Cricket – The Philadelphia Story … the Australians of 1913

Martin Chandler | 8:52am BST 26 July 2026

Published: 2026
Pages: 112
Author: Smith, Steve
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3 stars

In chronological terms the last chapter of the Philadelphia story is also one of the more interesting and, in addition, is one where Steve Smith is not the first writer to review it in recent years.

The above said any comparison with When the Kangaroo Met the Eagle would be unfair. Smith has not set out to produce the sort of luxury item that Peter Schofield and Rick Sissons did, nor does he seek to deal with the whole of the 53 match tour, his primary interest of course being in the Philadelphian aspect of a trip that lasted four months and took in the whole of Canada and the US.

Unlike previous trips to North America by Australian sides this one was not something tagged on the end of an England tour, and it was entirely unofficial. Nonetheless the Australians were a strong combination. All twelve tourists were First Class cricketers, and Sid Emery and Edgar Mayne were each capped four times by Australia. The best known of the party, Charlie Macartney, Warren Bardsley, Arthur Mailey and Englishman Jack Crawford are names that resonate with all interested in the history of the game to this day.

The visitors performances were stunning, and they crushed many of the sides they came up against, the most extreme example being their dismissing the Winnipeg Cricket Association for just six, and four of those were extras! The bowling figures were the most spectacular aspect of the trip. Macartney took 189 wickets at 3.86, Crawford 213 at 5.85 and Mailey 183 at 7.26. Mailey’s fellow leg spinner Sid Emery, who took 127 wickets at 8.61 was comparatively expensive.

There were five First Class matches scheduled for the Philadelphian leg of tour, and the Australians won three of those convincingly and were well on top in a rain ruined draw. The fifth was meant to be a 12 a side match between the tourists and the Germantown Club.

In the event on the morning of the match Crawford withdrew and, with no thirteenth man and Germantown not wanting to disappoint one of their 12 the game was played 12 against 11 and thereby lost its First Class status.

And then the unthinkable followed as the locals raised their game and not only bucked the trend of the tourists’ dominance, but proceeded to pull off a famous victory by 4 wickets. It is, unsurprisingly, the most interesting part of the story.

Inevitably the thoughts that mark the final pages of the book are rather sad, but if you cannot afford the Sissons/Schofield extravaganza, and Stephen Musk’s monograph on the Germantown victory is not enough for you in relation to this tour then this book will certainly plug the gap, available as always on Amazon or at a discounted price from Red Rose Books and the author direct and, given the Australian interest, I suspect this one will also be available from Roger Page.