Trumper across the Tasman

Martin Chandler | 8:31am BST 20 July 2025

Published: 2025
Pages: 303
Author: Schofield, Peter and Sissons, Ric
Publisher: The Cricket Publishing Company
Rating: 5 stars

At the back end of 2023 I reviewed Peter Schofield and Ric Sissons’ When the Kangaroo met the Eagle, the story of a non-Test tour when an Australian side visited North America in 1913. A strong combination the Australians, with a single setback in Philadelphia, were seldom troubled by the locals.

Five months after those tourists returned another unofficial Australian side toured New Zealand. This was an even stronger team, containing not only Arthur Mailey and Jack Crawford from the side that had travelled to North America, but also featuring Monty Noble, Warwick Armstrong, and Herbie Collins, not to mention the biggest drawcard of them all, the legendary Victor Trumper.

Much of what I said about When the Kangaroo met the Eagle applies equally to Trumper across the Tasman, particularly as far the production qualities are concerned, but I still leave myself with a difficulty. Make no mistake I thought and still think that When the Kangaroo met the Eagle merited the five star rating I gave it, but Trumper across the Tasman is an even better book, even though I have no way of reflecting that in the rating I give it.

So why is this? As I say the way the authors set about their task is very similar to before, but I suspect the fact that I had some prior knowledge of the history of Australian sides in North America as opposed to none at all about pre 1914 visits to New Zealand may be part of the reason.

Was the cricket played in New Zealand more interesting than that in North America? Not really must be the answer to that. The trip through North America was a procession, but on the other hand Austin Diamond’s men did once taste defeat, at the hands of the Gentlemen of Philadelphia. In truth the New Zealand trip was much the same. The Australians went through that trip unbeaten and with several huge victories and only once, when Canterbury came out of a drawn encounter with a first innings lead to show for their efforts, were the visitors really tested.

The Canterbury effort was a particularly creditable one because in their first encounter with the Australians the visitors had triumphed by an innings and 364 runs, Trumper scoring 293 and sharing in a partnership of 433 with his captain Arthur Sims, still the highest eight wicket partnership the game has seen.

It is probably fair to say that the personalities involved in the New Zealand tour are of greater interest than those who visited North America and in particular Sims. An interesting man Sims was born and also died in England and, other than on this tour, all his previous First Class cricket had been played in or for New Zealand. As any book like this should it contains short biographies of all the Australians as well as some of the New Zealanders and some interesting lives are uncovered.

I would also have to say that the illustrations in the book, of which there are a huge number, are particularly impressive. There is nothing really different in that from When the Kangaroo met the Eagle, so perhaps it is just a case of the contemporary photographers in New Zealand being more highly skilled than those in North America, or there quite simply being more for Sissons and Schofield to choose from.

But in truth towering above every other consideration is the ‘Trumper factor’. The man’s very name causes the hairs on the back of the neck of many cricket tragics to stand up, and not just those in Australia. As is clear from the many contemporary reports that are referenced in the book Trumper’s presence was what made this tour, and it is that same presence that endures down the years. Well over a century after his tragically early passing Trumper is no less ‘box office’ now than he was whilst he was alive.

And then there is one other thing that speaks volumes for Trumper across the Tasman, and that is Gideon Haigh’s foreword. Now we all know that Haigh has authored one of the best books there is on Trumper, and presumably therefore is a fellow piloerection sufferer where the great man is concerned, but he has excelled himself here. By common consensus one of the very best of cricketing scribes I always picture Haigh’s prose as tumbling out of him without need of amendment but here, for once, I get the impression that he took the greatest of care in putting his thoughts together.

Which is really the highest compliment you can pay Trumper across the Tasman. It is a magnificent piece of work and whilst most copies were snapped up weeks ago there are a few left that can be purchased from Boundary Books in the UK, or Roger Page in Australia.