Seven Commissioned Officers

foot of page A democracy in cricket Charity begins at Lord's | Genesis | Problems, problems... The players Lord's to Old Trafford | A classic in Sheffield | First defeat | July and August | September Tour of South Africa | Matches in Australia | Aftermath and legacy Version

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A democracy in cricket

Herbie Collins

If there should ever be a vote for the most democratic team in cricket history, a strong contender must be the Australian Imperial Force Touring XI which toured Great Britain and South Africa in 1919. As is obvious from the name, the players were members of the Australian armed forces during World War I. They had all served in the European theatre, and I cannot imagine the profound relief they must have felt as they walked onto a cricket field instead of marching into a war zone.

Democratic? The players had various military ranks from gunner to major, so democracy is the last thing you'd expect to find.

If it had been the British Army, there can be little doubt that the major would have been the team captain, and the "other ranks" would have had a separate dressing room, especially if the major had been called Allen.

But these guys were Aussies, and their team captain, elected by the members themselves, was a lance corporal. So, on the field, Major Cyril Docker happily obeyed the orders of Lance Corporal Herbie Collins, and fielded where Herbie told him to field. They were all still in the forces, remember, so this was not a post-demob scenario. Although there were a few occasional players, the team was essentially composed of fifteen players. By rank, there was one major, four captains, one lieutenant, one warrant officer, one staff sergeant, two sergeants, one corporal, one lance corporal, and three gunners. As for the team's quality, it included three future Aussie greats—Collins, Jack Gregory, and Bertie Oldfield. Hammy Love, Nip Pellew, and Johnny Taylor also played for Australia, and most of the others played in the Sheffield Shield, so they were certainly a formidable outfit as far as English county teams were concerned.

But who were these guys, and how did their team come into being so soon after the most terrible war in history? We need to step back into the war itself.

Charity begins at Lord's

On 14 July 1917, at the height of the First World War, MCC hosted a charity match at Lord's between teams representing the British Army and the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF). The beneficiary was St Dunstan's Hostel for Blinded Sailors and Soldiers. It was the first match involving a team representative of the AIF, and included Charlie Macartney, Cyril Docker, and Bill Stirling. The British Army team included Colin Blythe, playing in his last-ever match—tragically, he was killed in France four months later. Also playing were Percy Fender, Patsy Hendren, and Pelham Warner.

The game ended in a draw, but it was a great success, and more charity matches followed. The highlight was a three-match series, played at Lord's and the Oval in 1918, between an England XI and a Dominions XI. Unfortunately, the matches had to be one-day duration only, and all three were drawn. A number of Australian players represented the Dominions—they included Cyril Docker, Allie Lampard, Ed Long, Nip Pellew, and Johnny Taylor who all went on to play for the AIF team in 1919.

Genesis

Lt Gen. John Monash

Following the Armistice on 11 November 1918, the Australian government established a body called the Demobilisation and Repatriation Branch of the AIF. Lieutenant General John Monash was appointed its director. Estimating that some 187,000 people—service personnel and dependants—needed to be repatriated, and realising that this could not be done on any kind of short-term basis, Monash announced two objectives. One was to determine both a policy and a process for repatriation; the other was to "maintain morale while the process was undertaken".

Numerous schemes were initiated to maintain morale. Mostly, they provided education and technical training to help the service people recommence their civilian careers, or start new ones, when they returned home. Monash's people realised the importance of entertainment, including sport. In agreement with the Australian Army Corps HQ in London, they established the AIF Sports Control Board. On 31 January 1919, the board issued AIF Order 1539 to all ranks:

The following proposals for the formation of an AIF Board of Control to encourage sport in all units and supervise organisation and selection of representative teams.
The Board to consist of a president, two representatives from units in France, one from AIF depots in the United Kingdom, one from London, and one representative of the Australian Comforts Fund.

Meanwhile, MCC and the county clubs were planning ahead for the 1919 season. Aware that the wartime charity matches had attracted large crowds, it was suggested that an Australian servicemen's touring team should be formed. The idea was taken to AIF HQ where it was received with enthusiasm, and the apparent support of Field Marshal William Birdwood, C-in-C of the AIF. The Australian Board of Control for International Cricket (the ABC, now Cricket Australia) gave its support too, and appointed Major Gordon Campbell, a former South Australia wicket-keeper, as its representative in England.

