When did it last happen?

 posted by John Winn N

News of England's win over Sri Lanka earlier in the week was on most occasions accompanied by the statistic that this was the fourth successive away win for Root's men, a feat last accomplished by England in the 1950s with some media outlets specifying that 1957 was the year in question.  This last piece of information triggered something in my brain which brought 'South Africa 56-7' to mind, a tour when Peter May's XI won the first two tests of the series. All that was needed now was to find the two wins that had started that successful run and after barking up a couple of misleading trees the grey cells recalled that in those days visits to New Zealand were tagged on to Ashes contests. Wisden confirmed that after England had won an Ashes series in Australia for the first time since 1932-33 they played two tests in New Zealand in March 1955 both of which were won with ease. Bingo. 

The last day of the second of these two tests, and it was only the third day, was on March 28th 1955 almost six months after MCC ( England in test matches only) sailed from Tilbury, a voyage that was to end at Fremantle on October 7th but not without a call at Colombo for a one day match against Ceylon as Sri Lanka was then known. The fifth test against Australia, more of which anon, ended on March 3rd and two days later England had changed back into MCC sweaters to take the field against Canterbury with a team that included seven of those who two days earlier had been in action in Sydney. MCC won by seven wickets and in a little under a week's time Hutton won the toss and invited New Zealand to bat in the first test. Victory by 8 wickets duly followed as did a win against Wellington before the second and final test in Auckland. 

Like its predecessor the second test lasted only three days although this time NZ elected to bat and runs for Sutcliffe and Reid got them to 200. Hutton batted at five in England's reply and top scored with 53 for a lead of 46 which amazingly proved enough as the Kiwis were bowled out for just 26, a score that remains the lowest in test cricket. The pace of Tyson and Statham and the spin of Wardle meant that only 26 overs were needed to complete the job. Two down, two to go. 

MCC sent only an A team to Pakistan in the winter of 55-56. Captained by DB Carr they created controversy off the field with high jinks that misfired. As MCC, not England, they played two representative matches against Pakistan drawing the first and losing the second. So it is to South Africa that we must turn to continue England's run of away successes but not before a brief look back to the last test in Australia 18 months earlier. The Ashes had been retained at Adelaide in the fourth test but torrential rain and flooding reduced playing time in the final test to just over 13 hours. Even so that was enough to give England a sniff of victory. Their total of 371 for 7 declared, century for Graveney, allowed Hutton enough room to enforce the follow on by just one run. Watson, Favell and Harvey went cheaply but Miller, Burge and Benaud saved the day and face and the last over of the tour was sent down by Hutton who bowled Benaud with his sixth delivery leaving England still needing four wickets.

MCC began the tour in fine style with skipper May hitting four centuries in in a row but this form was to desert him in a low scoring series ( the average score in 18 completed innings was under 200) and what runs were scored were generally at a funereal pace. MCC began the tour in late  October and played nine first class matches before the first test in Johannesburg at Christmas. Both sides were bowled out twice and Peter Richardson and Colin Cowdrey were the only two to score over fifty in an innings. South Africa were all out for 72 in their second innings to leave England winners by 131 runs. In those days scoring rates were calculated by runs per hour and the rate for the match was just 28 runs per hour. A clearer picture might be given by opener Richardson's score at the end of the first day, 69 not out.

The second test at Cape Town provided more runs but with South Africa bowled out for  second time for 72 ( 7 wickets for Wardle) England had an easy win by 312 runs and the rubber looked theirs for the taking but England's run of victories came to an end in the third test in Durban. To cut to the chase South Africa were set 190 to win in just over four hours, a target which would rarely pose any problems in present day cricket but in the context of the series 45 an hour was positively breakneck. In the afternoon session South Africa scored only fifty runs while losing three wickets but a partnership of 75 between Funston and Endean gave them a sniff of victory only for them both to fall with the score at 124. Up went the shutters, only 18 more runs were scored, Waite hit 1 off 36 balls and no more wickets were taken. Match drawn, run of away successes comes to an end and it would be churlish not to mention that South Africa won the last two tests to square the series. 

And so to tomorrow when an England XI will attempt to make it five away wins in a row when they tackle Sri Lanka at Galle. When if ever England have won five tests in a row away from home comforts I have no idea but some how one feels that that particular hare will be set free over the course of the next few days. 

Goddard catches Compton in Pretoria 1956/7. The bowler is Tayfield who in the Durban test bowled 137 consecutive scoreless deliveries