The 1912 Triangular Tournament was played in the wettest English summer since records began in 1766. August 1912 was the coldest, dullest and wettest August of the entire 20th century. With pitches uncovered and Tests three days long, much of the tournament was a sodden farce.
English summers of the early 1910s were generally wet, but 1912 was an outlier even within that pattern.
The tournament had been planned for the dry months. The Big Six dispute was the political problem; the rain was the practical one.
The British weather of summer 1912 was extraordinary. Rainfall in May, June, July and August was well above average; August in particular was record-breaking for cold and wet across most of England. The Triangular Tournament was scheduled across this period. Pitches in 1912 were uncovered both before and during matches; rain meant the surfaces were either washed out altogether or playing 'sticky' — almost unplayable on the first morning of any new innings. The Manchester Test between England and Australia was effectively rained off. The Lord's Test between Australia and South Africa lost much of two days. Crowds, never large for South Africa's matches, almost vanished when the weather turned. Wisden's 1913 retrospective was unusually blunt: 'The weather did its worst to ruin the matches, and to a large extent succeeded.' The tournament's reputation as a flop was as much meteorological as political.
May-Jul 1912: Above-average rainfall throughout
Aug 1912: Coldest, dullest, wettest of the century
Manchester Test rained off
Lord's Test loses days
Crowds collapse
May 1912
Tournament begins; rain already disruptive
Jul 1912
Manchester Test ruined
Aug 1912
Record-cold, record-wet month; tournament limps to its end
“The weather did its worst to ruin the matches, and to a large extent succeeded.”
Financial losses on the tournament were substantial. The MCC blamed the weather as much as the Big Six absences in its post-tournament report.
Weather as a co-author of the Triangular Tournament's failure.
The 1912 weather disaster is the most-cited example in English cricket histories of how meteorology can sink even the best-laid administrative plans.
Zimbabwe vs England
1996-12-22
The first Test between Zimbabwe and England at Bulawayo in December 1996 ended in a draw with the scores level — the first ever in Test history. Coach David 'Bumble' Lloyd, frustrated by Zimbabwe's defensive tactics, told a press conference 'we flippin' murdered em'. He was reprimanded by the ECB.
England vs Australia
4 August 1975
On 4 August 1975, during the second Ashes Test at Lord's, a 24-year-old merchant seaman from Liverpool named Michael Angelow leapt the boundary fence wearing only socks and trainers, hurdled both sets of stumps to the amusement of the players, and was wrestled to the ground by police. He had taken a £20 bet from his shipmates. He was fined £20 in court the next morning, and the BBC commentary by John Arlott — "we have got a freaker, not very shapely, and it is masculine — and I would think it has seen the last of its cricket for the day" — became one of the most replayed pieces of cricket commentary of the decade.
Australia
1981-12-12
Australian captain Greg Chappell, the most prolific batsman in the country, made four ducks in a row across Tests and ODIs during the 1981-82 home summer — and seven ducks across the season — earning the temporary nickname 'Chappello'.