Technically, the ABC ran the team while it was active, and ruled on match status—first-class or otherwise. However, as the players were all members of the AIF, it was their Sports Control Board which recruited the players and ran trials to decide who should be in the squad. Many servicemen had played at either first-class or grade level, and there was a huge response to the call for applicants, so many that the AIF ended up forming a second XI which played against league clubs and other minor teams. The players received only their army pay, and nothing from the ABC. All gate money profits were paid to the AIF Sports Control Board.

In practical terms, the team was managed by Howard Lacey, a committee member at Surrey County Cricket Club, which used its connections to organise many of the first-class fixtures. Lacey was a league club cricketer who had captained the Mitcham team. In August 1918, Lacey had organised a charity match between his own invitation XI and an Australian XI.

Pitch it short and fast, boys. They don't like it up 'em! They do not like it.

The first team squad originally had seventeen players, and was billed as the Australian Imperial Force Touring XI. The bulk of the squad, fifteen players (see table below), remained intact for nearly nine months from May 1919. The other two players were Charles Kelleway and Harry Heath, who both departed in early June. They played 33 matches in Great Britain, ten in South Africa on their way home, and then another three in Australia itself before disbanding in February 1920. Of the 46 matches, 39 were first-class, and the team had only four defeats, all of those in England. Their first-class record in Great Britain was 28 played with twelve wins, four defeats and twelve draws. The second XI played 55 matches, and lost only eleven.

Problems, problems...

The AIF Touring XI was initially placed under the captaincy of Charles Kelleway, who was also a captain in the Army. He had played Test cricket before the war. The sixth match of the tour was against Surrey at the Oval from 31 May to 3 June. This was Kelleway's last AIF match, and he departed under something of a cloud. During or immediately after the Oval match, there was a dispute within the team which was ostensibly "about the fixtures list". It resulted in a players' meeting (all ranks), which ended with Lance Corporal Collins being elected team captain in place of Captain Kelleway.

In terms of rank, this was Jones replacing Mainwaring!

Including the Surrey match, the team at that point had won two and drawn four of their matches, so they weren't doing badly, but they also weren't doing particularly well. So Kelleway went back to the Army, and you might think it was all just a captaincy issue. According to Chris Harte, however, Kelleway was "relieved of the captaincy following a decision by the Army authorities because of (his) poor behaviour", this echoing the problems of the Australian team to England in 1912, of which Kelleway was a member.

Collins captained the team for the remainder of the tour. It was still a military unit, and cricket writer Ray Robinson expressed real surprise at the decision to elect a lance corporal as skipper when there was a major and four captains playing. Chris Harte wrote that the team "ignored all considerations of (military) rank", Collins "giving orders to seven commissioned officers without anyone questioning his authority".

That wasn't the only "players' meeting". They had another soon afterwards when they were told that the South African government in Pretoria had sent a telegram to the Sports Control Board, inviting the team to tour South Africa ''en route'' to Australia. The players were unanimous in their refusal. They wanted to go straight home after the 1919 English season ended in September, but the Australian Army was conscious of the need for post-war goodwill among allies, and recommended that the invitation should be accepted. The Ministry of Defence agreed, and ordered the players, as serving officers and other ranks, to comply. Planning began for a tour of South Africa from October to December.

Another problem the AIF team sometimes faced was the two-day match. For some bizarre reason, the 1919 County Championship matches were played over two days instead of the normal three (these days, the duration is four). Two days is simply not long enough for four innings matches played on good pitches. One or two days was okay in the 18th and early 19th centuries when pitch preparation and maintenence were rudimentary, but groundsmanship evolved before the 20th century began. I'll have more to say about pitches in a later edition.

To be fair, the majority of AIF first-class matches in England were over three days. Their first two-day match was against Oxford University at the Parks on 29 and 30 May. Like so many of these shorties, it ended in a draw. The team at Oxford included Harry Heath, who made his first-class debut there, but did not play for the AIF again. He later made two appearances for South Australia in the 1923–24 season.

The players

The Australian Imperial Force Touring XI photographed at Lord's in June 1919.

Back row: Charlie Winning, Hammy Love, Jack Murray, Eric Bull, Jack Gregory, Ed Long, Bertie Oldfield.
Middle row: Cyril Docker, Nip Pellew, Herbie Collins, Carl Willis, Allie Lampard, Bill Trenerry.
Front row: Johnny Taylor, Bill Stirling.

Most players are wearing the official team blazer with the AIF "rising sun" emblem on the pocket.

