Of the 23 Test Match players who have also represented Sydney University Cricket Club, four have played just one Test for Australia: Roley Pope 1884-85, Reginald Allen 1886-87, Otto Nothling 1928-29, and Beau Casson 2008. The first three are long forgotten or, at best, are arcane footnotes in cricket's long history. Pope played a Test despite averaging 12.23 with the bat in twenty 1st class games. Allen is remembered, if at all, as an uncle of England's Test captain, 'Gubby' Allen. Nothling is incorrectly remembered as the player who replaced Bradman in Australia's Test side.
RC ALLEN: AN UNLIKELY SUMMONS TO AUSTRALIA'S TEST TEAM
[My grateful thanks to Max Bonnell who has written extensively and comprehensively about Allen in 'Currency Lads' (2001) and also in 'Golden Blues' (2014)].
This is the story of Allen's part in the 1886-87 Australian season when an English side, made up entirely of professionals, managed by Alfred Shaw, toured Australia and played what have come to be recognised as two Test Matches. Allen, then aged 27, had been playing for Sydney University's 1st XI since 1876-77 with reasonable success, scoring over 2000 runs on pitches than were less than predictable, and taking 55 wickets with his attempted fast ones. He had also played six times for NSW, scoring just 89 runs@7.4.
How did such a moderately performed cricketer, who had a reputation for not committing himself fully to any cause in his life, come to be selected to play in a Test Match? He had undoubted academic ability and prospered in his studies, both at Sydney Grammar School and at Sydney University, gaining the highest pass in the Matriculation exams in 1875 and winning the University Medal in Classics and Mathematics and an array of scholarships before graduation with First Class Honours in 1879. His 145 in Sydney Grammar's annual game against Melbourne Grammar certainly brought him to the attention of the Sydney University Cricket Club's selectors. He also played in the University's 1st XV side and was a founding member of the Sydney University Athletics Club.
Allen's promotion to Australian cricketer, however, is a story of extraordinary coincidences and unlikely events.
Allen began the 1886-87 season with an undistinguished score of 12, playing for the University 1st XI against the Belvidere Club, before he was bowled by the future Australian left hander, Jack Ferris. At this stage, who could have predicted that before the season was out, Ferris and Allen would play in the same Test team? Allen had been unavailable for the first Saturday, as had JR Wood, and University played with nine men as Belvidere ran up a commanding total of 305. The start of play had been delayed for almost half an hour until the last of the nine players arrived. University's fielding and bowling were criticised stridently in the newspaper reports but observations that the University men "appeared to possess little interest" seemed to be of even greater concern. On the second day, WC Wilkinson and John Fletcher did not appear and University limped to a resounding defeat. The University players seemed to be treating their obligations with cavalier indifference.
The Club was in straitened financial circumstances. It had finished the previous season with a debt of 189 pounds, mainly due to unpaid subscriptions which were set at quite reasonable levels: one pound ten shillings for graduates and one pound one shilling for undergraduates. The major problem seemed to be that cricket-playing undergraduates were in short supply and graduates were taking their places anyway. More than twenty players represented University during 1886-87, some of them clearly not of 1st XI standard.
Allen may have been surprised to be among twenty who were called up to trial for the NSW team to play England commencing on 19 November 1886. In the event, he was omitted from the squad and did not play in that game.
Three months later, he found himself in the Australian team.
TEST CRICKETER
On Friday 25 February 1887, Sydney woke to heavy rain which continued intermittently throughout the morning. At the Association Ground (now known as the Sydney Cricket Ground), the start of play was delayed. This game is now acknowledged as the 2nd Test Match of the season, the 26th Test Match of all. England had won the 1st Test by 13 runs after being bowled out for 45 in their 1st innings. A number of Australian players were then either dropped or were unavailable for this 2nd Test and a severely weakened Australian team (known, ironically, as 'All Australia') had been chosen by the NSW selectors (Dave Gregory, Percy McDonnell and Harry Moses) who named eight NSW players in the squad of twelve, including Allen who had been 12th man in the 1st Test. He was, however, an absent 12th man, preferring to work in his family's legal firm. He attended not one of the days of play in this Test Match.
