed, with ‘Joey’ Palmer and Midwinter capturing 2 wickets each and Harry Boyle having figures of 3/52.
Australia scored 1 run less in their 1st innings, being dismissed for 262 in 146 overs. There were no individual centuries in the innings and the highest contribution was from George Bonnor, who opened the batting and scored 87. The other significant contribution was a relatively brisk 57 from ‘keeper Blackham. Midwinter scored 10, while his childhood friend, Harry Boyle, the last man in, scored 29 runs. Of the 7 bowlers used by England, Barlow (3/88) and Steel (3/34) captured 3 wickets each.
It was now up to England to post a substantial 2nd innings total. Although England had a decent 1st wicket partnership of 54 runs between Barlow (20) and Studd (31), the only 50+ stand of the innings, the only other score worth mentioning was the 48* by Billy Bates from the lower middle order. For the home team, all 5 bowlers used, Spofforth, Boyle, Palmer, Midwinter, and Horan, captured 2 wickets each.
The Australian 2nd innings began on the 4th day of the Test (21 Feb 1883) and amounted to 199/6. The home team thus won the match by 4 wickets, halving the series 2-2. Significant contributions to the Australian 2nd innings total came from the bats of opener Alec Bannerman (63) and ‘keeper Balckham (58), who finally settled the issue with a boundary to end the match.
Midwinter had his last fling against Ivo Bligh’s Englishmen in the match between Victoria and the English tourists at the MCG from 9 Mar/1883. Batting first, Victoria posted a 1st innings total of 284 all out, powered by a commanding 92* from Midwinter, batting in the middle order. The Englishmen were then dismissed for 55, and 156, to concede victory to the Victorians by an innings and 73 runs. Parker reports that Midwinter was presented with a gold watch for his innings of 92*.