Through 1925-26 the 28-year-old Alan Kippax of New South Wales established himself as the heir to the Trumper-Macartney tradition of Australian batting stylists, scoring 1,309 first-class runs at 65.45 and earning the first of his 22 Test caps.
Trumper had died in 1915. Macartney was nearing the end of his career by 1925. The Australian batting tradition needed a successor in the Trumper line, and Kippax — coached personally by Trumper as a teenager in Sydney — was the obvious candidate.
Kippax had been a NSW player since 1918 and was widely regarded as the most graceful batsman in Australian first-class cricket from his 1922 hundreds onward. He was Trumper's protégé in style — a wristy, off-side player with all the strokes — but had been kept out of the Test side through the early 1920s by the established middle-order trio of Bardsley, Collins and Macartney.
The 1925-26 Sheffield Shield season produced his breakthrough: 1,309 runs at 65.45, including a century against each of the other Sheffield Shield states. He made his Test debut at Sydney in February 1925 against Gilligan's MCC, scoring 42 and 8. He played 22 Tests in total between 1925 and 1934, scoring 1,192 runs at 36.12 with two centuries.
Kippax's most memorable Test innings was his 100 in the third Test of the 1928-29 Ashes at Melbourne, when he and Don Bradman put on 161 for the seventh wicket. His Sheffield Shield career — 6,096 runs at 70.06, 21 hundreds for NSW — was statistically more successful than his Test record. He died in 1972 having coached the NSW colts for 25 years.
1922: First century for NSW
1925-26: 1,309 first-class runs at 65.45
Feb 1925: Test debut v MCC at Sydney
Jan 1929: 100 in third Ashes Test, partnership of 161 with Bradman
1934: Final Test
1918
First Sheffield Shield match for NSW
1925-26
1,309 first-class runs at 65
Feb 1925
Test debut
Jan 1929
Test 100 v England at Melbourne
“If Kippax had been an Englishman, he would have been one of the great Test batsmen. As an Australian he was unfortunate to play in the era of the others.”
Kippax played until 1937 in Sheffield Shield and coached the NSW colts after retirement. He was widely regarded by Australian cricketers of the 1920s and 1930s as the most beautiful batsman of his era — a higher reputation than his Test record alone would explain.
Alan Kippax was the late-1920s embodiment of the Trumper batting tradition — a stylist whose first-class average of 57.22 places him among the most prolific Australian batsmen of the inter-war era despite a Test record that flattered to deceive.
Kippax's first-class career figures — 12,762 runs at 57.22, 43 hundreds — place him among the most prolific Australian batsmen of the pre-Bradman era. His coaching of the NSW colts produced players including Stan McCabe and Bill O'Reilly.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.