Clem Hill's Reminiscences

Chapter Seven His Third English Tour, 1902 The 1902 tour saw Australia win 23 and lose only two of its 39 matches. In the First Test, at Birmingham, England put one of its greatest sides into the field in MacLaren, Fry, Ranjitsinhji, Jackson, J.T.Tyldesley, Lilley, Hirst, Jessop, Braund, Lockwood and Rhodes yet the sides were marvellously balanced. Although the Australians were dismissed for 36 by Rhodes and Hirst in the first innings they escaped with a draw and went on to win the series 2-1. The Fourth Test at Manchester, which Australia won by 3 runs, and the Fifth at The Oval, where England turned the tables by one wicket, remain among the greatest of all Tests. 14 Will to win: Australians take rubber in wet season Wickets under water, players on the field in mufflers and sweaters, and many of them ill with influenza. The Australians were depressed by these unfavourable conditions when they toured England in 1902. For a time there was more cricket on the hearth than there was on the field. Later in the season the weather improved and the patients recovered. Australia won the rubber. Clem Hill emphasises that they won because they had the will to win. The team, he considers, was the best that ever played for Australia. The England summer of 1899 was the driest for many years, but when we next went to England – in 1902 – it was bitterly cold and wet. So many players were ill with influenza at one stage that Dr R.J. Pope, who travelled with the team as honorary medical adviser, had to make up the eleven against Cambridge University. Trumble was hurt before the season opened. We were practising at the nets and I sent one back hard. He could not get out of the way, and in trying to stop the ball dislocated the thumb of his right hand. He was out of action for a month. How we did wish for a little Australian sunshine! Trumble, when he recovered, Saunders, and Noble were able to bowl well on the soft, rain-soaked wickets, but Ernie Jones, our fast bowler, was ineffective on them. ‘Jonah’ was made twelfth man so often that he would have been surprised if he had not been in that position. He was there because of his good fielding and to give a spell to players who needed it. When Darling was reading out the names of the players and was near the end Jones would call out, ‘Jonah twelfth. Haven’t you got anybody else for twelfth man?’ 60