When the Earl of Sheffield financed an English tour of Australia in 1891-92 with WG Grace as captain, he ended the trip by donating £150 to the New South Wales Cricket Association to fund a perpetual trophy for inter-colonial cricket. The result: the Sheffield Shield, contested between NSW, Victoria and South Australia from 1892-93 onwards, and the foundational competition of Australian first-class cricket.
Australian first-class cricket in 1891 was a series of inter-colonial matches without an organising trophy. Lord Sheffield, who had already stocked his Sussex home with Australian cricketers as guests, wanted to formalise the inter-colonial competition.
The 1891-92 tour was itself eventful — WG Grace's first as captain in Australia, and the vehicle for several of his more famous on-field gamesmanship moments.
Sheffield (Henry North Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield) was a Sussex aristocrat with a long interest in cricket. He had hosted the Australian tourists at Sheffield Park in 1882, 1884, 1888, and 1890, where the lawn match against the touring side became one of the social events of the cricket calendar. By 1891 he was wealthy enough to underwrite a private English team to Australia.
The tour was structured as a private commercial venture. WG Grace was paid £3,000 plus expenses to captain — an extraordinary sum that, again, made nonsense of his amateur status. The tour played three Tests; Australia won 2-1, but the cricket was less the point than the spectacle.
At the end of the trip, Lord Sheffield wanted to leave a lasting marker. He donated £150 to the New South Wales Cricket Association with the specific instruction that it be used to commission a trophy for an annual three-colony first-class competition. The first Sheffield Shield season was 1892-93. NSW, Victoria and South Australia played each other home and away.
The trophy itself was designed by Phillip Blashki of Melbourne, a Polish-born silversmith — a 36-by-23-inch ornate silver shield, won that first season by Victoria. Queensland was added in 1926-27, Western Australia in 1947-48, Tasmania in 1977-78. The Sheffield Shield is now in its 134th season.
Lord Sheffield organises 1891-92 English tour of Australia.
WG Grace paid £3,000 plus expenses.
Three Tests; Australia win series 2-1.
Tour ends; Sheffield donates £150 to NSWCA.
Money funds a trophy for inter-colonial competition.
Trophy designed by Phillip Blashki of Melbourne.
First Sheffield Shield season 1892-93; Victoria win.
Nov 1891
Lord Sheffield's XI sails for Australia.
Dec 1891-Mar 1892
Three Tests; Australia win 2-1.
Mar 1892
Sheffield donates £150 to NSWCA at end of tour.
1892-93
First Sheffield Shield season.
1893
Victoria win inaugural Shield.
“The Sheffield Shield... will be a lasting memorial of his lordship's regard for Australian cricket.”
Lord Sheffield returned to Sussex and continued hosting touring sides at Sheffield Park (the matches there ended only in 1896). He died in 1909.
The Sheffield Shield expanded gradually: Queensland 1926, Western Australia 1947, Tasmania 1977. It became the prime selection ground for Australian Test cricket, producing every major Australian cricketer from Trumper through Bradman, Lillee, Warne and Smith.
A modest £150 donation that produced the longest-running first-class competition in Australia and the structural foundation of every Sheffield Shield, Pura Cup and Marsh Cup since.
The Sheffield Shield is one of cricket's foundational tournaments. Its existence allowed Australian cricket to develop a national selection process; without it the Bradman era — built almost entirely on Sheffield Shield form — could not have happened. Lord Sheffield's £150 was perhaps the most leveraged donation in the history of cricket administration.
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.