The table below lists the fifteen players who formed the "nucleus" of the AIF XI, all playing in at least one first-class match. Hammy Love, who later played for Australia, made only a single first-class appearance in 1919, but he remained with the squad as "third wicket-keeper" in reserve to Long and Oldfield. Details state the player's date of birth, his military rank, his Sheffield Shield state team, his batting hand, and his bowling type.

name	born	military rank	state	bat	bowl
batsmen
Eric Bull	28 September 1886	Gunner, 26th Field Battery	New South Wales	RHB	RM
Jack Murray	1 December 1892	Gunner, 103rd Howitzer Battery	South Australia	RHB	RM
Nip Pellew	21 September 1893	Captain, 27th Battalion	South Australia	RHB	RM
Johnny Taylor	10 October 1895	Gunner, 101st Howitzer Battery	New South Wales	RHB	none
Bill Trenerry	29 November 1892	Captain, 17th Battalion	New South Wales	RHB	LB
Carl Willis	23 March 1893	Captain, Dental Corps	Victoria	RHB	none
all rounders
Herbie Collins	21 January 1888	Lance corporal, 10th AASC	New South Wales	RHB	SLA
Jack Gregory	14 August 1895	Lieutenant, 4th Division Artillery	New South Wales	LHB	RF
Allie Lampard	3 July 1885	Sergeant, 10th AASC	Victoria	RHB	LBG
wicket-keepers
Ed Long	28 March 1883	Captain, Provost Marshal	New South Wales	RHB	none
Hammy Love	10 August 1895	Sergeant, 10th AASC	New South Wales	RHB	none
Bertie Oldfield	9 September 1894	Corporal, Field Ambulance	New South Wales	RHB	none
bowlers
Cyril Docker	3 March 1884	Major, General List	New South Wales	RHB	RFM
Bill Stirling	19 March 1891	Warrant officer	South Australia	RHB	LM
Charlie Winning	20 April 1889	Staff Sergeant, Dental Corps	none	RHB	RM

Ten players had previous experience of first-class cricket with pre-war state teams. They were Bull, Collins, Docker, Long, Taylor (all NSW), Murray, Pellew, Stirling (all South Australia), Lampard, and Willis (both Victoria). Gregory, Love, Oldfield, Trenerry, and Winning all made their first-class debuts with the AIF XI.

Lord's to Old Trafford

Jack Gregory

Collins began his captaincy at no less a venue than Lord's, where the Australians convincingly defeated MCC by ten wickets inside two days on 5 and 6 June. Gregory, Lampard, and Stirling shared 18 wickets in the match as MCC were dismissed for 133 and 228, the Australians replying with 297 and 66 for no wicket. Gregory with 56 top-scored and Trenerry scored 55, these two adding 80 for the eighth wicket after the Australians had struggled to 164 for seven. Charlie Winning made his first-class debut in this match.

A two-day match against Sussex, at Hove on 9 and 10 June, was drawn, and then the Australians took the train north for consecutive matches against two of the strongest county sides, Lancashire and Yorkshire. They played Lancashire at Old Trafford 12 to 14 June, and Yorkshire at Bramall Lane 16 to 18 June. Surprisingly, they comprehensively defeated Lancashire by an innings and 157 runs with a day to spare. Collins led the way with 103 as the tourists amassed 418. Lancashire then collapsed twice, and Lampard took a remarkable nine for 42 in the second innings.

A classic in Sheffield

The match in Sheffield was a classic. It produced an exciting finish as the Australians, needing 170 to win, had been reduced to 116 for nine when Gregory was joined by last man Ed Long. Against the odds, they put on 54 for the tenth wicket to win the game, Gregory scoring 41* and Long 13*. Yorkshire, featuring George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes and the young Herbert Sutcliffe, went on to win the County Championship in 1919 so this was an outstanding performance by Collins' team.

Yorkshire won the toss and batted first. Their opening pair of Rhodes (90) and Percy Holmes (71) shared 150 for the first wicket but finally Gregory dismissed Holmes and then, with six for 91, proceeded to bowl Yorkshire out for 224. The Australians began badly and were 59 for four before the middle order rallied.

They eventually reached 265 on the second day. A key innings was played by one of the bit-part players Eric Bull who scored a career-highest 42 at a crucial time from the end of day one and well into the second morning.

Yorkshire scored 210 in their second innings. They would have had a very low score but for an outstanding effort by Hirst with 88. Yorkshire again struggled against Gregory who dismissed all the first six batsmen and finished with seven for 79 for a match haul of thirteen for 170—a sign of things to come. The Australians began the fourth innings before lunch on the final day, and were soon struggling after Collins was out without scoring. Only Trenerry, with 39, made any contribution among the top order batsmen. The total was 71 for five when Bull came in. He played another valuable innings of 27, and was out at 111 for eight. Gregory was joined by Winning who was out for nought at 116 for nine, and this set up the remarkable climax to the game between Gregory and Long.