'The Telegraph' thundered:
"It is rather unsatisfactory that a representative Australian team could not be got together."
Five Australian players were making their debut for Australia.
On this damp Friday morning, Sammy Jones, for some unexplained reason, had not arrived at the ground by noon, the scheduled start of play. Sydney University's Jones had played in the 1st Test, his eleventh Test Match, scoring 31 and 18 in a low-scoring game. 12th man Jack Cottam, aged only 19, took his place in the XI despite the fact that he had played only once for NSW before this game. This was to be Cottam's one and only Test. He failed twice, scoring only 1 and 3 and he was never selected again. Ten years later, he died of typhoid on the goldfields in Western Australia.
Umpires Charlie Bannerman and John Sheddon Swift inspected the ground and found it soft and damp. The game did not get under way until 3pm, three hours late. England's captain, Arthur Shrewsbury, won the toss and chose to bat - a contentious decision. Would the wet pitch help the bowlers or would it be so slow that batsmen would have ample time to play their shots? The Sydney pitch was in poor shape at the time. Totals were low. Bowlers prospered. Batsmen struggled. The rain that had fallen in the morning may have bound the pitch together until it crumbled later in the game.
England scrambled to a respectable 7 for 128 by stumps. Jack Ferris and Charlie Turner had taken all seven wickets between them but Dick Barlow (24 not out) and William Flowers (37 not out) had constructed an unbroken 55 run partnership which had begun when England had been a precarious 7 for 73. Allen had fielded athletically diving from mid off to save runs.
On Saturday, the weather cleared and about 6000 spectators eventually took their places. In the first half hour, Allen pulled off two stunning catches to dismiss both not out batsmen. He leapt up at mid off to make a spectacular one-handed catch from Flowers, who had not added to his over-night score. Then he ran from mid off to catch a 'skier' from Barlow off Ferris' bowling.
Allen's place in the Australian side had come about simply because he was available. In November he hadn't even been chosen for NSW's game against England's XI. As we shall see, in three months, he simply grasped unlikely opportunities.
A TRIUMPH FOR AVAILABILITY
During late November, Allen had found form with a solid 27 not out for University's 1st XI against Parramatta. Then came an unlikely century when he scored 103, only his second century in his eleventh season in the University's 1st XI. These runs were scored in a fixture well below senior club standard against the XV of Ashfield. Four Ashfield players failed to appear and Allen plundered a bowling attack that was severely deficient. Nevertheless, when the NSW team to play England beginning on 10 December was announced, Adam Mather withdrew after being injured by an exploding soda water bottle and Allen was promoted to 12th man. On the morning of the match, Joe Davis withdrew and Allen was selected in his place. NSW was well beaten by 9 wickets. Allen was bowled by Johnny Briggs for 0 in the 1st innings but he opened the batting in the 2nd innings and added 52 for the first wicket with Percy Marr. Allen's aggressive 30 was top score.
He had no opportunity to press any further claims in the club matches over a two month period. From early January 1887 until 5 March, University and the Belvidere club waited to begin their fixture because the Association Ground was being used every Saturday with either "big matches" or bicycle races. By the time the Belvidere game got under way, Allen had played for NSW against Victoria (6 and 0 not out); had been 12th man in the 1st Test; and had played in NSW's third game against the English tourists starting on 18 February. This time he batted in cavalier fashion in the 1st innings for 41, a score worth far more than it appears as Allen had to counter the skilful bowling and the eccentricities of the Sydney pitch. In the 2nd innings, he was caught and bowled by George Lohmann for 0. His three 1st class games for the season had realised only 77 runs and contained two ducks. Nevertheless, a week after the NSW game against the tourists, he became the 47th Australian Test player.
