Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

15 ‘carefully compiled’, though Cricket called it an ‘excellent’ innings, and Jonty Winch refers to it as ‘a fine innings’. We have no record of how long he batted for his 34*, or how his runs were made; but we do know that during it he shared in his highest partnership of the tour, one of 73 for the eighth wicket with Harry Wood, who scored 85 in all, during which, according to Cox , ‘the field were kept hard at work leather-hunting’. However, as McMaster’s share of the stand was, at best, 28, it would seem that most of the leather that required hunting was generated by Wood. Indeed, McMaster was never the principal run-scorer in any of his partnerships on tour. His 107 runs were made while a total of 368 runs were being added, so his share while he was at the crease was barely 29 per cent – further evidence of the lack of aggression or domination in his batting. One area that was not faulted was his fielding. Cox is not afraid to note occasional misses in the field, but attributes none to McMaster. He took only three catches during the matches in which he was one of the eleven, suggesting that he was generally an outfielder, rather than a close-to- the-wicket specialist. He also took at least one catch when fielding as a substitute. 16 Of McMaster’s role on the non-cricketing side of things, we know nothing. Circumstantial evidence suggests that he remained ‘well in’ with Major Warton: they are twice reported as travelling together on some of the many arduous coach journeys that were undertaken between the matches. 17 But there is no mention of him during the tour in his role as a member of the management committee, and neither does his name appear, either as speaker or as entertainer, in any of the reports of the tour’s several social activities. 18 Test cricketer As the tour approached its end, McMaster could probably feel that he had not disgraced himself by his on-field efforts, even if he had hardly set the world alight. Two of the last three games were to be against more-or-less representative sides from all-South Africa – the only 11 v 11 matches of the tour. They have subsequently come to be accepted as the first-ever first- class matches in South Africa and, with significantly more reservations in a number of sources, 19 as South Africa’s first Test Matches. The first of the representative matches was scheduled for Port Elizabeth on 12, 13 and 14 March 1889. With all the playing members of the tour party available, there was little difficulty in picking the side. Nine selected themselves: these were the seven professionals, together with the captain 16 CricketArchive credits him with two sub catches in the game against XVIII of Durban in mid-February, but Cox gives the second of these to Frank Hearne. 17 Jonty Winch, England’s Youngest Captain , pp 86 and 110. 18 As given in Cox , in Winch’s book, and in David Rayvern Allen, Sir Aubrey , J.W.McKenzie 2005. 19 Notably by Rowland Bowen in Cricket Quarterly Vol 1 no1, and Vol 2 no 4, and in his book Cricket: A History, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1970. The Unlikeliest Test Cricketer