Issue 36: Summer 2006/07 - Melbourne Cricket Club

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Treasures from the Collection- Rare Cricket Trade CardsA.C. MacLaren’s team 1901/02 by McCracken’s City Brewery LtdAfter losing the First Test in Sydney by an innings, Australia wenton to win the next four Tests, by 229 runs in Melbourne, by 4wickets in Adelaide, by 7 wickets in Sydney and, finally, by 32 runsin Melbourne.The newly opened MCC Museum recently acquired a stunning“set” of early and extremely rare Australian cricket trade cards.The cards depict 12 of the 14 members of Archie MacLaren’sEnglish team which toured Australia in 1901/02 and were issuedby the Melbourne company McCracken’s City Brewery Ltd. Thefeatured players are: A.C. MacLaren (Captain), S.F. Barnes, L.C.Braund, C. Blythe, H.G. Garnett, J. Gunn, T. Hayward, G.L. Jessop,A.O. Jones, A.A. Lilley, W.G. Quaife and J.T. Tyldesley. The twomissing players from the collection are C.P. McGahey and C.Robson and to date neither of these cards has ever been seen.Neither Garnett, who was killed in action in France in 1917, norRobson played a Test match during the tour.Another snippet of interest is that the amateur members of theside, MacLaren, Garnett, Jones, Jessop, McGahey and Robson,were made Honorary Life Members of the Melbourne CricketClub. i Indeed A.C. MacLaren’s team was the last of the Englishteams that toured under the auspices of the Melbourne CricketClub. From Pelham Warner’s 1903/04 team until the 1977Centenary Test side, the English played in Australia under theauthority of the Marylebone Cricket Club.The cards consist of black and white portraits of the players,surrounded by borders of dark blue enclosing bars of red andwhite checks. This design was clearly taken from the team’suniform. In the article entitled Arrival of MacLaren’s team inAdelaide, published in the Australasian of November 9, 1901(p.1047) it is noted that, “The English cricketers ... were easilydistinguishable by small red and white checks on their blue hatbands.” (These bands can be seen in pictures of players in theAustralasian, November 16, 1901, p.1118.) While the red, whiteand blue could be considered their national colours, taken fromthe Union Flag, they could also be seen as the colours of theteam’s sponsoring club.A similar set of cards featuring the same touring players wasissued by Hordern Bros. a Pitt Street, Sydney department store.R. McCracken & Co’s brewery was founded by Robert McCrackenin Collins Street, Melbourne in 1851, the same year gold wasdiscovered in Victoria. The thirst of the huge influx of minersflocking to the goldfields increased business manyfold and it grewsteadily until the disastrous financial depression of the 1890s.The company managed to survive until 1907 when, with fiveother breweries, it merged into Carlton & United Breweries Ltd.Robert’s son, Alexander, who had been the managing director ofMcCracken City Brewery Ltd, became a director with CUB uponthe merger. The impressive group of buildings, which formed themassive brewery works, were located opposite where today’sRialto Tower stands. The brewery was demolished by Jim Whelan(of Whelan the Wrecker fame) not long after the merger.Alexander McCracken was the man in charge at the time thecricket cards were produced. He must have been quite anamazing man for among his many interests he was the firstsecretary and later president of the Essendon Football Club andlater, when the Victorian Football League broke away from theVictorian Football Association, he became the inaugural presidentof the new football body. His biography reveals he was either thefounder, president or patron of some 17 sporting and civic bodies.Somehow, in 1894, he found time to unsuccessfully stand for theLegislative Assembly against Alfred Deakin who later became thesecond Prime Minister of Australia. He died, aged 59 in 1915, inhis beloved Essendon, the suburb he had devoted so much of histime, energy and money to. His portrait hangs in the EssendonFootball Club’s rooms.The twelve cards are now prominently displayed in the cricketanasection of our magnificent new MCC Museum.Acknowledgements.Melbourne Cricket Club MuseumMelbourne Cricket Club LibraryLa Trobe Library, Melbourne.Sources.The Australasian, 1901.Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol.10.Robyn Annear, A City Lost and Found.Eric Panther and Ken WilsoniMinutes of MCC Committee Meeting, February 21, 1902.“Members’ badges to be presented to professionals in Englishteam. Honorary Life Memberships to the 5 Amateurs of the Team.”The Yorker - Summer 2006/07