First defeat

Having been unbeaten in their first eleven matches, the Australians finally tasted defeat in the twelfth at Lord's when they played the Gentlemen of England, captained by Pelham Warner, from 23 to 25 June. The Gentlemen batted first after winning the toss and ran up a total of 402, batting into the second morning. Surprisingly, the Australians collapsed against the fast-medium pace of Johnny Douglas (four for 34) and Michael Falcon (six for 41), and were bowled out for only 85 in the 35th over. Asked to follow on, the Australians reached 149 for 8 at close of play but were dismissed for 184 in the third morning. Douglas took four for forty this time and the slow left armer Jack White took four for 38. The result was a comprehensive victory for the Gentlemen by an innings and 133 runs. This match was as good an example as any of a Gents team unexpectedly rising to the occasion, and delivering a surprise result.

July and August

Bert Oldfield

The Australians quickly recovered, and defeated Northamptonshire at the end of June. Next, they played four second-class matches, all of them scheduled for two days only. Three were in Scotland and one was against Durham which was then a Minor Counties team. They returned to first-class action on 11 July in a two-day draw against Leicestershire.

The next match was also a two-day affair, and Derbyshire defeated the AIF by 36 runs in Derby. It was a low-scoring game with Derbyshire scoring 181 and 112, while the Australians could only muster 125 and 132 in reply. Derbyshire paceman James Horsley did the damage, taking six for 55 and six for 62.

Gregory took eleven wickets in the match, including his best innings analysis to date of seven for 56, against Worcestershire at New Road. The AIF won by an innings and 203 runs. Worcestershire did not take part in the County Championship in 1919. In the next match, another two-day affair, Warwickshire were beaten by an innings and 38 runs at Edgbaston after Collins scored 110 and took five for 73.

The Australians then played Nottinghamshire over three days at Trent Bridge. They batted first and made 371, Willis scoring 130. Notts replied with 391, batting into the third morning. George Gunn scored 131. Collins scored 118, including his 1,000th run of the season, and declared the second innings at 242 for five. That left time for only 25 overs, and Notts played it out to 62 for one, the game ending in a draw.

Following a short break, the Australians played Surrey at The Oval from 31 July to 2 August. The AIF batted first and scored 436 with Collins top scorer on 95. They had Surrey on 83 for six in the second morning, but the county rallied with a seventh wicket partnership of 146 between captain Cyril Wilkinson (103) and Jack Crawford (144*) to reach 322 and avoid the follow-on. The AIF made 260 for four declared, and Surrey secured the draw with 121 for one, Jack Hobbs scoring 68*.

The Australians returned to Hove for their first match starting in August, and defeated Sussex by an innings and 54 runs. They followed that with a draw against Kent at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury. At this point, they took a break, and there were no matches between 10 and 20 August. They returned to action on Thursday, 21 August, playing Essex at Southchurch Park in Southend, winning this one by 309 runs.

Their next match, which began on Wednesday, 27 August, was against Gloucestershire at the Clifton College Close Ground, which had strong associations with W. G. Grace, who had died in autumn of the bleak year of 1915. This was another two-day match that produced another draw, but it was Gloucestershire, not the AIF, who were cheated of time. The AIF struggled against the left arm spin of Charlie Parker, and had to follow on. It was only through a determined defensive effort by Bill Trenerry that they avoided an innings defeat and gained the draw.

Starting Friday, 29 August, the AIF faced their last county opposition, defeating Somerset by 95 runs at the Taunton County Ground. Collins had an outstanding match. He scored 67* in the second innings of a low-scoring game, and had match figures of twelve for 69 bowling his slow left armers. The Somerset second innings lasted only 28 overs as Collins wiped them out with a career-best eight for 31.

September

Poster for the match at Mitcham.

The AIF tour of England concluded in September with three first-class games against festival-type teams and, finally, a one-day exhibition match on what is believed to be the world's oldest cricket ground. There were two matches against a South of England XI—this was "the South" team which contested the traditional North v South matches each season. The AIF last the first one at Hastings by 122 runs, and won the second at Portsmouth by ten wickets.

Their final first-class match in England was against C. I. Thornton's XI at the Scarborough Festival. This was a very close match which Thornton's XI won by two wickets. Bill Hitch had taken six for 24 and five for 102, leaving his team with a final day target of 191 to win. They made it after Jack Hobbs had held their innings together with 93. Wilfred Rhodes scored the winning run. It was only the fourth defeat the AIF conceded in England, having won and drawn twelve each of the other 24 matches.