UNDOUBTED MERIT
On Saturday 26 February, the Sydney wicket deteriorated. 18 wickets fell and Australia trailed by 67 runs on the 1st innings. Allen was entrusted to bat at second drop and he joined Henry Moses with Australia teetering at 2 for 15. Surrey's George Lohmann, bowling medium pace, had both wickets and he was to take another six (including Allen for 14) to finish with 8-35. Lohmann's productive Test career produced an extraordinary 112 wickets @10.75 in 18 games.
'The Mail' considered that Allen had played "an innings of undoubted merit for 14...he attacked the bowling and his cuts and mid off shots [off drives] are very well timed".
On Monday 28 February, Australia, set an unlikely 222 to win, were 5 for 101 at stumps despite a promising start. This time, Allen batted at number 3 and he was still there on 19.
On Tuesday 1 March, the collapse was complete. From 1 for 86 late on Monday, Australia could muster only another 64 and England won by 71 runs. Allen had played for Australia for the last time. But he had played a sterling knock, batting for almost two hours in a display of unusual caution before he was eighth out for 30. The 'Sydney Morning Herald' considered that he had "played the innings of the day, batting in very safe style and even taking advantage of loose balls."
Allen's method of dismissal was unusual as two curious incidents occurred on the last day of the game.
Firstly, Billy Barnes, England's all rounder who had taken 2-19 and 6-28 in the 1st Test, was unable to play in the 2nd Test. Short of players, England called in Lancashire's left hander Reginald Wood for his only Test. Wood was not part of the touring team but he had been resident and playing in Victoria for two years. Barnes, known for drinking heavily at times, had swung a punch at Australia's captain Percy McDonnell at a function after the 1st Test. There were allegations involving cheating and betting and Barnes' on-field disagreement with McDonnell, who had been given out LBW from Barnes' bowling, had escalated off the field. Barnes missed his target but connected with a brick wall, breaking his hand. Even with the addition of Wood, England had only eleven fit players. Australia's Jack Ferris and Charlie Turner substituted in the field for England when William Gunn was needed elsewhere. In the event, Allen was caught by Turner from Billy Bates' bowling, the second batsman in Test Matches to be caught by a member of his own team. In the 1st Test of 1884, Australia's Henry ('Tup') Scott was caught by Billy Murdoch substituting for WG Grace.
Secondly, umpire John Swift, born in London, a former Victorian player, umpiring his eighth and last Test, was inexplicably "absent" on the fourth day. He had been similarly "absent" during the previous week when NSW played England and had been late arriving at the ground on two other days. On 1 March, England's William Gunn deputised as umpire and Ferris and then Turner fielded for England in his place.
ALLEN CONCLUDES THE SEASON AS A CLUB PLAYER
University's game against Belvidere finally began on 5 March. University was soundly beaten by an innings and 30 runs. Allen made 32 and a duck in the 2nd innings when University's attempt to save the match was considerably affected by the strange conclusion to Tom Garrett's innings . A shower of rain drove the players from the field and Garrett, who was batting, left the ground. By the time the rain cleared, Garrett was nowhere to be seen and was entered in the scorebook as "12 retired."
It was this sort of casual behaviour, especially by Garrett, an established Test player, that contributed to University's poor season: 14 games, 4 wins. Allen, helped considerably by his 103 against Ashfield hit 215 runs @26.9, second in aggregate to George Barbour's 346 runs @28.8.
After 1886-87, Allen was to play six more 1st class games without great distinction. He did, however, continue to turn out for University, playing his last game in 1897 when he scored 51, aged almost 38. His 1st XI career for University produced 3086 runs @25.9 and 97 cheap wickets. He then played for IZingari Veterans into his fifties and lived long enough for his nephew, 'Gubby' Allen, to play for and captain England. When RC Allen died in 1952, he was the oldest living Test cricketer at the time, aged 93. It had been 65 years since he had played his solitary Test Match, when he batted for over three hours, all because he happened to be available when so many others weren't and consequently, he's among the 23 Test players who have also represented Sydney University.
Acknowledgements to:
Max Bonnell
Pat Rodgers
Ric Sissons
