An important Whitehaven CC centenary nears

By Mike Latham

In September this year Whitehaven CC will celebrate an important centenary, marking the visit of the all-conquering Australians in 1921.

Warwick Armstrong’s side played their first match in England on 30 April and were still going strong four-and-a-half months later, in West Cumberland.

It was a remarkable effort by the tourists who had just 15 players. They won the five-match Test series 3-0, with two drawn games, were undefeated in 21 games against the counties, winning 14, but eventually lost twice in other games, against AC MacLaren’s England XI at Eastbourne and at the Scarborough festival against CI Thornton’s XI, fatigue surely playing a part.

Whitehaven CC played All England on four occasions in the 1850s and '60s and later hosted the 1927 New Zealanders, but the visit of the Australians was the pinnacle. The Mayor of Whitehaven, Alderman George Palmer, got together an eleven to oppose the tourists, effectively a Cumberland county team.

A poster advertising the match

Mr Palmer was obviously a man of some influence for, in 1926, his selected XI played the Australians at Carlisle and included seven Test players, Percy Holmes, George Gunn, Patsy Hendren and Herbert Sutcliffe among them.

He later became President of the Cumberland FA.

The game at Whitehaven was played on a Monday afternoon, 12 September 1921, attracting a crowd of 7,000, a record for the game in Cumberland.

The two captains; Herbie Collins and Guy Muriel

Herbie Collins captained the tourists with Guy Muriel, son of a Cambridgeshire-born surgeon who practiced at Whitehaven hospital in charge of the home side. Muriel junior was a fine sportsman who also represented the county at rugby union and hockey.

The Australians adopted a slightly casual approach to the game, reversing the bowling and batting order as the match began in beautiful weather.

Cumberland batted first and after a slow start Whitehaven’s Jack Shardlow (21) and Workington’s Jake Madden (38) hit merrily, collecting 16 runs off one Arthur Mailey over. The county took lunch at 123-6 and with Cockermouth’s Charlie Hardcastle making 33, and Millom allrounder Barney Banfield 27 late order runs Cumberland mustered a highly respectable 201. Mailey, the Australians’ leg-spin and googly bowler, suffered some punishment, again hit for 16 runs in an over, but collected four for 84, Collins taking three late wickets for 13.

Arthur Mailey took some punishment but finished with four wickets

Ted McDonald, Bert Oldfield and Mailey were all out relatively cheaply, all victims of Bancroft, a wily bowler at the height of his form. And with Nip Pellew retiring hurt with a broken finger, after fending off a rising Bancroft delivery the tourists were 57-3, effectively 57-4.

Stork Hendry (31) and Jack Ryder (33) then put on 60 in half-an-hour and Tommy Andrews (43) combined in the match-winning partnership with Johnny Taylor, batting at eight.

Tommy Andrews combined in a match-winning partnership….

with Johnny Taylor, who made 94

Coming together at 128-5 the pair took on the home attack and Taylor was in magnificent form. Batting on after the victory target was reached, he made 94 in 62 minutes before he was caught at mid-on by Bancroft off Madden.

The tourists had reached 284-8 when rain swept in at 5-45pm, bringing an enjoyable game to a close.

Afterwards both teams were entertained to a banquet at the Grand Hotel by the Whitehaven Mayor.

Whitehaven CC in modern times

The Playground in Whitehaven is one of the oldest continuously used sporting venues in the country. Though now hemmed in by modern development, with supermarkets on two sides and a sports centre car park on another, but with the ancient Saint Begh's Priory, first built in the early 1700s to the south. The ground is approached down the narrow Richmond Terrace and once inside there is a feeling of space and history.

The Whitehaven CC club crest

Whitehaven Cricket Club was formed in 1824 and they have played here since 1838 and the ground is also home to the Whitehaven rugby union club who have two pitches either side of the cricket field.

The Playground was officially opened on the first day of May in 1838 when Whitehaven was a prosperous market town, also the principal seaport in the county with a population of around 15,000; it was second only to Newcastle-upon-Tyne as the most eminent port in the coal trade.

The members of the Playground committee met at the Golden Lion Hotel in the morning when the rules and regulations of the organisation were approved. The town's band paraded between the streets on a procession to the Playground where, after a splendid luncheon a crowd of 12,000 was present to see the Earl of Lonsdale perform the official ceremony with a presentation silver key, made by Mr Spittall, a jeweller in the Market Place.

The Field was considerably different in 1838, the year of Queen Victoria's coronation than it is today. A newspaper report set the scene: "An enclosure about six acres in extent, approached from Howgill Street, surrounded by the Castle Gardens, the enclosure attached to the factory of Messrs Bell, and a meadow, that abuts upon Preston Street and the Rope Walk of Messrs Hartley and Company."

The ground was described "as a kind of amphitheatre, the New Houses forming a sloping side on the west, the Castle with its superbly wooded park on the east, the lofty buildings on the north and the shady sycamores on the south completed the picture."

Whitehaven RU club were originally formed in 1877 though unlike the cricket club they have not played continuously; they shared The Playground with the cricket club and the ground was sufficiently well equipped to stage both cricket and rugby representative games.

Whitehaven CC