The last AIF match in England was on Saturday, 13 September. Arranged by Howard Lacey, it was a one-day single-innings "odds" match against a Mitcham XVI on Mitcham Cricket Green, which is possibly the world's oldest extant cricket ground. The match was advertised by the poster, shown right, as Australian Imperial Force Touring XI v Sixteen of Mitcham. There's a couple of mistakes in it—Bertie Oldfield's initials and Bill Trenerry's name were misprinted. The Australian names include reserve players W. Munday and C. Smith who both played in the match for the AIF, while Bill Stirling played as a given man for Mitcham. The potential Mitcham players included Jack Hobbs, Andy Sandham, and Herbert Strudwick but none of them played on the day. Mitcham batted first and scored 200 all out, skipper Lacey making the top score with 39. Trenerry and Collins shared twelve of the fifteen wickets, and the AIF won easily enough by five wickets.

Chris Harte's conclusion of the AIF in England was that they were "generally a very sound side" and the crowds watching them were "far above expectation". Collins did "the double" with 1,615 runs and 106 wickets. The highest runscorer was Willis with 1,652. The most outstanding player, however, was Gregory who would soon become one of the biggest names in world cricket. He took 131 wickets at only 18.19, held 44 catches at slip, and scored 942 runs, just 58 short of a double.

Tour of South Africa

The AIF team arrived in Cape Town on 13 October and Chris Harte recounted that it was on this same day that the Australian state cricket associations "started squabbling over who would host AIF matches in Australia". The South African Cricket Association had given a guarantee against any financial loss but the AIF tour of South Africa was a resounding success. They defeated Western Province by two wickets in Cape Town, followed by a drawn game against Transvaal on the Old Wanderers ground in Johannesburg. Next stop was Durban to play Natal and they won that one convincingly by 310 runs, Gregory taking nine for 32, the best analysis of his entire career, and five for 54. Natal should have had enough after that but the teams met again in Pietermaritzburg, the AIF winning by an innings and 42 runs.

Returning to the Old Wanderers, the AIF beat Transvaal by an innings and 14 runs. They stayed in Johannesburg for the next two matches, which were scheduled for four days each. These were against a South African national team in what may be termed "unofficial Tests". The AIF won them both, the first by eight wickets, and the second by an innings and 129 runs. In the first game, Collins produced the outstanding batting performance of the entire tour with a magnificent knock of 235 in 315 minutes with 23 boundaries. The Australians returned to Cape Town in early December to play Western Province again at Newlands. This match, the last in South Africa, was drawn.

Matches in Australia

Nip Pellew. Test batsman and one of the greatest-ever outfielders.

After a very public row, it was finally decided in Australia that the AIF would play three of the state teams: Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The team arrived home in December, and reassembled at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in mid-January. They defeated Victoria by six wickets after Collins won the toss against his future Test captain Warwick Armstrong and put Victoria in to bat. The second match, a rain-affected draw, was against Queensland at the Gabba, in Brisbane.

The last match of the tour, the swansong of the AIF team, was played 31 January to 3 February 1920 at the Sydney Cricket Ground against New South Wales and the AIF won by 203 runs. The AIF batted first, and Gregory opened against his home state, for whom he had yet to make his debut. He scored two centuries (122 and 101), and took eight wickets in the match. Bill Trenerry's brother Edwin was playing for NSW. Like Gregory, Collins was also opposing his home state, and he scored 129 in the second innings.

Aftermath and legacy

The New South Wales Cricket Association said in its July 1920 annual report that "(it is to be hoped) many of these players will be seen in our big matches next season". Unfortunately, many of the fifteen players had pre-war careers in other spheres, such as banking or farming or medicine, to which they soon returned.

Bull, Docker, Long and Winning never played first-class cricket again after the AIF team disbanded. Stirling played one final match for South Australia and then retired. Trenerry played only three more first-class games. Lampard spent two more seasons with Victoria and retired in February 1922. Love, Murray and Willis continued to play in the Sheffield Shield for several seasons. Love eventually played for Australia just once in the 1932–33 Bodyline series.

Even so, the AIF did bequeath a legacy to Australian Test cricket as Collins, Gregory, Oldfield, Pellew and Taylor were all members of Warwick Armstrong's team in the next two years, during which they overwhelmed England in two Ashes series.

Version

As with The Monster Bat Controversy, this is a new version of an article first written by me in years past—about twelve years ago, that one—and published elsewhere.

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