Clem Hill's Reminiscences

Chapter Four Stoddart’s Tour of Australia, 1897-98 The second English side led to Australia by Andrew Stoddart won the opening Test in Sydney by nine wickets, but then lost the four Tests which followed, two by an innings, one by eight wickets, and one by six. Joe Darling had an outstanding series with three centuries for Australia: Monty Noble, Ernie Jones and Hugh Trumble, with support from Charlie McLeod, Bill Howell and Harry Trott proved a penetrative attack. Although Archie MacLaren and K.S.Ranjitsinhji batted well, the weight of the bowling fell too heavily on Jack Hearne and Tom Richardson. 6 Turning tables on Grace: Giffen’s story of testing bats with a gauge How South Australia’s redoubtable all-rounder George Giffen and two other Test players once went to a fancy dress ball in pyjamas and borrowed silk hats is related by Clem Hill from incidents in his Test career. This is the sixth article of an enthralling story of Test players seen from behind the scenes. Hill passes on one of Giffen’s stories, how the famous W.G.Grace called for the bats of the Australians to be examined. In turn the gauge was passed over one of Grace’s bats, and it was found to be much too wide. That ended the examination. He pays a fine tribute here to Giffen’s marked influence on the game. The coming to Australia of Stoddart’s team in 1897 coincides with the dropping out of big international matches of dear old George Giffen, in my opinion the greatest all-rounder of all time. He had played his first Test against Alfred Shaw’s team on the Melbourne Cricket Ground in January 1882. Nobody could have been keener on cricket than George. He lived for the game from his earliest days, until a few months before his death. He was not happy away from his team-mates while on tour. During the 1896 trip players were given a week off at a time when that was possible. I remember on one occasion we said good-bye to him and his mate as we left for Gloucester. We understood they were going to Paris. Next day George appeared in our dressing room. Most of us used to stay away until the last day. Public servants in Victoria once complained of the frequent absence from his Government job of Harry Trott, captain of the Australian Eleven in 1896. The reply of the head of the department was that Trott was a ‘public institution’. Giffen was a similar public institution in South Australia. He and one of his colleagues joined in a game between clubs at Battersea Park in England. The team he played with knew them, but their opponents did not. 31