Golden Age of cricket

The Golden Age of Cricket is a term that has often been applied in cricket literature to the period in English cricket from the formation of the official County Championship in the 1890 season to the outbreak of World War I, which occurred just before the scheduled end of the 1914 season. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/05/17/bomaj13.xml "A history of cricket's golden age] The Daily Telegraph retrieved April 24 2008] [ [http://www.cricketweb.net/cricketbooks/1879.php www.cricketweb.net] ] David Frith, "The Golden Age of Cricket 1890-1914", Lutterworth Press, 1978]

Nostalgia

The period became infused with a nostalgic yearning, ostensibly because the teams played cricket according to "the spirit of the game". More poignantly, the nostalgia was due to loss of life in the Great War and a hankering for those happier times before the war's outbreak. A number of first-class cricketers were killed or wounded during the war, the deaths including seven Test players: Colin Blythe and Kenneth Hutchings of England, Tibby Cotter of Australia, and the four South Africans Reginald Hands, Bill Lundie, Reggie Schwarz and Gordon White. The war years also saw the deaths of W G Grace and Victor Trumper, who both succumbed to illness in 1915.

Cricket of the period did feature numerous great names such as Grace, Trumper, Blythe, Wilfred Rhodes, Jack Hobbs, C B Fry, K S Ranjitsinhji and Frank Woolley but that in itself is not unique as any period in cricket history can boast its great players. As David Frith pointed out, the nostalgia "needed someone to put a perspective on it". In his autobiography, C B Fry wrote (in 1939): "I have a notion that the cricket of the nineties and early nineteen hundreds was more amusing to watch, but I am not at all sure that the game of today is not more difficult to play." [C B Fry, "Life Worth Living", Pavilion Books, 1939]

The Golden Age in Australia

In Australian cricket, the period is also considered a golden age. Cricket writer Jack Pollard wrote: "The golden age of cricket has always been regarded as the period between 1890 and 1914. For in all those years all the skills of the game flowered and an unprecedented array of great batsman and bowlers delighted informed and appreciative galleries. More importantly the players of that time set standards for sportsmanship that lifted cricket above other games and established it as a character-builder and an integral part of the social scene."cite book |last=Pollard|first=Jack|authorlink=Jack Pollard |title=The pictorial history of Australian cricket (revised edition) |year=1986 |pages=p. 137|publisher=JM Dent |location=Melbourne |isbn=0 86770 043 2]

Writer Gideon Haigh said of Australian batsman Victor Trumper: "If it is possible for a cricketer to be their period, rather than merely part of it, then Trumper "is" the Golden Age of Cricket. In the gaiety and gallantry of his strokeplay, the charm of his personality, even in his frailty, transience and suddenness of death, Trumper personifies what we understand as the values and nature of his time."cite book|last=Haigh|first=Gideon|authorlink=Gideon Haigh|title=Game for Anything: Writings on Cricket|pages=p. 11year=2004|publisher=Black Inc|location=Melbourne|isbn=186395 309 4]

Test cricket

Test cricket between England and Australia was well-established by the time the Australians visited England in the 1890 season. The two countries played 15 series between 1890 and 1914, including the 1912 Triangular Tournament in which South Africa took part. It was during the Golden Age that Test cricket first achieved its hegemony over other forms of first-class cricket [Wisden 1906 Tour Summary] . Overseas tours by English teams started being organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and were no longer private speculations.

England's captains against Australia were W G Grace, Andrew Stoddart, Archie MacLaren, Plum Warner, Stanley Jackson, A O Jones, Frederick Fane, Johnny Douglas and C B Fry. Australia's captains against England were Billy Murdoch, Jack Blackham, George Giffen, Harry Trott, Joe Darling, Hugh Trumble, Monty Noble, Clem Hill and Syd Gregory.

South Africa had played their first Test in 1888-9, but initially they were very weak, up to 1898-9 playing eight Tests against England and losing them all. They played Australia for the first time in 1902-3, and had the limited satisfaction of avoiding defeat in one of the three matches. However in 1905-6 they beat England by four matches to one, thanks partly to the emergence of four googly bowlers: Reggie Schwarz, Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White ["Barclay's World of Cricket - 2nd Edition", 1980, Collins Publishers, ISBN 0-00-216349-7, p287] . Schwarz had learnt how to bowl the googly from its originator, Bernard Bosanquet, while in England and had passed on the secret to the others. On South Africa's next tour of England, in 1907, they narrowly lost the Test series one-nil with two matches drawn, but in 1909-10 won by three matches to two. After that, however, their results declined although the 1910-11 series in Australia was competitive.

Philadelphian cricket

The period also saw the brief flowering of Philadelphian cricket. Three tours were undertaken to England during which the side played on level terms with the leading counties.

The Philadelphians played ten first-class games on their final tour in 1908, winning four and losing six. cite web|url=http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/ENG/1908_ENG_Philadelphians_in_England_1908.html |title=Philadelphians in England 1908 |accessdate=2007-02-19 |date=2003-2007 |publisher=CricketArchive ] This tour was highlighted by Bart King, who took 87 wickets and topped the England bowling averages with the figure of 11.01. This was not bettered until 1958 when Les Jackson of Derbyshire posted an average of 10.99.cite web|url=http://www.sabruk.org/examiner/10/cricket.html |title=SABR UK Examiner no.10: Baseball and Cricket: Cross-Currents |accessdate=2007-01-31 |last=Synge |first=Allen |date=2007 |publisher=Society for American Baseball Research (UK Chapter) ]

ee also

*History of Test cricket from 1890 to 1900
*History of Test cricket from 1901 to 1914

Notes