All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

111 in first-class cricket). Born in Sydney in 1886 his early life was hard. He had many jobs, including glass-blowing, an occupation that usefully strengthened both fingers and lungs. His first-class debut for New South Wales in 1912/13 was followed by tours to North America and to New Zealand, and when cricket resumed after the War he soon became his country’s premier spinner, albeit now in his mid-30s. Having inflicted Test cricket’s first five-nil whitewash the previous winter, Armstrong’s 1921 Australians continued to steamroller English cricket. Between Tests many of the counties were simply overwhelmed. The final Test at The Oval had finished on a Tuesday, the game meandering farcically to a draw. The Australians’ next opponents were Gloucestershire at Cheltenham (the third match of the 1921 Festival) but they were not due there until the following Saturday. They would have welcomed the break, since their tour, which lasted just over four months, involved 39 (mainly first-class) games, with few rest days built into the schedule. Beat Surrey at The Oval on Tuesday afternoon, start against Yorkshire at Bradford next morning, finish on Friday and immediately travel back down south to Portsmouth to play Combined Services on Saturday. The uncompromising Armstrong was not happy, and the situation caused much friction. Nevertheless, a visit from the Australians was eagerly anticipated and attracted big crowds everywhere and the gate receipts at the beautiful College ground at Cheltenham beat all records, with a 10,000 crowd packing in on the first day. In the interests of safety children had to be accompanied by their parents. Gloucestershire went into the match in poor form, having lost both the two preceding Festival matches. They had made a few changes, including bringing in a promising 18-year-old named Walter Hammond, who was qualifying for the county. Mailey had nearly achieved an all-ten earlier in the year at Melbourne: his nine for 121 in the second England innings of the Fourth Test is still an Australian record. He would go one better this time. The match went true to form. On Saturday on a fast pitch and in glorious sunshine the Australians made 425 for eight, mainly thanks to chanceless centuries from Charlie Macartney and Warren Bardsley, and a typically aggressive 78 from a gloveless Jack Gregory. Coincidentally when the Australians had played Gloucestershire earlier in the season at Bristol the same two batsmen had made centuries and Gregory had made an even quicker 78. The last two wickets went quickly on Monday. Rain had now affected the pitch and the home side were at an immediate disadvantage and were following on by the middle of the afternoon. Four Australian bowlers shared the first-innings wickets, with Mailey coming on late to take three for 21. The only batsman who resisted for any time was Richard Keigwin who made 47 in just under two hours. Young Hammond, who later confessed how frightened he had been facing Gregory, failed to contribute, the bounding Australian quickly rearranging his stumps. Mailey started the Gloucestershire second innings with 99 wickets for the season. He soon reached three figures, bowling the obdurate Alf Dipper with the score 16. Following his success in cleaning up the tail in the Arthur Mailey