Fred Tate's Test — Old Trafford 1902, England Lose by 3 Runs

By 1902 the Ashes contests were already two decades old, but England had not held the urn since 1896. Joe Darling's Australians arrived for a tour described by Wisden as one of the strongest ever to leave Australia, with Trumper, Hill, Noble, Trumble and Saunders all in form. The series had begun with a washout at Edgbaston (where Australia were bowled out for 36), a draw at Lord's, and an Australian win at Sheffield's Bramall Lane.

Going into Old Trafford, the urn was on the line. England's selectors made the controversial late call to bring in Fred Tate, a 35-year-old Sussex professional with a fine county record but no Test experience, ahead of Schofield Haigh and George Hirst's Yorkshire colleague Wilfred Rhodes (who did play). The choice was driven partly by the wet conditions and partly by selectorial committee politics that even contemporary reports could not fully explain.

Trumper and Reggie Duff opened against Bill Lockwood and Wilfred Rhodes on a damp, drying pitch. Within the first session Trumper carved 104 in even time, an attack so audacious that Archie MacLaren, the England captain, later said, 'I never saw better batting in my life.' By the close of day one Australia were 173 for 5, and the rest of the match unfolded with the swing of every session shifting the urn one way then the other.

The 1902 Ashes had been hard-fought from the start, but the fourth Test at Old Trafford on 24-26 July 1902 produced one of the most dramatic finishes the game had ever seen. Australia, batting first on a rain-affected pitch after captain Joe Darling won the toss, were rescued by Victor Trumper's astonishing 104 before lunch on the opening morning, a feat never previously achieved in Test cricket. Reggie Duff added 54 and Clem Hill 65, taking Australia to 299.

England replied with 262, Stanley Jackson making 128. The game then turned on Australia's second-innings collapse to 10 for 3, when Joe Darling skied a hook to deep square leg. Fred Tate, the Sussex medium-pacer playing his only Test, had been moved out of his usual position only moments before. He dropped the catch. Darling went on to make 37, and Australia were eventually bowled out for 86, leaving England 124 to win.

A thunderstorm broke after lunch on the final day, and when play resumed England slumped from 92 for 3 to 116 for 9. With eight runs needed, Tate joined Wilfred Rhodes at the crease. He clipped his first ball for four, missed a swipe at the third, and was bowled by Jack Saunders by the fourth. Australia had won by three runs.

Tate, by all accounts, never recovered emotionally. He was never picked for England again. He famously consoled himself with the line that he had 'a lad at home who'll make it up for me' — that lad was Maurice Tate, who would go on to take 155 Test wickets for England in the 1920s.

“Trumble bowled in his finest form, and was practically unplayable.”

“I never saw better batting in my life.”

Tate was dropped after the match and never played a Test again. He continued his Sussex career with distinction, taking over 1,300 first-class wickets, but the Old Trafford failure followed him to his grave in 1943. England went into the final Test at The Oval one down, needing to win to share the series — a context that would set the stage for Gilbert Jessop's even more famous chase a fortnight later.

For Australia, the win was a vindication of Darling's combative captaincy and Trumper's transcendent summer (eleven first-class centuries on tour). The Ashes were retained, and Wisden the following year celebrated 'a series of matches that for keenness and uncertainty has never been excelled.'