Double Headers

87 Other instances involving British teams The dates of the two Test ‘series’ thus overlapped, with the game in South Africa being played between the second and third Tests in Australia; but the actual playing days of the Tests in the two countries did not. You may want to remember this instance in case you are ever challenged with the quiz question about when England won two Test matches in the course of a week, both by an innings. The Cape Town game was won by an innings and 189 runs on Tuesday 22 March 1892, and that at Adelaide by an innings and 230 runs six days later on Monday 28 March. Then again, you may not ... A final batch of ‘near misses’ by English teams abroad also deserves a mention. These were the occasions in the days of private tours when two touring teams from England, each named after their sponsors, manager or captain and therefore each bearing a different name from the other, played first-class matches simultaneously - sometimes in the same part of the world as each other, sometimes not. These instances were as follows. In 1887/88, two separate touring teams went to Australia and played full programmes of matches between October/November and March. Most of their matches were not first-class, but they still managed to coincide some of their first-class engagements: on 11 November G.F.Vernon’s XI were completing a match against Victoria at Melbourne just as A.Shrewsbury’s XI were starting a game against New South Wales at Sydney, while on 9-10- 12-13 March Vernon’s XI’s return game against Victoria exactly coincided with Shrewsbury’s XI’s match against an Australian XI at Sydney. In 1891/92 (see above), the last day of play in the match between Lord Sheffield’s XI and Victoria at Melbourne - 19 March - was also the first day of play in the Test match in South Africa. In 1894/95 a weak team led by R.S.Lucas made the first-ever tour by a British side to the West Indies, at the same time as Andrew Stoddart’s team was winning a Test series in Australia. There were four dates on which both sets of tourists were playing first-class matches: 4-5 March (Lucas’s side against All-Trinidad; Stoddart’s against Australia in the decisive Fifth Test at Melbourne), and 30 March-1 April (Lucas v All-Jamaica, Stoddart’s side v South Australia). In 1896/97, both Lord Hawke and Arthur Priestley led rather stronger sides to the West Indies. Their teams played simultaneous first-class matches on 25-26-27 February (Hawke v Barbados, Priestley v Trinidad) and on 27-29 March (Hawke v British Guiana, Priestley v Jamaica). In 1901/02 England were once again in Australia while a weak amateur side, captained by R.A.Bennett, was touring in the West Indies. This time there were seven dates when both sides played simultaneous first-class matches: 22-23 January (when Bennett’s side played Barbados while the Third Test was under way at Adelaide), 14-15 February (Bennett v Jamaica, Archie MacLaren’s side v Australia at Sydney), 22 February (Bennett v a Combined XI at Kingston, MacLaren v Victoria), and 14-15 March (Bennett v Trinidad, MacLaren v South Australia). In 1924/25, while England were failing to regain the Ashes in Australia, a strong ‘second eleven’ was playing a full tour in South Africa. The tour was