Recalled to the England side aged 48 years and 165 days, Wilfred Rhodes took 4 for 44 in Australia's second innings at the Oval in August 1926, helping to win England's first Ashes series since 1912. He remains the oldest man ever to play Test cricket.
Rhodes had begun his Test career in 1899 alongside W.G. Grace. By 1926 he had taken over 4,000 first-class wickets and played 56 Tests over the previous 27 years. Yorkshire still played him every week; the wider question was whether his accuracy and turn could survive a Test stage.
England's selectors faced the deciding fifth Test of the 1926 Ashes at the Oval with the series locked 0-0 after four draws. Percy Chapman, only 25, had replaced the cautious Arthur Carr as captain, and the selectors — chaired by Sir Pelham Warner — chose two veterans alongside him: George Geary, restored after a long absence, and Wilfred Rhodes, then 48 and 165 days old. Rhodes had not played a Test since 1921 and was widely thought of in 1926 as a Yorkshire elder statesman rather than a Test bowler.
Australia made 302 in their first innings; England replied with 280, Sutcliffe top-scoring with 76. The pivotal day was the third — overnight rain produced the famous 'sticky' wicket on which Hobbs and Sutcliffe added 172 in a partnership that has been mythologised since. England declared at 436 (Sutcliffe 161, Hobbs 100). Australia were left needing 415 to win, with two days and a treacherous pitch ahead.
Rhodes opened the bowling with Larwood. His left-arm orthodox spin began to grip the drying surface immediately. He took the wickets of Woodfull, Macartney (caught Geary), Andrews and Mailey, finishing with 4 for 44 in 20 overs. Australia were bowled out for 125; England won by 289 runs and the Ashes returned to England for the first time since the 1911-12 tour. Rhodes, 48 and 165 days old, had become the oldest man ever to play in a Test match — a record that has stood for almost a century.
Selectors recall Rhodes (48) and Geary; appoint Chapman captain at 25
Australia 302; England 280 in reply
Day 3: rain produces sticky wicket; Hobbs 100 and Sutcliffe 161, partnership 172
England declare at 436; Australia need 415
Rhodes 4/44 in 20 overs; Australia 125 all out; England win by 289
14 Aug 1926
Test begins; Australia 302 in first innings
16 Aug 1926
Hobbs-Sutcliffe 172 partnership on sticky wicket
18 Aug 1926
Rhodes 4/44; England win Ashes by 289 runs
“Once I had the ball in my hand I knew I could still make it talk. The wicket helped me, and the lads in the field made no errors.”
Rhodes played the West Indies in 1929-30 at the age of 52 — that tour produced his absolute final Test appearance, in April 1930, by which time he was 52 years and 165 days. The Ashes recovered in 1926 stayed with England through 1928-29 (Chapman's tour of Australia, won 4-1).
The Oval 1926 ended fourteen years of Ashes drought for England, and the recall of Wilfred Rhodes at 48 produced both the bowling spell that decided the match and the oldest Test appearance in cricket history.
Rhodes's age of 52 years and 165 days at his last Test (April 1930) is the oldest in Test history. The 1926 Oval Test is one of three or four 'foundational' English Ashes wins of the inter-war era and is taught in English coaching manuals as the model 'sticky-wicket' Test.
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.