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London, 1886. It was a damp, foggy night and the sound of horse’s hooves from a wildly driven hansom cab rang out across the cobbled streets.
Inside the house on Baker Street, Holmes and Watson were recounting the recently completed Lord’s Test match. “But how did W.G misjudge that one Holmes?”
“It was elementary my Dear Watson. Through my glass I could detect a slight bead of perspiration on The Demon’s brow.
“This occurred from the exertion caused by repositioning his index finger. It was an outswing grip you see Watson, any batsman worth his salt should have picked it.”
At that moment the cab was heard to pull up outside, followed by a desperate ring on the bell. Mrs Hudson opened the door and let out a shrill scream as a wild eyed stranger stood for a moment then fell face down onto the floor. Watson took the man’s pulse.
“Dead?” asked Holmes. “No, he’s been on a bender”.
Holmes examined the mysterious stranger.
“The white garb, he must be a cricketer. The red patch on his trousers, could only mean a bowler. The scent of eucalyptus oil on his hands, must be an Australian.”
Inside the man’s pockets Watson found a package with a note that read “from your teammates commemorating your recent achievement”. Inside the package was a pair of spectacles.
Unfortunately my little mystery isn’t nearly as interesting as a Sherlock Holmes whodunit but a bit of sensationalism never went astray. A few years ago when my mother passed away, I was left with a box of her memorabilia. I put this away in a cupboard and promptly forgot all about it.
Recently as I was doing my winter spring-clean I came across the box once more. Grateful for any excuse to stop cleaning I perused the contents of the box. What caught my attention was a little bag tied with a neat ribbon that contained three small booklets.
Just to put this into some perspective, my mother’s grandfather was a reasonable cricketer back in the colonial days. A New South Wales bowling partner of ‘The Demon’ Spofforth, he was good enough to play some Tests including a few in England.
In fact he may have even ridden in a hansom cab in London. I suspect that the items in the bag belonged to his widow who may have had access to cricketers through her husband’s contacts.
So let’s look at the three booklets.
The first has the title “Centennial Park Cricket Association” for season 1931-1932 signed by Alan Fairfax. Notable are the ads featuring establishments such as the Tea Gardens and Coogee Bay Hotels as well as famous retailers Nock and Kirbys (George Street near Circular Quay) and WA Oldfield’s Sports store in Hunter Street.
The second one is called “Test Cricket and Cricketers 1877-1934” which contains records and statistics. Under the section “curiosities” I found out that at the Oval Test in 1890, WG Grace was dismissed first ball in the first innings, dropped first ball in the second and never scored a “pair of spectacles” in his career.
The third is a leather bound autograph book. True to its name there are two pages with autographs inside. It is these autographs that piqued my interest. The first page has twelve signatures. I will do my best to transcribe them:
J Ryder
WM Woodfull
Alan Kippax
Pat Hornibrook
Archie Jackson
C Grimmett
Alan Fairfax
W Wall
W Oldfield
Don Bradman
A Oxenham
E L a’Beckett
The second page has the following signatures under the heading “England”
Maurice Tate
H Sutcliffe
M Leyland
E Tyldesley
And another I cannot make out.
Sure I could research this myself but it might be fun to obtain help from some readers, particularly if they have some knowledge and interest in this period of cricket history. So here are the questions for my little mystery;
1) When exactly were these autographs taken? Other entries in the book have the dates 1929 and 1930.
2) Does it represent players from an actual match? The absence of the Victorian Ponsford makes me think that this could be a NSW rather than an Australian team.
3) Does anyone have any anecdotes about any of these players, especially the lesser known ones.
4) Can anyone identify the signatures I can’t make out?
Oh, and one final mystery. Can you figure out who my ancestor is? He is represented by the mysterious stranger at Baker Street. Holmes and Watson provide all the clues.
I’ll leave you with a little verse from the autograph book, written by my great grandmother: “She studies mankind as thieves study a house – to take advantage of the weakest parts of it.”
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