Análisis de dualidad y sensibilidad
CONJUNTO DE PROBLEMAS 4.5B
for NSW Tests for Australia Reginald Allen 1878-88 14 1 Charles Bannerman 1870-88 23 3 George Bonnor 1884-91 5 1 7 Edwin Evans 1874-88 27 6 Hugh Hiddlestone 1880-89 1 5 - Percy McDonnell* 1885-92 1 7 19 Alfred Marr 1882-91 1 2 1 Hugh Massie 1877-88 1 7 9
* McDonnell went to Brisbane where he continued to play first class cricket.
Source: New South Nates Cricketers 1855-1981} Retford 1981 .
further weakened the NSW team. Some of these cricketers continued playing for senior clubs after they retired
from the NSW team. Their continued presence in senior club sides not only prevented young players from taking their places but further strengthened the most dominant teams, which in turn frustrated young players in weaker
54 teams which were beaten with monotonous regularity.
The limited number of senior clubs in Sydney was another hindrance to the development of young players. With only six clubs in the 1890/1 competition the chances for young players to gain experience at the highest level of club cricket were clearly limited. To encourage
more clubs and players to participate in the competition the NSWCA dropped the minimum membership for clubs from thirty to t w e n t y . ^ Two new clubs, Parramatta and
Ivanhoe, joined the competition in 1891/2 and I Zingari joined in 1892/3, but this was offset by the withdrawal of Oriental in 1892/3 and Parramatta after only one season. Neither club was successful against the best teams and dropped out of the competition rather than continue at the bottom of the premiership table.
53. Pollard, op. ait., 407-8.
54. Team lists published in the S4H show that
Charles Bannerman and Alfred Marr both remained with Carlton until 1892, the latter in spite of his coaching duties for the Sydney CC.
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A further hindrance to the cultivation of young
players was the lack of good grounds in Sydney and this too was largely the fault of the senior club system.
Only four grounds were used for senior cricket in 1890/1. Of twenty-one matches played during the season eight
were on the SCG, eight were on the Domain, two were on the University Oval and one was at the RAS Ground. ^ The inclusion of Parramatta in the 1891/2 season
brought Parramatta Oval into use and I Zingari used Rushcutters Bay Oval in East Sydney in 1892/3, but this
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did little to ease the problem. In 1883 the Sydney M a i Z-'s cricket writer 'Censor' complained that the only
decent wicket in Sydney was on the SCG and that the lack of good grounds had combined with the frequency of
international tours to lower the standard of NSW 5 8
cricket. A decade later Davis could still point to the lack of good wickets as being 'generally regarded as the chief cause of that listlessness so prevalent in
5 9 senior cricketing circles'.
People have always been able to find fault with the
selection of any given team but it is apparent that young
56. Venues were published weekly in the Referee and S'i H .
57. Ibid.
58. Sydney Mail, 19 May 1883.
club cricketers who showed promise in Sydney in the early 1890s were frustrated in their ambitions to play for NSW by the influence of Carlton in selecting
representative teams. In October 1888 Davis sarcastically remarked that the selectors of the NSW team thought
it 'an egregious error of judgement to give a young cricketer a show, however prominent his performances might have been'. He pointed to Carlton players who
had been selected to play for NSW but who, on performance, should not have been selected in the first team of any junior c o m p e t i t i o n . ^ In 1892, after NSW had lost its
last four intercolonial matches Davis wrote that the main theme of discussion in cricketing circles was why the claims of some of the younger players had been
ignored. He referred specifically to William Camphin who had scored heavily for the Oriental club after
leaving Carlton. Davis said, 'I have no doubt that if Camphin were a Carltonian still he would have received a show in big matches before t o d a y ' . ^
In 1892/3, when NSW lost three of its four intercolonials the selectors were John Portus and Alick Bannerman of Carlton and Harry Moses of Belvidere, and of the fifteen players who represented NSW during the season eight were from Carlton and three from Belvidere. Two others were from Sydney, one was from University and one from the
60 . I b i d . , 17 Oct 1888
country, so that none of the weaker clubs were represented. Davis, a member of the Ivanhoe club, was again incensed, declaring that:
It is a by-word amongst cricketers that anyone
whose ambition leads him to aspire to Intercolonial honors must join the Carltons in order to ensure
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himself a chance of selection.
If the lack of interest in club cricket and the poor per forma n ces of the NSW team were not enough to make the NSWCA seriously question the condition of senior club cricket, the revelation that the leading senior clubs were facing bankruptcy was. At a meeting of the NSWCA
committee in April 1893 Lewis Abrams, the honorary secretary of the Sydney CC, and Edward Briscoe, honorary treasurer of Carlton, spoke at length of the problems they had in collecting subscriptions, the main source of income for clubs. Briscoe said that when annual subscriptions
fell due members 'looked upon him as a dun, and absolutely avoided him', and that 'the more valuable the players the greater the difficulty [he had] in obtaining their
subscriptions'. Me warned the NSWCA that unless something 6 3
was done Carlton would go bankrupt. “ Apparently the senior players refused to pay the one guinea subscription and younger players followed the example of their elders.
