King Cole and the first Aussie cricketers
So the Ashes are lost once again, as an unstoppable Aussie cricket team steamrollers England … again. But though the official history of Test cricket in England stretches back to September 1880 - when England beat Australia by five wickets at the Oval and with WG Grace scoring a hundred on his Test debut – the real history of the meetings dates back a dozen years before that.
Unlike the Pontings, Waughs, Warnes and Gilchrists though, these early visitors weren’t the Anglo-Saxon descendants of English and Irish settlers to Australia. The first Aussie tourists were Australian Aborigines. Before the tour was over one of them would be dead – a victim of the unfamiliar London weather – and buried in Bethnal Green. Unsung at Lords or the Gabba, he is remembered by a single eucalyptus tree planted in Meath Gardens.
When the cricketers disembarked at Gravesend on 13 May 1868 it was after a gruelling three-month voyage from Sydney. They had even had to be smuggled out of Australia. When it became public that a group of white businessmen were planning on taking an Aboriginal team to England the Victorian government - which had set up an Aborigines Protection Board in 1862 - did everything it could to stop it. Members warned that the long trip, the cold weather and the likely exposure to alcohol could have disastrous consequences for the players. So under the pretence of their being taken on a fishing trip the team met a steamer off the Victoria coast.
Reaction in England was mixed. The Times sniffily described the tourists as “a travestie upon cricketing at Lord’s”, and described the men as “the conquered natives of a convict colony”. The Daily Telegraph didn’t think much of Australia full stop. “Nothing of interest comes from there except gold nuggets and black cricketers,” it declared.
But the Aussies skill and athleticism won many admirers, as they criss-crossed England in their frantic itinerary, playing 47 matches and taking the field for 99 days of a possible 126. “They throw in very well indeed, making the ball whizz along at a great pace,” reported the Sporting Gazette. The Sheffield Telegraph called the tour “the event of the century”, and Reynolds News described the games as marking “a new epoch in the history of cricket”.
The team came from Edenhope in western Victoria, and owed their successes to sharp hand-eye co-ordination that put their white opponents to shame – the fielding and bowling particularly caught the eye of the fans. They wore white flannels and red shirts, and blue caps, each with a boomerang and cricket bat motif above the peak. And as a concession to a sheltered Anglo-Saxon audience (who believed they would be unable to tell black faces apart) each player had to wear a different-coloured sash. There was more. The English spectators wouldn’t even attempt to get to grips with the players’ aboriginal names, so they were given childlike nicknames to make it easy for the crowd. Bullchanach became Bullocky; Jumgumjenanuke Dick-a-Dick; Brimbunyah Redcap and so on. And Bripumyarrimin, who was soon to succumb to tuberculosis, was re-dubbed King Cole.
The eleven played the MCC at Lord’s on 12 and 13 June, 1868. MCC batted first with Aussie all-rounder Johnny Mullagh taking 5-82 off 45 overs. He bowled the Earl of Coventry, knocking out his off-stump. He took the top England scorer, Richard Fitzgerald, who made 50. MCC amassed 164 and the Australians outbatted them with a first innings total of 185 Johnny Mullagh getting 75 and Lawrence 25. The English press could no longer mock the visitors.
And there was more. At the close of the first day’s play, Dick-a-Dick caused a sensation by inviting members to pay up to a shilling for the chance to try to hit him with a cricket ball from 10 paces. Dick-a-Dick protected himself with a parrying shield. At Lord’s the members threw themselves enthusiastically into the test. Cricket balls rained on Dick-a-Dick for more than an hour, but not one found its mark.
And one young player was watching the Aborigines with a keen eye. WG Grace, then just 20, went to Lord’s fresh from scoring the first pair of hundreds in a first-class match and was fascinated by their athleticism and enthusiasm. He challenged them to the long throw. Mullagh managed 104 yards and Dick-a-Dick 107 yards, but Grace outdid them with 116, 117 and 118 yards.
Back at the cricket, MCC eventually won the match, but not before Johnny Cuzens put in a bowling performance of 6-65 in the MCC second innings.
Sadly it was to be King Cole’s last match. Much weakened by his disease he died at Guy’s Hospital on 24 June, 1868 - 11 days after the match ended. He was buried in Victoria Park Cemetery, later to become Meath Gardens.