#charles lawrence

4 incidents tagged

The Aboriginal Australian Cricket Team in England — 1868, the First Australian Tour

Aboriginal Australian XI vs English club and county sides

1868-09-30

Thirteen Aboriginal cricketers from western Victoria, captained by the Sydney-based English professional Charles Lawrence, became the first Australian sporting team of any kind to tour England. Between 25 May and 17 October 1868 they played 47 matches across the country, winning 14, losing 14 and drawing 19. Johnny Mullagh, the side's leading all-rounder, scored 1,698 runs and took 245 wickets on the tour. Their visit was a commercial novelty in its day and is now recognised as the founding moment of Australian touring cricket.

#aboriginal-tour-1868#charles-lawrence#johnny-mullagh

⭐Moderate

Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England Attempted in 1867 — Blocked by Victorian Authorities

Aboriginal Australian XI

1867-12-01

An attempted Aboriginal cricket tour of England in late 1867 was blocked by the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines in Victoria, who refused to permit the players to leave the colony. Charles Lawrence regrouped, moved his operation to Sydney, and on 8 February 1868 the team secretly boarded their ship at Queenscliff to evade the authorities — the moment that turned the 1868 Aboriginal tour from a stalled commercial project into a covert escape.

#aboriginal-cricket#1867#victoria

⭐Mild

Charles Lawrence — From Stephenson's Tour to Australia's First Professional Coach, 1862

Albert Cricket Club, Sydney; later New South Wales

1862-04-01

When the H.H. Stephenson tour of 1861-62 ended in March 1862, the Surrey-Middlesex left-armer Charles Lawrence stayed behind in Sydney rather than sail home. Engaged by the Albert Cricket Club at Redfern at £300 a year, he became the first paid professional cricket coach in Australian history, captained New South Wales, opened a sports goods shop in George Street, and laid the structural foundations on which the colonial game grew toward Test status.

#charles-lawrence#albert-cricket-club#sydney

⭐Mild

Heathfield Stephenson's All-England Eleven — The First English Tour of Australia, 1861-62

England (All-England XI) vs Australian colonial sides

1862-03-01

Twelve English professionals captained by Surrey's H.H. Stephenson sailed on Brunel's SS Great Britain to play the first cricket tour ever undertaken to Australia. Funded by the Melbourne caterers Felix Spiers and Christopher Pond, the team played 12 matches against odds of 18 and 22 between Christmas Day 1861 and March 1862, drawing 45,000 spectators across three days for the opening fixture against Victoria and laying the commercial foundation of all future Anglo-Australian cricket.

#hh-stephenson#spiers-and-pond#australia-tour-1861-62