62. Referee, 11 Jan 1893. Composition of the NSW team is
calculated from team lists which appeared in the EM H. 63. NSWCA minutes, 24 Apr 1893, S 4 H, 25 Apr 1893 § Referee,
Although all clubs were apparently affected, the experience of Warwick serves to illustrate the financial difficulties of the clubs. In 1891 Warwick, with eighty members, had a potential income of eighty guineas. It finished the 1890/1 season with a cash balance of twenty pounds but outstanding accounts of over fifty pounds and unpaid subscriptions worth another twenty pounds placed the
64 club in a perilous financial position.
In 1892 Davis blamed the problems of senior club cricket on the emphasis placed by the NSWCA on intercolonial cricket, at the expense of the proper management of the
clubs. He thought that the NSWCA had 'devoted its aggregate intelligence so much to Intercolonial matches...that little has been left to spend upon our local w a n t s ' .^ As a
member of the NSWCA Davis was in a position to speak
authoritatively about the business transacted at meetings. His view is confirmed by a close examination of the
minutes of the NSWCA during the early 1890s. Davis also believed that the NSWCA was out of step with the feelings of the majority of cricketers in Sydney, and that it was run by old men:
I think the infusion of newer blood, of more
active cricketers, even if they are less talkative or proficient in the debating art, would be beneficial to the game. A number of the most prominent
64. Warwick CC annual report 1 890/ 1 , SM H, 17 Sept 1891.
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committeemen are beyond the age when fun and frolic on the field is a pleasure to
look forward to, and quite a number of them are not actively identified with clubs. They do not know the feelings and the current desires of cricketers as well as it is desirable that they
s h o u l d .^ ^
This was the central problem. In the early 1890s the NSWCA was still run by people who had played the game in the 1870s. Not only had the senior club competition not changed in the intervening years but the ideas of
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officials had not changed either. By 1893 the lack of public interest in senior club cricket, the failure of the NSW team, and the fact that most of the senior clubs were close to bankruptcy made a dramatic change to the club system imperative. However, it appears as though the emergence of the suburban cricket associations, which
threatened to take the control of club cricket out of
the hands of the NSWCA, was the immediate stimulus to change.
* * *
The first move for change from within the NSWCA was in July 1892 when its honorary secretary, John Portus, sent a
letter to the Daily Telegraph urging the introduction of
66. Ibid.
67. The background of the old officials will be discussed later.
electorate cricket. Although a member of Carlton, Portus apparently put aside his club allegiance in the interests of the game. Noting that Sydney club cricket was 'languish ing', Portus said that electorate cricket was the only
thing likely to 'resuscitate the game'. If club cricket was based on localities he was sure that the public would support it: 'hundreds, if not thousands, of local partisans would put in an appearance to witness the play of their respective champions'.^
Portus was aware of the growing popularity of suburban cricket associations and his letter was stimulated by the formation of another in the populous inner suburb of
69
Redfern. He warned that electorate cricket 'could not... be accomplished if we have divided control' and urged
both the NSWCU and the suburban associations to support his efforts to get the NSWCA to introduce electorate
7 0
cricket. In that way Portus would establish electorate cricket and at the same time make the NSWCA the sole manager of club cricket in Sydney.
The idea of playing cricket on a local basis was not new. The English County Cricket Championship and club cricket and football in Melbourne were cited as successful examples
68. Daily Telegraph, 2 July 1892.
69. See below.
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of local sport. In September 1891 Davis declared: The glorious success of county cricket in old
England, and the intense interest taken in the game of football in Victoria are irrefutable proofs that the localisation of legitimate sports or pastimes is the forerunner of that success so eagerly sought
[in Sydney].
In 1890 33,000 Melbournians watched South Melbourne beat
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Carlton in the club football final. As well as attracting large crowds, suburban cricket and football in Melbourne produced a network of well-appointed suburban grounds. As in Sydney senior club cricket, Melbourne cricket clubs played for challenge cups, but with a sixpence entry charge to matches Melbourne's suburban grounds developed into
first class ovals. In 1876 the Australasian' s cricket
writer commented favourably on the results of the admission charge and the large crowds attracted to local cricket
m a t c h e s :
The East Melbourne ground lias been greatly
improved...(and) at South Melbourne, a wonderful transformation has also taken place, and the beautifully green and well-kept turf, the neat
pavilion and well-grassed reserves are all due to the 7 3
admission fee.
71. Referee3 3 0 Sept 18 91.
72. L. Sand ercock 6 I. Turner, Up where Cazaly? the
great Australian game3 Sydney 1981, 40.
There was no residential qualification requiring
players to represent the suburbs in which they lived
so there was still the chance that, as in Sydney, the best players would be attracted to one or two clubs.
