From May to September 1878 the first representative Australian XI toured Great Britain and North America. Captained by Dave Gregory and managed by John Conway, the side played 37 matches in four months, beat MCC at Lord's in a single day, and turned a profit of £750 each for the players. None of the matches were Tests — but the tour established that cricket between the two countries was financially and competitively viable.
There had been earlier Australian tours of England — Aboriginal XI in 1868 — but none by a representative European-Australian side. The 1878 tour was conceived after the 1876-77 success.
John Conway, the manager, raised £4,000 in subscriptions in Australia. The team sailed via Suez in March 1878.
The 1878 Australian touring side comprised five New South Welshmen (Spofforth, Murdoch, Garrett, Charles and Alec Bannerman), four Victorians (Allan, Horan, Blackham, Boyle), one Tasmanian (George Bailey) and one Anglo-Australian who would shortly defect (Midwinter). They sailed from Sydney in March 1878. Their famous one-day demolition of MCC at Lord's on 27 May made the tour. Other highlights included beating Yorkshire at Huddersfield (Spofforth 12 wickets), beating Middlesex by 98 runs, and a famous 10-wicket victory over the unofficial county champions Gloucestershire at Clifton College in early September. They lost to Cambridge University, Nottinghamshire and the Players. After the English summer they sailed for North America and played New York and Philadelphia teams. The tour returned 750 pounds per player — a sum that turned every member of the side into a comfortable man at home. None of the fixtures held Test status, but several were retrospectively listed as first-class. The tour's structural achievement was to make Australian cricket a regular paying enterprise — and it directly led to the 1878-79 Lord Harris return tour and to the 1880 Oval Test, the first Test in England.
27 May 1878: beat MCC at Lord's in a day
Beat Yorkshire at Huddersfield
Beat Middlesex at Lord's
Lost to Cambridge University and Notts
Famous 10-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Clifton in September
Toured North America after English summer
Each player banked £750
Mar 1878
Tour party sails from Sydney
May 1878
Tour begins; lose first match to Notts
27 May 1878
Famous one-day demolition of MCC at Lord's
Jun-Aug 1878
37-match English schedule
Sep 1878
10-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Clifton
Oct-Nov 1878
North American leg
“It was the year that established the fame of Australian cricket once and for all.”
The tour that made international cricket financially viable. 37 matches, £750 a player, one famous Lord's day, and a long-term reshape of Anglo-Australian cricket.
The 1878 tour is the foundation of international cricket's commercial logic. Without its £750-per-player profit, the 1880 and 1882 Australian tours might never have happened, and the Ashes might not exist. The team photograph — Gregory, Spofforth, Blackham, Murdoch, the Bannermans, Horan, Boyle — is one of cricket's most reproduced images.
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.