Chasing 577 in the fourth innings after R.E. Foster's 287 had taken England to a giant total, Australia were 173 for 5 with the Test seemingly lost when Victor Trumper, on 0, was joined by Clem Hill. Trumper went on to 185 not out — his hundred coming in 94 minutes — but it was not enough: Australia, all out 485, lost the match by five wickets. The innings is often ranked alongside Trumper's Old Trafford 104.
Trumper had reached England already known as the leading batsman of his generation, but the home Australian context of 1903-04 confirmed it. He had averaged 70 across the previous English summer; he was carrying the Australian batting through both home and away series.
The first Test at Sydney had been disastrous for Australia: Foster's 287, the failure of every Australian batsman in the first innings, and the follow-on imposed early on day three. The fourth innings began with the match all but lost.
Trumper had made 13 in the first innings — bowled by Bosanquet with the new googly, in what Bosanquet later said was the first true googly bowled in Australia. The challenge in the second innings was psychological as much as cricketing.
Plum Warner's MCC side had already taken a commanding position by the third day of the first Test of the 1903-04 Ashes. R.E. Foster's 287 had given England a total of 577. Australia, replying, had been bowled out for 285 (Trumper 13). Following on, they were 173 for 5 in the fourth innings — the equation 404 to make the chase, on a wearing pitch, seemed beyond hope.
Then Victor Trumper changed the direction of the match. Joining Clem Hill at five down, he played one of the most dazzling rearguard innings in Test cricket. He reached his hundred in 94 minutes, scoring all round the wicket against Wilfred Rhodes, Bernard Bosanquet and Len Braund. Hill was controversially given run out for 51 — the umpire's decision was bitterly disputed by both batsmen, and contemporary reports describe the Sydney crowd's anger.
With Hill gone, Trumper continued. He reached 150 in 138 minutes and was 185 not out when the last wicket fell at 485. England had won by five wickets — but the abiding memory of the match was Trumper's batting, not Foster's. Wisden the following year wrote that 'no batsman in any country could have done more to save a hopeless cause'.
Day 1-2: R.E. Foster 287; England 577.
Day 3: Australia 285; Trumper bowled by Bosanquet for 13.
Day 4: Following on, Australia 173/5; Trumper joins Hill.
Trumper 100 in 94 minutes.
Hill controversially run out for 51 — disputed by both batsmen.
Trumper continues; 150 in 138 minutes.
Trumper 185 not out when last wicket falls at 485.
England win by 5 wickets; Trumper carried off the field by spectators.
11-13 Dec 1903
R.E. Foster 287; England 577.
14 Dec 1903
Australia 285 in reply; Trumper 13.
15 Dec 1903
Following on, Australia 173/5; Trumper joins Hill.
16 Dec 1903
Trumper 100 in 94 minutes; Hill controversially run out for 51.
17 Dec 1903
Trumper 185*; Australia 485 all out; England win by 5 wickets.
“No batsman in any country could have done more to save a hopeless cause.”
Australia lost the series 3-2, with Trumper finishing as their leading batsman (574 runs at 63.77). Foster's 287 won the headlines but Trumper's 185* was the abiding memory for many who watched. Plum Warner's tour book 'How We Recovered The Ashes' devotes more pages to Trumper's innings than to Foster's.
The Hill run-out incident was rumoured to have led to the dismissal of the umpire concerned, though there is no formal record of this. The incident was the subject of correspondence in Sydney newspapers for weeks.
An innings often cited by Australian writers as Trumper's finest. The combination of conditions (a worn pitch), context (a hopeless chase), strokeplay (a hundred in 94 minutes), and a controversial dismissal of his partner gave the innings a romantic quality that has lasted over 120 years.
The 185* at Sydney is sometimes ranked above the Old Trafford 104 by Australian cricket writers. Where the 104 was a flat-track destruction in great conditions, the 185* was a fourth-innings rescue against a strong attack on a wearing pitch. Don Bradman, when asked late in life about the great Trumper innings, mentioned the Sydney 185* in particular.
George Beldam's photograph 'Jumping out to drive', the iconic image of Trumper, was taken in 1905; cricket writers have often suggested it captures the spirit of the Sydney innings even though the photograph itself was posed at The Oval.
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.