Controversies in 1898

6 incidents documented

Ernie Jones No-Balled for Throwing — First in Test Cricket, 1898

Australia v England

1898-01-01

On 1 January 1898 at the MCG, umpire Jim Phillips called Australia's Ernie Jones for throwing — the first bowler ever no-balled for a suspect action in a Test match. Jones, the South Australian fast bowler famous for sending a ball through W.G. Grace's beard the previous summer, had been called once before the Test by Phillips in a tour match. The Melbourne call set off a 'chucking question' that would consume English county cricket through 1900-01 and end Arthur Mold's career.

#ernie-jones#1898#throwing

⭐Serious

Clem Hill's 188 — A Maiden Test Century at 20, Melbourne 1898

Australia v England

1898-01-01

On 1-3 January 1898, the 20-year-old Adelaide left-hander Clem Hill came in at 6 for 58 and made 188 — his maiden Test century, and still the highest Ashes Test score by a player under 21. Australia recovered to 520 and won by an innings. The innings established Hill as the central figure of Australian batting between Trumper and Bradman; he would average 39 across 49 Tests until 1912.

#clem-hill#1898#melbourne

⭐Serious

Joe Darling's 91-Minute Hundred — Fastest Test Century, Sydney 1898

Australia v England

1898-03-04

On 4 March 1898, in the dead-rubber Fifth Test at Sydney, Australia's South Australian opener Joe Darling reached his Test hundred in 91 minutes — at the time the fastest Test century in cricket. He went on to 160 in 165 minutes with 30 boundaries. By the end of the series Darling had become the first player to score 500 runs in an Ashes series and the first to score three hundreds in any series. Within fifteen months he was Australia's captain.

#joe-darling#1898#sydney

🥊Moderate

Charles Kortright — The Fastest Bowler of the Era and the Man Who Wouldn't Walk for W.G. Grace, 1890s

Essex, Gloucestershire

1898-07-01

Charles Jesse Kortright of Essex was generally considered the fastest bowler of the Victorian era — quicker, contemporaries said, than Tom Richardson or Arthur Mold. He never played a Test, but his 1898 confrontation with W.G. Grace at Leyton produced one of cricket's most-quoted exchanges: when Grace declined to walk despite being plumb out, Kortright eventually uprooted two stumps and remarked, 'Surely you're not going, Doc? There's still one stump standing.'

#charles-kortright#fast-bowling#essex

⭐Moderate

W.G. Grace's 50th Birthday — Gentlemen v Players Match Arranged for the Occasion, Lord's July 1898

Gentlemen v Players

1898-07-18

MCC arranged the 1898 Gentlemen v Players match at Lord's to begin on 18 July — the 50th birthday of W.G. Grace, who captained the Gentlemen side. Grace, lame and with an injured hand, made 43 and 31 not out in a drawn match. The fixture was treated as a national event: the King (then Prince of Wales) attended, the press described it as a tribute to 'the most celebrated Englishman of his age', and four days later Grace went to Trent Bridge and made 168 against Notts, his highest score of the summer.

#wg-grace#1898#lords

⭐Moderate

Monty Noble's Test Debut — A Future Captain Takes 6 for 49 at Melbourne, January 1898

Australia v England

1898-01-01

On 1 January 1898 at the MCG, Montague Alfred Noble — a 24-year-old New South Wales medium-pacer and middle-order batsman — made his Test debut against Stoddart's England. He took 6 for 49 in England's second innings as Australia won by an innings and 55 runs. It was the start of a 42-Test career, fifteen as captain, that would produce 121 Test wickets at 25.00 and a reputation as Australia's most complete all-rounder before Keith Miller.

#monty-noble#1898#melbourne