Johnny Mullagh & Mortals – The Murray Challenge Cup

Martin Chandler | 9:37am GMT 08 February 2026

Published: 2026
Pages: 91
Author: Merchant, James
Publisher: Private
Rating: 4.5 stars

Recent years have seen a great many good cricket books being published. That they still appear with such regularity suggests that there must, for some at least, be a living to be earned from cricket writing. But in all honesty I doubt that that is the case for many.

And then there are authors like James Merchant, who spend many hours researching their work with absolutely no ambition beyond, at its highest, recouping their printing costs. There are only fifty copies of Johnny Mullagh & Mortals available so simple arithmetic confirms that James will get nothing from this one other than the pleasure of researching and writing it, and the satisfaction of a job well done.

Of course in truth I don’t suppose too many more than fifty people will want to read this one anyway, but those that do will find it fascinating and, even though they will probably never realise it, the rest of the cricket loving world will have missed a treat.

The book is set in Western Victoria in the 1870s and 1880s. Helpfully, especially for those of us who are not familiar with the geography of Australia, there is a map at the start of the book showing the area and pinpointing the locations of the clubs involved. The area where the Murray Challenge Cup was contested is half way between Melbourne and Adelaide by road and covers a very large area. The greatest distances travelled by the teams to compete was about 100 miles, which necessitated an overnight trip by coach..

The Murray Challenge Cup was the gift of Alexander Murray, a wealthy local man and keen player. The cup was not, understandably given the area over which the competing clubs were spread, the sort of knock out competition that we in England are familiar with. Rather it consisted of one game, the winners then holding the cup until they met the next challenger.

The competition began in 1875 with eight challenges between December and April, and there were eight and then nine in the next two seasons. In the second season Coleraine won all eight challenges. There were then a series of disputes about the rules and there were never more than three challenges in any of the next five seasons, and no games at all in 1878/79. Harrow’s seven successive victories over the period between 1880 and 1882 meant that, according to the rules as originally set, they were entitled to keep the cup in perpetuity, and that was the end.

The first part of the book tells the story of those challenges and the controversies that cropped up between the teams and, thanks to press coverage at the time, there was a good deal of material for James to work with and he puts together an interesting story.

However I suspect that even James would concede that the most rewarding part of the book, as its title suggests, relates to the lives of some of the leading players in the competition and, altogether, seven of those are examined in detail.

The first and longest portrait is of Johnny Mullagh, far and away the best cricketer amongst the Aboriginal side that toured England back in 1868 and clearly a class act with both bat and ball. James has managed to locate contemporary testimonials to Mullagh from a number of men who knew him and the long look at the life of the man who made the single century that was recorded in the Murray Challenge Cup is, as are the six portraits that follow, much more than simply a record of his cricketing prowess. Mullagh comes across as a most likeable man.

Which is more than can be said for his 1868 touring colleague, Bullocky. Clearly a useful cricketer if nowhere near Mullagh in terms of class Bullocky had a weakness for alcohol, and the impressions that James has found of him are not so positive.

And of course the cup’s donor was also a keen player with a far from negligible record in his 11 cup matches, albeit there were no particularly stirring deeds from him during those appearances. He is an interesting character and there must be much to his story that will never be uncovered. A successful businessman and talented artist one wonders exactly why he chose to take his own life in the circumstances that he did at the age of just 54.

If Mullagh was the most gifted cricketer to appear in the cup he was not, in purely statistical terms, the most successful. That accolade goes to an Arthur Benson who, during the Harrovians’ seven consecutive victories, paid just 4.25 runs each for the many wickets he took with his fast bowling, and also averaged a more than creditable 26.4 with the bat.

Also considered is Frank Allen, a man who played just once in the cup and ended up on the losing side albeit with a couple of five wicket hauls to his name. Allen does however fully deserve his extended treatment on the basis that he played for Australia in the third ever Test match in 1879 and was thus the one international cricketer who appeared in the Murray Challenge Cup. The other two men whose lives are looked at are two Englishmen. The first is George Rippon, a newspaper proprietor who was clearly a decent cricketer, and Alfred Dickens, son of Charles Dickens, a subject very close to James’ heart. 

For a book dealing with the events of almost 150 years ago, with all those directly involved long dead that might have been it. But of course it isn’t, as while the generations have come and gone the Murray Challenge Cup is not mortal so, naturally, there is a closing section of the book telling the story of what has happened to the cup itself over the years. That story is one with a happy ending and I presume the cup will put in an appearance at the launch of this excellent contribution to the literature of Australian cricket on 7 March.

Attendance at the launch will be one way to get a copy, but there are others. Both Ken Piesse and Roger Page will have copies and it will also be available directly from James who can be contacted via James.merchant@icloud.com