Double Headers

95 1850/51 and the last Victorian double-header in 1956/57, their fixtures against their mainland neighbours became much less frequent: they met Victoria twice in each of 1959/60 and 1961/62, and then again only in 1969/70 and 1976/77 (once in each season). But none of these games was played anywhere near a holiday date, and so further double-heading was avoided. The next season, 1977/78, saw Tasmania’s long-awaited entry into the Sheffield Shield, so as with Queensland from 1926/27, the prospect of further double-headers involving Tasmania finally ended from that date. And with all the established cricketing states now playing in the Shield competition, none could any longer be treated as a junior, and so the days of double-heading in Australia had finally come to an end. Australians on tour These 43 domestic double-headers are not the only ones involving Australian teams. Between 1883/84 and 1896/97, five Australian ‘state’ sides (strictly, colonial sides) made brief tours to New Zealand, each playing between four and seven first-class matches. None of the touring sides was fully representative of the strength of their state. This was particularly the case for the three New South Wales sides that toured in 1888/89, 1893/94 and 1895/96. Of the 31 different players in these three NSW teams, no fewer than 18 had not played first-class cricket before going on tour, and only three of the other 13 had played more than three first-class matches before crossing the Tasman (and even those three had played a mere 7, 8 and 18 matches respectively). As many as 19 of the 31 never played for NSW in a Sheffield Shield match, or in equivalent matches before the Shield was first contested in 1892/93. Ten of the 31 made their only first-class appearances on these tours, and a further seven played no other first-class cricket after their tours were over. Despite the weakness of the NSW tourists, and the fact that the first two tours were not officially sanctioned by the NSWCA, the first-class status of their tour matches against New Zealand provincial sides has never been seriously called into question. And weak though they may have been by Australian standards, the touring sides were good enough to win 11, and lose only two, of the 17 first-class matches played over the three tours. While these sides were playing under the name ‘New South Wales’ in New Zealand, back home the state’s First XI was busy with inter-state/Sheffield Shield matches. Sure enough, there were a number of occasions when both NSW sides were playing at the same time, to give us chronologically our first international double-headers: Season Play dates Fixture Venue Result 1889/90 25-27-28-29-30 Jan NSW v Victoria Sydney W 30-31 Jan Auckland v NSW Auckland D 1889/90 14-15-(17)-18 Feb NSW v S Australia Sydney W 14-15 Feb Otago v NSW Dunedin W Australia: First home of the geographical double-header