#1878

8 incidents tagged

Australia Bowl MCC Out Twice in a Day — Lord's, 27 May 1878

Australia vs MCC

1878-05-27

On 27 May 1878 the touring Australians, on their first visit to England, bowled MCC out twice in a single day at Lord's. MCC made 33 and 19; Australia made 41 and 12 for 1 to win by 9 wickets. Fred Spofforth took 6/4 (including a hat-trick) and 4/16; Harry Boyle 3/14 and 6/3. W.G. Grace was clean-bowled by Spofforth for 4. The match made Australian cricket's reputation in a single afternoon.

#fred-spofforth#demon-bowler#lords

⭐Mild

'The Demon' — How Spofforth Got His Nickname, 1878

Australia vs MCC

1878-05-27

Fred Spofforth's nickname 'The Demon' was coined on the afternoon of 27 May 1878. After clean-bowling W.G. Grace for 4 at Lord's, Spofforth — according to teammate Tom Horan — leapt two feet in the air at the wicket and in the dressing-room afterwards repeated the phrase 'Ain't I a demon?' A Vanity Fair cartoon by 'Spy' fixed the name in print within months.

#fred-spofforth#demon-bowler#nickname

⭐Mild

Lord Harris Captains England in Australia — 1878-79 Tour

England in Australia

1878-12-01

Lord Harris's 1878-79 tour of Australia was the first England touring side led by an amateur captain to play what would later be recognised as a Test match. The trip produced the third Test in history — the Spofforth hat-trick match at Melbourne — and the Sydney Riot at the Association Ground in February 1879.

#lord-harris#1878#1879

⭐Mild

The First Australian Tour of England — May-September 1878

Australia in England

1878-05-01

From May to September 1878 the first representative Australian XI toured Great Britain and North America. Captained by Dave Gregory and managed by John Conway, the side played 37 matches in four months, beat MCC at Lord's in a single day, and turned a profit of £750 each for the players. None of the matches were Tests — but the tour established that cricket between the two countries was financially and competitively viable.

#1878#first-australian-tour#dave-gregory

⭐Mild

Spofforth's Action — How the Demon Bowled, 1878

Australia

1878-06-01

Fred Spofforth was 6ft 3in tall, lean, and bowled with what contemporaries called 'all legs, arms and nose'. After his initial fast spells in 1878 he developed an extraordinary capacity to bowl medium and slow with the same action — concealing pace changes invisibly. He stared at batsmen during his run-up. He was the first bowler treated as a deliberate intimidator.

#fred-spofforth#1878#bowling-action

⭐Mild

Billy Murdoch — From NSW Wicketkeeper to Australia's Captain, 1878

Australia in England

1878-05-01

Billy Murdoch, a 23-year-old NSW solicitor and wicketkeeper, sailed with the first Australian touring side to England in 1878 as the team's first-choice gloveman. By the end of the season he had ceded the gloves to Jack Blackham and turned his attention exclusively to batting — a switch that would lead him to the Australian captaincy in 1880 and to many of the great Test batting innings of the next decade.

#billy-murdoch#1878#australia

⭐Mild

Harry Boyle — Spofforth's Partner, 1878-1888

Australia

1878-05-27

Harry Boyle of Bendigo was the medium-pacer who shared the new ball with Fred Spofforth on Australia's first six tours of England. At Lord's on 27 May 1878 he took 3/14 and 6/3 against MCC; he played 12 Tests, took 32 wickets, and was Spofforth's accuracy-and-cunning foil for a decade.

#harry-boyle#fred-spofforth#1878

⭐Mild

W.G. Grace Bowled by Spofforth for 4 — Lord's, 27 May 1878

MCC vs Australia

1878-05-27

W.G. Grace, the most famous batsman in the world, was clean-bowled by Fred Spofforth for 4 at Lord's on 27 May 1878. The dismissal — among the most famous of the 19th century — fixed Spofforth's reputation and shocked the English cricket establishment, which had assumed the touring Australians would be no match for MCC's strongest XI.

#wg-grace#fred-spofforth#1878