Between 1860 and 1906, when a residential qualification was introduced, East Melbourne won the club premiership
eighteen times and Melbourne won it fourteen times but the other clubs enjoyed some success, and the
74 system was better than senior club cricket in Sydney.
Local cricket clubs were also common in
Sydney,
but not at the highest level of competition. In the 1870s and 1880s scores of local cricket clubs were formed around Sydney, most playing only occasionally and against particular rivals, but some played in the junior competitions and others in suburban associations. In all cases local councils were closely associated7 5
with the clubs. Between 1878 and 1880 the boroughs of Darlington and Glebe played annually on the
University Oval, contesting a cup donated by Andrew
7 (S
Bayliss, secretary of the Glebe Borough CC. In 1881 and 1882 Glebe and Balmain contested a cup
74. Pollard, op. cit., 1045.
75. Lists of office-bearers in these clubs published in the press show that aldermen and mayors were generally elected as patrons, presidents or vice-presidents .
76. SV H , 10 £ 11 Jan 1 905. In 1905 a controversy
arose in the press as to who was responsible for initiating electorate cricket in Sydney.
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subscribed by the ratepayers of both boroughs. The suburbs of Randwick and Waver ley became keen rivals
and their annual cricket match was a major social event. In 1890 the fourth annual borough match attracted 800 locals to Waverley Oval. The Waverley Fire Brigade
Band was there, as were the local mayors and parliamentarians and at a function at Stratton's Grand Hotel in the evening
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many toasts were drunk. The most successful local club was Parramatta. In 1890 it was granted a five
year lease on Parramatta Park for five pounds per annum, and in 1891/2 the club entered the senior club premier ship, winning one match losing six and finishing second
7 9
last on the table. Parramatta's performance
shows the problem faced by local clubs. They were
popular with the public who were keen to support them as players, officials and spectators, and they were well supported by local councils, but the leading players and officials spurned them in favour of the old senior
clubs.
The outer Sydney suburbs which existed in 1890 had been mainly established after 1870 and with the growth of
77 . Ibid.
78 . Ibid. , 10 Feb 189 0
municipal government over the same period municipal
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pride grew too. In the 1890s many suburbs, even the older ones like Balmain and Paddington, remained fairly insular, while the newer ones such as North Sydney, Manly, Randwick and Waver 1ey were completely isolated, in some cases by the harbour and in other cases by open country, from the rest of the city.c Residents were proud of their localities, causing a certain amount of friendly rivalry between municipalities. This was possibly accentuated in the newer suburbs where many of the residents were businessmen and their families, the
8 2
former travelling into the city only to work.1"
This rivalry was initially localised and limited to adjacent boroughs, as when the ratepayers of Glebe and Balmain subscribed to a challenge cup in 1881.
Improvements in transport in the 1880s and the further spread of the suburbs meant that people became more
mobile, travelling through other suburbs to and from work or on leisure outings at the weekend. Local councils therefore became aware of the need to advertise the prosperity of their suburbs. One symbol of prosperity
80. F.A. Larcombe, The stabilization of local government
in New South Hales 1858-1906, Sydney 1976.
81. Map of Sydney and suburbs showing tramlines and stopping places in 1894, held in the Mitchell
Library, and map of electoral districts of Sydney in
NSWLAVSP, 1893, supplementary volume.
82. A.J.C. Mayne, 'Commuter travel and class mobility in Sydney 1858-88', Australian economic history review,
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was the e r e c t i o n of p a l a t i a l town halls such as those at Randwick, built in 1882, Balmain, built in 1888
8 3 and the m a m m o t h P a d d i n g t o n e d i f i c e which opened in 1890. A n o t h e r symbol of m u n i c i p a l pride was a successful cri c k e t team.
In 1888 Fred Ironside, a r e a d e r in the g o v e r n m e n t
p r i n t i n g o f f i c e and v i c e - p r e s i d e n t of the NSWCU, tried to 84 e s t a b l i s h a r e g u l a r e l e c t o r a t e c r icket com p e t i t i o n . I r o nside o b t a i n e d a wick e t on the RAS Ground, and
p e r s u a d e d J.C. W i l l i a m s o n , the t h e a t r i c a l e n t r e p e n e u r and m a n a g e r of the T h e a t r e Royal, to don a t e gold medals for the w i n n e r s of the c o m p e t i t i o n . The c o m p e t i t i o n was cal l e d T h e a t r e Royal E l e c t o r a t e Cricket, and teams r e p r e s e n t i n g C a n t e r b u r y , Glebe, N e w town, P a d d i n g t o n , P a r r a m a t t a , Redfe r n , St Leonards, East Sydney, S o uth Sydney, and West S y d n e y w e r e entered. Howev e r , b e c a u s e the games were p l a y e d at the RAS Ground, w h ich was h a r d to get to from the sub u r b s w h i c h the teams r e p r e s e n t e d ,
local f o l l o w i n g s did not develop. More i m p o r t a n t l y , the p l a y e r s c o m p l a i n e d that they did not want to desert t h eir old clubs, and a f t e r three m a t c h e s the