Clem Hill's Reminiscences

Chapter Six MacLaren’s Tour of Australia, 1901-02 The fifteenth English side to tour Australia was the last under private management. Led by Archie MacLaren, at the invitation of the Melbourne Cricket Club, it saw the introduction of Sydney Barnes to Test cricket. The tour followed the pattern of Stoddart’s team four years before. After a convincing innings victory in the First Test in Sydney, the Englishmen lost the remaining four matches. The main blow to the visitors was the loss of Barnes (for the rest of the series) with a twisted knee after only his seventh over of the Third Test in Adelaide when he had already captured 19 wickets at 17. Noble and Trumble carried the Australian attack with 60 wickets between them at around 20 runs apiece. 13 Jeers to cheers: unwanted player top scores; googly appears Selectors of Test teams are wrong sometimes, but they were right in 1902 when they chose Reg Duff to play. He was an immediate success, and played many sterling innings for Australia in the years that followed. The Victorian cricketing public didn’t want him when he appeared on the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the second Test of that year. They hooted him, but remained to cheer. He made top score in his first innings, and in his second knock hit up a century. By now, Hill was one of the selectors. He tells more entertaining stories of big cricket from behind the scenes. ‘Selectors’ Surprise Packet.’ So ran the heading in a Melbourne newspaper when it was announced that Noble, Trumble and I had selected Duff to play for Australia in the second Test against MacLaren’s team in 1902. I had not seen much of his batting, but Trumble and Noble had, as he had played for New South Wales against Victoria. What a time the Melbourne crowd gave him when he went out to bat! They wanted another Victorian in the team, and this was their way of protesting against our selection. It was the cruellest thing I ever saw on a cricket ground. It is bad enough to have to go out to bat in your first Test without having to suffer from a demonstration by the crowd. MacLaren won the toss for England, and so bad was the wicket after the rain that he sent the Australians in to bat. The people who hooted Duff remained to cheer him. In the first innings he made top score, 32, out of a total of 112, and on a wicket which had improved was again the highest scorer in the second innings with 104. He certainly was a ‘surprise packet’. 56