On a Sydney pitch reduced to a glue-pot by rain, George Lohmann and Bobby Peel bowled Australia out for 42 in the second innings of the only Test of the 1887-88 tour — Lohmann 5 for 17, Peel 5 for 18, the pair unchanged through the innings. The match also produced Charlie Turner's 7/43 at the other end of the same wet stage and a 126-run England win.
The 1887-88 tour was the strangest in 19th-century cricket: two English sides on the road simultaneously, with no obvious path to a Test until the agents combined for one game. Lohmann had emerged in 1886 as the best young bowler in England; Peel had succeeded Peate at Yorkshire in 1887.
Both English sides had played extensive colonial matches before merging. The Sydney pitch was dry on the first morning but rain on the evening of day one transformed it.
England's strange 1887-88 itinerary saw two competing English sides tour Australia at the same time, organised separately by Shaw/Shrewsbury and Lord Sheffield. Only one Test was played, at Sydney from 10 to 15 February 1888 — England drawing both touring squads into a single representative XI under Walter Read.
Ferris and Turner ran through England for 113 in the first innings; Shrewsbury top-scored with 44. The wicket then took a soaking. By the end of day one, with rain having reduced the surface to a sticky, Australia were 35/8 — Lohmann and Peel bowling unchanged for 75 minutes. The match was suspended for five days because the next day was a Sunday and the pitch needed to dry. When play resumed on the Friday, Lohmann and Peel finished the job: Australia 42 all out, Lohmann 5/17, Peel 5/18.
England made 137 second time around, set Australia 209 to win. Turner took 7/43 — the kind of figures that earn 'man of the match' awards in modern Tests but here were not enough to save the home side, who folded for 82. England won by 126 runs.
The match is the centrepiece of Lohmann's emergence as the world's best bowler and Peel's establishment as the Yorkshire spinner of his generation. It also remains one of the lowest Australian totals in Tests at home.
England 113 first innings; Turner-Ferris combine for 9 wickets.
Australia 35/8 at stumps day one; Lohmann and Peel unchanged.
Sunday and rain force five-day delay.
On resumption Lohmann and Peel finish job: Australia 42 all out.
Lohmann 5/17, Peel 5/18; pair bowl unchanged through innings.
England 137 second innings; Turner 7/43.
Australia 82 chasing 209; England win by 126.
10 Feb 1888
Test begins; England 113 (Turner 5/44, Ferris 4/60).
10 Feb evening
Heavy rain; pitch becomes sticky.
11 Feb
Australia 35/8 at close; Lohmann and Peel unchanged.
11-13 Feb
Five-day weather and Sunday delay.
14 Feb
Australia 42 all out; Lohmann 5/17, Peel 5/18.
15 Feb
Australia 82 chasing 209; England win by 126.
“On a wicket so sodden you might have planted potatoes in it.”
Lohmann was the leading bowler of the 1888 English summer and the best bowler in the world by the time he sailed for South Africa in 1895. Peel went on to take 101 Test wickets at 16.98 and was Yorkshire's spearhead until his sacking in 1897. Turner finished 1888 with 283 first-class wickets in England, then a record.
A masterclass on a sticky — Lohmann and Peel unchanged, Australia 42, and the foundations of an English bowling era laid in the Sydney mud.
The Sydney 42 is one of the lowest Australian Test totals at home — and remains the lowest until the wider 19th and 20th century records are re-examined. Lohmann's 5/17 was one of seven five-fers he took in his first eight Tests; he would finish his career with the lowest Test bowling average ever for any bowler with 100 wickets.
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.