Pioneers remembered at Trent Bridge

posted by John Winn

In 1868 a team of Aboriginal Australians toured England, the first organised group of Australians to travel overseas to play cricket. 150 years later two teams, men and women, of Australians of Aboriginal descent have been playing a series of matches on some of England's most iconic grounds. The tour came to an end yesterday with T20  matches for both teams at Trent Bridge where the original tourists played their 22nd match between the 3rd and 5th of August 1868 against Nottingham Commercial CC.

I had planned to see  the Trent Bridge  games some weeks ago but on Monday as news came through of Durham's remarkable comeback against Derbyshire my mind increasingly turned to plan B, namely that The Riverside might be a better option. The loss of four Peakite wickets before stumps persuaded me however that that game might be over by lunch and so it was at 7:30 yesterday morning I turned left at the A1 and headed for Nottingham. The women's teams were warming up when I arrived and the opposition for the AAW were England Women's Senior Academy captained by Fran Wilson. 

The Aboriginal squad

A guard of honour was provided for the two teams by girls from a local primary school and promptly at 11:00 the first of the two games began with England batting in front of a small crowd. Australian skipper Ashleigh Gardner, a spinner, opened the bowling and England's openers Emma Lamb and Linsey Smith were soon lambasting the ball to all parts. 38 came up off just three overs but even so, the guard of honour, perhaps disappointed that the innings would be more than 100 balls, were finding it hard to sustain their concentration. This despite the fact that they had gone into a huddle with 'Miss' before play began. 79 were on the board before Lamb was caught for 31 but Smith and her new partner Wilson then added 111 for the second wicket, both hitting two sixes.  

After the skipper was out in the 18th over there was a loss of momentum but 228 for 5 was an impressive total and one felt it unlikely that the visitors would be able to match it. None of their bowlers had gone for fewer than 8 an over and some of the fielding had been rather slipshod. Sure enough the Aboriginal women could get nowhere near the required run rate. Gardner led the way with 33 including seven fours but only Alice Davidson Richards of the England bowlers came in for much stick and despite Chauhan and Plane putting up a late  flourish the innings closed on 112 for 9, a win for the Academy by 116 runs.

Between the two games there was a presentation in the Museum Room which included a talk by heritage volunteer David Coy about the original tour and with a range of interesting objects on display.

During the interval the crowd grew and before the start of the second game at three o'clock there was a rather moving ceremony involving another guard of honour, this time by boys from a local school, dressed very smartly in their cricket gear. Both squads lined up and gifts were exchanged. The Aboriginal men's team was led by local hero Dan Christian and on winning the toss he elected to bat. It was fitting that Christian should be top scorer with 61 off 25 balls including six sixes. The fielding side 'A Nottinghamshire XI' was principally Notts II but included Dan Gurney who bowled his four overs then left the field. Also featuring was Bermudan Kamau Leverock who was the tightest of the Notts' bowlers. After a mid order stutter Brock Larance hit two sixes in a rapid 30, 182 for 6 looked likely to be a winning score.

And so it proved. Luke Wood, returning from illness and injury opened the batting and made 41 but this was by some distance the highest score and Larance who by dint of running back to his mark bowled his overs quickly, took 3 for 27 including the wicket of Wood. The Aboriginal XI won by 61 runs thus gaining some revenge for the heavy defeat of their female counterparts. Some of the Notts' stalwarts sitting near me were distracted during the day by events at Taunton where victory for Somerset sent them to the top of the table. I was happy to receive texts informing me of the steady loss of Derbyshire  wickets at Chester le Street and a win for a Durham side, only one of whom, Rushworth, would have played in an equivalent game two years ago and including three debutants, made the journey home not too much of a chore. Another beautiful day today but the forecast is for an abrupt end to the lovely weather. Let's hope it is not too disruptive for the One Day matches being played at Trent Bridge and Chelmsford tomorrow.

Interesting news has come out of Headingley in the last couple of days with the announcement of Hodd's retirement and Bresnan's dissatisfaction with his new contract. The latter is in today's squad, the former is not.