Controversies in 1861

3 incidents documented

James Southerton — Surrey's Elderly Spin Bowling Discovery, 1860s

Surrey and England representative sides

1861-06-01

James Southerton of Surrey was a right-arm off-break bowler who played first-class cricket from 1854 to 1879 and made history in 1877 when, aged 49 years and 119 days, he became the oldest man ever to play Test cricket on debut — representing England in the very first Test match at Melbourne. His long career and late-blooming international recognition made him one of Victorian cricket's most unusual figures.

#overarm-era#early-county-cricket#1860s

⭐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

⭐Mild

The SS Great Britain — The Steamship that Took English Cricket to Australia

n/a

1861-10-19

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron-hulled SS Great Britain, the world's first ocean-going steamship with a screw propeller, carried both the H.H. Stephenson tour of 1861-62 and the George Parr tour of 1863-64 from Liverpool to Melbourne. The 66-day voyage of 1861, on which the cricketers practised on a deck-rigged net, was the indispensable logistical breakthrough that made commercial Anglo-Australian cricket possible.

#ss-great-britain#brunel#stephenson-tour