Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

13 games; Coventry, with 16 appearances, played the next fewest (apart from Roberts, Ulyett and Skinner), while four of the side – the amateur Monty Bowden and the professionals Maurice Read, Johnny Briggs and Arnold Fothergill – played in all 19. I do not propose to give a lengthy description of the tour – either its cricket, or the tribulations that the players experienced. These details can be found, if wished, in a number of other sources. 14 But for present purposes, Emile’s tour deserves a slightly fuller description. In his seven games before Ulyett joined the tour, McMaster batted 11 times, scoring 85 runs at an average of 9.44, figures roughly comparable over the same period with those of his fellow ‘inexperienced’ amateurs, Coventry, with 86 at 10.75 and B.A.F.Grieve, with 79 at 7.90. McMaster reached double figures four times, doing so twice in the match against XVIII of Kimberley, and reaching the heights of 34* against a South Western Districts XXII at Oudtshoorn early in 1889. But he also made three ducks, including a pair against the Cape Colony XV immediately after the game at Kimberley. After missing the game in which Ulyett made his first appearance, McMaster 14 For example, in the contemporary volume The Cricketing Record of Major Warton’s Tour, 1888-89 published by C.Cox in Port Elizabeth in 1889 – in the absence of a stated author, this volume is referred to hereafter as ‘ Cox ’; in Jonty Winch’s England’s Youngest Captain , already cited; and in contemporary reports in Cricket. A useful quick summary of the tour is included in Peter Wynne-Thomas, The Complete History of Cricket Tours at Home and Abroad , Hamlyn, 1989. A limited edition reprint of Cox was issued by J.W.McKenzie in 1987. The Unlikeliest Test Cricketer The ‘England’ team which toured South Africa in 1888/89. Back row (l to r): J.H.Roberts, J.M.Read, F.Hearne, J.Briggs. Middle row: A.J.Fothergill, H.Wood (wk), R.G.Warton (manager), C.A.Smith (capt), Hon C.J.Coventry, B.A.F.Grieve. Front row: J.E.P.McMaster, M.P.Bowden, A.C.Skinner, R.Abel.