Cricket – The Philadelphia Story … E.J.Sanders XI of 1886
Martin Chandler |Published: 2025
Pages: 101
Author: Smith, Steve
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3 stars
EJ ‘Ned’ Sanders took a team to North America in 1885. It would seem from Steve Smith’s account of that tour that a most enjoyable time was had by all, not least the hosts as the Gentlemen of Philadelphia dented the visitors’ record by triumphing convincingly in the second of the trip’s two First Class matches. An invitation to Sanders to tour once more was issued for the following year.
A number of the 1885 tourists, like their successors all amateurs, found that the need to earn a living meant they had to turn down the opportunity of a second tour so Sanders had to invite others, and he took the opportunity to strengthen his side, most notably by the inclusion of the man who would end up at the top of the tourists’ batting averages, Kingsmill Key of Surrey.
This time round there was to be no repeat of the defeat of 1895 and Sanders’ side comfortably won the two First Class matches against a Gentlemen of Philadelphia side who were, in fairness, a somewhat aging side who could fairly be described as being in transition.
Philadelphia was the last stop on the tour and prior to that Sanders’ men had also had an easy ride in fixtures in New York, Toronto, Montreal and Baltimore, It wasn’t quite all plain sailing however as the wheels almost came off in Boston. The match against Longwood was fifteen against eleven, so wasn’t First Class for that reason alone, but in a low scoring match in difficult conditions the tourists’ winning margin was just three wickets.
The book is much the same in presentation and layout to the earlier books in the series in that there is an introduction to the tourists themselves, biographical details of some of the opposition players and accounts of the matches all drawn from contemporary publications. There is also the occasional mention of events of a non-cricketing nature and one in particular in Boston that Harry Brook would doubtless draw some comfort from, and which demonstrates that when young men go out socialising in groups ‘were it not always thus?’
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