Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

71 Chapter Six: The visit of the Australians in 1921 – the triumph of ‘new money’ at the eleventh hour Armstrong’s Australians After the First World War the Australians pushed for an early resumption of Ashes tours, rather against the better judgement of the English authorities who felt that cricket in particular and society in general needed more time to recover. The Australians invited the MCC to tour in the winter 1919-20 but were rebuffed. It was felt impolite to refuse a second invite, so for the first official Ashes series after the war in 1920-21 the still reluctant MCC were induced to send a side captained by Johnny Douglas to play five timeless Tests against an eleven led by Warwick Armstrong. As is well known, England lost five-nil and were lucky to get nil. The English bowlers found the Australian wickets unreceptive and only Jack Hobbs of the batsmen consistently did himself justice. In paceman Jack Gregory and googly-merchant Arthur Mailey, Armstrong had two debutant bowlers In 1921 Archie MacLaren strolls over the outfield at Old Buckenham with a friend who bears a striking resemblance to Neville Cardus - though there is no record of Cardus having attended the match. (PA)