BOOK REVIEWSPonting, Ricky withMurgatroyd, BrianAshes Diary 2005: From Victory in Indiato the most dramatic Test series of thecenturyHarper Collins: Sydney, 2005ISBN: 0732281520For many Australian cricket fans, the 2005 Ashes Series left aperpetual heartbreak. Ricky Ponting provides a very personalaccount of this memorable period as captain of the Australianside. Beginning with the Sri Lankan Top End Tour in June 2004,the Ashes Diary 2005 gives insights into Ponting’s county cricketdebut with Somerset in England, as well as the Videocon Cup andICC Champions Trophy. Ponting expresses his disappointment atmissing the majority of Australia’s victorious Test tour of Indiaas a result of a fractured thumb. Also well accounted for are thefollowing tours of New Zealand and Pakistan in Australia, theTsunami match, the VB series with the West Indies and Pakistan,and the Test and one-day tour of New Zealand that also includedthe first Twenty20 international.The most significant piece from The Ashes Diary 2005 is thatwhich focuses on the dramatic Australian tour of England in thesummer of 2005. The past year had been leading up to this pointand Ponting portrays his anguish of the inevitable loss of theAshes to England. Ponting gives a candid response to the failuresof Australia which led to the loss of the Ashes. It is interestingto note the high praise he gives his fellow Australian teammatesthroughout Ponting’s reflection. At the same time he givesemphasis to the dramatic tie in the NatWest Series and victory inthe NatWest Challenge. Also included is an in-depth section ofthe 2004/05 statistics period, compiled by Ross Dundas.The Ashes Diary 2005 is the third contribution by Ponting ascaptain of Australia and provides a valuable account of eventswhich led to the Ashes clash and arguably the most dramatic TestSeries of the century. It is a captain’s story with notable highs, yetwill be most known for its dramatic lows. It is a considerable readfor any cricket lover, a delight for whichever side of the fence youhappen to be on. It also provides a nice curtain-raiser to the much-anticipated 2006 Ashes Series.Nathan CaddenPonting, RickyCaptain’s Diary 2006: Australia’s Road tothe Battle for the AshesHarper Sports: Sydney, 2006ISBN 10: 0 7322 8153 9ISBN 13: 978 0 7322 8153 3The fourth in Ricky Ponting’s diary series, the 2006 version (coauthoredby Geoff Armstrong) covers the period between October2005, when a World X1 visited Australia, and April 2006 whenthe short tour of Bangladesh concluded. During this 25-weekperiod, the Australians played 25 One Day Internationals, 12 Testsand two Twenty/20 Internationals. Thirty players were used andthe matches were played in four different countries. Only sevengames were lost, none of them Tests, a formidable record forany captain.In the first section of the book, Ponting looks back to the difficultperiod following the loss of the Ashes. He arrived home to theinevitable speculation about his role in the defeat, Dennis Lilleeleading the charge and nominating Shane Warne as a betterproposition if the Ashes were to be regained. Ponting admits thathe was hurt by the criticism, but could not afford to overreact.Unfortunately he doesn’t spend enough time on his personalresponses to the criticism, instead shifting the discussion to thereview of the team’s performance carried out by Cricket Australia.It is all just a bit too bland, a characteristic which, unfortunately,is typical of this genre. For example, statements such as: “I havealways said that if we can focus on things we can do, rather thanworrying about outside things that are beyond our control, we cancompete with any team in the world”, become rather tedious.The main problem with the book as a whole is that the diaryformat is followed religiously. Every game is commented on inat least some detail. Even the most creative of observers wouldfind it difficult to find something of real interest to say abouteach of the 25 one day games Australia played during the periodcovered. Ironically, although Ponting gives his personal thumbsdown to the concept of Twenty/20 cricket at the internationallevel, the short chapter spent on the game in Brisbane againstSouth Africa is of comparative interest, if only because it issomething a little different.Perhaps the subtitle of the book gives the game away. After theAshes were lost in one of the finest series ever played, everythingthat happened in the 18 months before the return clash inAustralia was going to be seen as a prelude. The series againstSouth Africa began with plenty of hype, but the reality was thatthe best they could do was force one draw in the six Tests played.The severely undermanned West Indians were never going toprovide a real contest and Jason Gillespie scored a double centuryagainst Bangladesh. One hundred and thirty pages are allocatedto coverage of the Test matches. The final 86 pages contain thescore cards from every game played, as well as the averages foreach series. The next diary should be more interesting.Denis CarrollThe Yorker - Summer 2006/07
Page 4: The Pavilion ClockIn late November
Page 10 and 11: Thompson, HarryPenguins Stopped Pla
Page 12: Vale Paul RigbyOn November 15, 2006

Issue 36: Summer 2006/07 - Melbourne Cricket Club

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