Cricket – the Philadelphia story … the Australians of 1893
Martin Chandler |Published: 2025
Pages: 156
Author: Smith, Steve
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3.5 stars
Steve Smith’s journey through the history of Philadelphian cricket, tour by tour, seems to be picking up pace as he gets to 1893 and the visit of an Australian side which had just, losing a three Test series in England 1-0, failed to retain the Ashes.
The Australians were a strong side, led by Jack Blackham and containing such luminaries as Hugh Trumble, George Giffen, Charlie Turner, Harry Trott and Sid Gregory, and the entire party came over to the US and Canada for six matches. Two of the six were First Class, against a Gentlemen of Philadelphia side, and there were other games in New York, Boston, Detroit and Toronto.
As I understand the position it is Steve Smith’s intention to produce books on all tours that visited Philadelphia or which the Philadelphians themselves undertook. I sincerely hope that he lasts the course, although I will say now that in terms of the raw material at his disposal I doubt that any of the tours could possibly match this one.
The reason I say that is the straightforward one that in the first of the two First Class matches the Philadelphians beat the Australians. The victory was no fluke either, the home side triumphing by an innings and 68 after compiling 525 in their first innings. They were considerably assisted by the contribution on his First Class debut of the legendary Bart King, but overall it was a fine team effort.
Stung into action by the defeat the Australians won the return, although only after they had slumped to 26-4 whilst seeking a fourth innings target of 73. They just failed to beat the New Yorkers in a game in which they were well on top, but the other three games resulted in easy victories for the visitors.
The format of the book is a familiar one. There are short biographies of all the Australian and Philadelphian players and the descriptions of the matches are taken from contemporary accounts. On this occasion however there are a couple of particularly interesting digressions.
The first appears amidst the slightly surprising revelation that the not insignificant crowds that attended to watch the matches comprised a broadly equal division between male and female enthusiasts. Steve reproduces verbatim a report from the Philadelphia Times entitled The Cricket Girl which is, disappointingly if not surprisingly, somewhat condescending and sexist in its content.
And then there is the match that did not happen, one against a team from Chicago. Unfortunately for the locals terms could not be agreed, but the Australians travelled to Chicago anyway where they were able to attend the city’s World Fair, a huge and successful enterprise that prior to opening the book I knew absolutely nothing about.
Those who have bought the previous books in this series will doubtless invest in this one as well, once more available as a paperback or a limited edition hardback from Amazon, Red Rose Books or Roger Page, but those who haven’t but are tempted I would suggest this may well be the one to start with.
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