Clem Hill's Reminiscences

have refreshments in the buffet at the cemetery. It seemed strange to me to eat in a cemetery. There was only one Test match in that season in which Spofforth did so well 51 years ago. I have met every member of the team except G.J.Bonnor and H.F.Boyle. Two of the players – Hugh Massie and Tom Garrett – are living in Sydney, and I had the pleasure of having lunch with them in the trustees’ committee room on the Sydney Cricket Ground a few weeks ago. Massie’s son, Jack, was, in my opinion, one of the best left-arm bowlers I have played against on Australian wickets, and I think that on English wickets and under English conditions he would have become one of the world’s greatest left-arm bowlers. Injuries at the war ended his career as a cricketer. 5 Australians sang music hall ditty on field at Lord’s Test matches in 1896 were not the serious encounters they would become. The players would joke with their opponents in the field. Clem Hill, in this article of his unwritten history of the Tests in which he played for 16 years, tells some amusing stories in these breaks in the tension of a game. He also refers to the great surprise the players in the 1896 team had when, in America on the way back, they found themselves up against a bowler who could swerve the ball both ways. Test matches at the time of my first visit to England in 1896 were not played with seriousness that is a feature of them today. We were keen to win, and did our very best, but we could have a joke with the opposing side. I remember A.C.MacLaren saying that he would give anything to play the game as keenly, but, at the same time, as light-heartedly as we did. In one match at Lord’s four or five of our players got in a group while we were waiting for the next batsman to come in, and sang in an undertone a popular music hall ditty of the day, known as ‘Sunshine of Paradise Alley’. It was our team song. We had reason to be jovial. Ernie Jones had sent back four of England’s champions to the dressing-room in quick succession. He took 7 for 88 in that match. 18 While on the subject of music hall ditties let me recall a parody that was sung during one of my tours. It was on one of the choruses in ‘The Country Girl,’ the first line of which reads, ‘Peace, peace, let us have peace.’ This is how the parody went: Peace, peace two innings apiece But nobody stayed very long. Only Jessop and Mac Could withstand the attack Of the wonderful Australian. ‘Australian’ did not rhyme very well with ‘long’, but we enjoyed the verse just the same. The name ‘Mac’ refers to A.C.MacLaren. To this day sometimes I His First English Tour 27 18 Hill is mixing up his tours here. The Lord’s match he is referring to is the Test of 1899 when Jones took 7 for 88 in the first innings and 3 for 76 in the second, or 10 for 164 in the game.