On the 1888 Australian tour of England, Charlie Turner and JJ Ferris bowled essentially unchanged through innings after innings, taking 534 of the 663 wickets that fell to the Australians across the summer. Turner's 283 first-class wickets that season was a record for any bowler in any English summer. The pair were named in the inaugural Wisden Cricketers of the Year list in 1889.
The 1888 Australian side was a small touring squad of 14, of whom only 11 played any cricket of consequence. Captain McDonnell relied on Turner and Ferris from the first match to the last; the other bowlers were essentially holders.
Both men had made their Test debuts in January 1887 at Sydney. By the start of the 1888 tour they were the established Australian opening attack.
Charles Thomas Biass Turner was a right-arm fast-medium bowler with a sharp off-cutter; John James Ferris a left-arm medium-paced swing bowler. Both came from NSW, both had made their Test debuts together at Sydney in January 1887. By the 1888 tour they were Australia's strike pair, bowling in tandem across an English summer that turned out to be unusually wet.
In 36 first-class matches Turner took 283 wickets at 11.68 runs apiece, with 30 five-wicket innings hauls and 12 ten-wicket match hauls. Ferris took 220 wickets at 14.10. Between them they delivered 534 of the 663 wickets the Australian touring side captured all summer — a workload that has never been repeated by a touring bowling pair.
The Lord's Test of July 1888 was their joint masterpiece — Turner 5/27 and 5/36, Ferris 5/26 and 3/26 in a match that saw 27 wickets fall in a single day. England came back to win the series 2-1 (with help from Lohmann and Peel) but the Turner-Ferris record remained.
When Wisden published its inaugural Cricketers of the Year list in 1889, both were named. Turner went on to be the first Australian to take 100 Test wickets, an Australian Cricket Hall of Famer (inducted 2012), and lived until 1944. Ferris had a stranger career: he played for Australia in eight Tests and then, after qualifying for Gloucestershire, for England in one Test against South Africa in 1891-92. He died young, aged 33, in South Africa during the Second Boer War.
Turner-Ferris bowl unchanged through innings after innings.
534 of 663 tour wickets to the pair.
Lord's Test: 18 wickets between them in 27-wicket day.
Turner 283 first-class wickets — record for English summer.
Wisden Cricketers of the Year, 1889.
Ferris later qualifies for England, plays one Test in 1891-92.
Turner first Australian to 100 Test wickets.
Jan 1887
Turner and Ferris make Test debuts together at Sydney.
May 1888
Tour of England begins.
Jul 1888
Lord's Test: 18 wickets between them.
Aug 1888
England come back to win series 2-1.
Sep 1888
Turner finishes with 283 first-class wickets.
1889
Both named in inaugural Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
“The two great Australians took 534 of the 663 wickets to fall to the Australians.”
Turner played for Australia until 1895, finishing with 101 Test wickets at 16.53. Ferris's switch of nationality is one of the rarities of cricket history. He played his single English Test in March 1892 at Cape Town, took 13 for 91 in the match (still one of the better debut analyses of all time, although for his second country), and died in Durban in 1900 after enlistment in the Boer War.
The greatest touring bowling partnership in 19th-century cricket — 534 wickets across an English summer, with 283 of them to Turner alone. A workload no modern attack could survive.
The 1888 tour aggregate of 534 wickets to two bowlers is unmatched. Turner's 283 was beaten only by Tom Richardson in 1895 and Tich Freeman twice (1928 and 1933) — both home-county bowlers, never a tourist. The Wisden Cricketers of the Year inaugural list (with the two Australians named together) became one of the foundations of modern cricket honours.
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.