Came across this team picture of the Australian cricket tourists of 1926 recently. It was taken at Edenside, the Carlisle cricket ground, where the penultimate match of a long tour was played on 16th September 1926. It was a one day friendly game against G. Palmer's XI, which contained many well known county and Test cricketers.
The Australians at Carlisle.
Back row - Oldfield, Andrews, Palmer (scorer), Richardson, Woodfull and Taylor.
Front row - Everitt, Mailey, Smith, Macartney, Ryder and Ponsford.
The Australian side throughout the tour was heavily reliant on a powerful batting line up which included such luminaries as Woodfull, Bardsley, McCartney and Ponsford. The strength of the bowling, apart from all rounder Gregory, was very much in the hands of the two spinners Grimmett and Mailey. The first four Test matches were all drawn and the final game at the Oval was set to be a 'timeless Test', in order to obtain a result.
It started on Saturday 14th August, with a rest day on the Sunday, and was actually concluded within four days play, with a remarkable victory for England. The home side were dismissed for 280 on the first day, Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe top scoring with 76. Arthur Mailey bowled a marathon spell to take 6-138 and Grimmett took 2-74, both of them bowling 33 overs. Australia took a first innings lead with 302. The early batting let them down but Gregory with 73 and skipper Collins with 61 contributed well against the bowling of Larwood, Tate and the 48 year old Wilfred Rhodes.
England's second innings saw a match winning opening partnership of 172 between Hobbs and Sutcliffe. Hobbs making exactly 100 and Sutcliffe 161. Mailey (3-128) and Grimmett (3-108) again toiled away, but England finished on 436 all out, leaving Australia with the daunting prospect of 365 to win the match and the Ashes. However the bowling of Larwood and Rhodes soon dismissed the much vaunted Australian top order on 35-4 and England emerged as emphatic victors by a margin of 289 runs, as Australia were dismissed for 125 (Larwood 3-34, Rhodes 4-44).
The tour then proceeded for another month and the Australians arrived at Carlisle in mid-September after an exhausting tour of southern England and ahead of the final game against the North of Scotland two days later. Palmer's XI batted first and took all of 62 overs to compile a score of 197-5 declared. Yorkshire's Percy Holmes made 94 and Herbert Sutcliffe, batting at number five, gave the Aussies some respite with only 12. Other Yorkshiremen in the side were Roy Kilner and George Macauley, as well as other notables like Patsy Hendren, George Gunn, and Charlie Parker.
The Australians, no doubt rather weary, fielded their manager Sydney Smith to make up the side, but it was George Macartney, who won the game with a splendid innings of 106 in only ninety minutes, taking the visitors to victory on 207-4 in only 37 overs. Obviously a great day for the locals to see such players as Macartney, Ponsford, Woodfull, Oldfield and Mailey in action on the Edenside ground.
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