On
the 6 September 1880, the Australian touring team commenced
play in a hastily-arranged match at The Oval, against an England XI
captained by Lord Harris, which is now deemed to be the first Test staged in England.
It was won by the home side in a thrilling contest, on a difficult wicket.
Despite the authorities dismissive approach to the tour,
the appeal of a match proved a massive attraction, with 20,814 spectators paid
admission on the first day, and another 19,863 on the second.
In glorious sunshine, Lord Harris won the toss and batted. W.G. Grace made 152 in three hours 55 minutes, while Bunny Lucas and Lord Harris added fifties. England’s tail was polished off on day two for 420, the last six wickets falling for 16 runs. England then bowled out the Australians for 149. The Nottinghamshire left-arm seamer, Fred Morley [1850-1884], took 5 for 56 in 32 overs.
Fred Morley
The follow-on was enforced and the Aussies made
327, making England bat again, but few doubted the result game, and England
knocked off the 57 required to win by 5 wickets in 33.3overs.
The sad footnote to the match was that Fred Grace, the youngest of the three Grace brothers playing in the game. From the Oval match, he was traveling to a match in Stroud, and got soaked in the rain, slept the night on a damp mattress, and contracted pneumonia, and died within a few days.
On the 5 September 1826, the prominent English cricketer, John Wisden, was born in Crown Street, Brighton, Sussex (1826-1884).
John Wisden – 1859
Wisden played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. Initially a fast round-arm bowler, before overarm bowling was permitted, his pace slowed in later years so he bowled medium pace, and slow underarm. While bowling fast, he took on average nearly 10 wickets in each game.
He was also a competent batsman, and scored two
first-class centuries.
After his father died he moved to live in London, with the wicket-keeper Tom Box.
In 1845, aged 18, he made his first-class debut for Sussex against the MCC, taking 6 wickets in the first innings and three in the second. He joined the All-England Eleven in 1846, and moved to the United All-England Eleven in 1852.
In 1849 Wisden was engaged to George Parr’s sister Annie, but she died before the wedding, and he never married. He traveled with a touring team led by George Parr to Canada and the US in 1859.
He retired from cricket in 1863 at the relatively early age of 37. He is best known for launching the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in 1864, the year after he retired from first-class cricket.
Wisden died at the age of 57, in the flat above his Cranbourn Street shop. and is buried in Brompton Cemetery.
On the 4 September 1902, the Olympic equestrian, Lorna Johnstone, MBE, was born in York [1902- 1990]. Specialising in dressage, Lorna represented Great Britain in three Summer Olympic Games, in 1956, 1968, and the in the 1972 Olympic Games, when at the age of 70 she became the oldest ever British competitor, and oldest woman ever to take part in the Olympic Games.
Her best finish was 5th place in the 1968 Mixed Dressage Team event.
The 9th Walker Cup, was played on 2-3 September, 1936, at the Pine Valley Golf Club, Pine Valley, New Jersey. The United States won, for the first and only time in the history of the event, by 9 matches to 0 with 3 matches tied.
Four 36-hole matches of foursomes were played on
Wednesday and eight singles matches on Thursday. Each of the 12 matches was
worth one point. If a match was all square after the 36th hole, extra holes
were not played.
Francis Ouimet was the captain of the US team, and was given the option of whether to play himself or not. The day before the match he announced he would not play, to give the younger players a chance, and that all the other members of the team would play in either the foursomes or the singles.
William Tweddell, the captain, of the GB & I team did not select himself, or Laddie Lucas for any of the matches, as Lucas recently suffered tonsilitis.
USA Team: Captain: Francis Ouimet; Albert Campbell; George Dunlap; Walter Emery; Johnny Fischer; Harry Givan; Johnny Goodman; Reynolds Smith; George Voigt; Ed White; Charlie Yates.
Great Britain & Ireland Team: Captain: William Tweddell, Eng; Harry Bentley, Eng; Morton Dykes, Scot; Cecil Ewing. Ireland; Alec Hill, Eng; John Langley, Eng; Laddie Lucas, Eng; Jack McLean, Scot; Gordon Peters, Scot; Hector Thomson, Scot.
Result: GB&I 0 – USA 9: Foursomes: GB & I 0 – USA 2: Singles: GB & I 0 – USA 7
On the 2 September, 1967, the American amateur golfer, Francis DeSales Ouimet, died in Newton, Massachusetts, aged 74.
Frances DeSales Ouimet – 1913
Frequently referred to as the ‘father of amateur golf’, Ouimet won the US Open Championship in 1913. He was the first non-Briton to be elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Ouimet was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb southwest of Boston. The Ouimet family were relatively poor, his father was a French-Canadian immigrant, and his mother was originally from Ireland.
When Francis was four years old, his family purchased a house on Clyde Street in Brookline, directly across from the 17th hole of The Country Club. Ouimet became interested in golf at an early age and began caddying at The Country Club at the age of 11. He taught himself to play, using clubs borrowed from his brother, and golf balls he found around the course.
It wasn’t long before Ouimet was the best high school golfer in the state. In 1913, Ouimet won his first significant title, the Massachusetts Amateur, at the age 20, an event he won five more times.
Frances Ouimet – 1913 US Open Championship
Ouimet originally declined to play in the 1913 US Open Championship, which was to be played at the course Ouimet knew best, The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, having just returned to work after competing in the National Amateur Championship. However, with the cooperation of his employer, participation was soon arranged.
Eddie Lowery was his ten year old caddie in Ouimet’s first appearance in the Championship. After 72 holes of regulation play, a three-way tie between Ouimet, Harry Vardon, and Ted Ray, was decided in an 18-hole play-off the next day. Ouimet won the playoff at one-under-par and became the first amateur to win the US Open.
Harry Vardon, Frances Ouimet, and Ted Ray – 1913
Ouimet’s US Open success is credited for bringing golf into the American sporting mainstream.
Ouimet never turned professional and remained an amateur for his whole career. However, in 1916, the USGA stripped Ouimet of his amateur status. The decision was greeted with uproar from Ouimet’s fellow golfers, and the USGA were compelled to quietly reinstate his amateur status after WW2.
On the 1 September 1866, the American professional boxer and World Heavyweight Champion, ‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett was born.
‘Gentleman’ Jim Corbett
Despite a career spanning only 20 bouts, he is best known as the man who In Sept. 1892, at the Olympic Club in New Orleans, Louisiana, won the World Heavyweight Championship by knocking out John L. Sullivan in the 21st round.
Corbett lost his Heavyweight Championship to the Cornish boxer Bob ‘Ruby Robert’ Fitzsimmons in Carson City, Nevada.
Corbett fought 20 bouts, winning 11, 5 by knockout;
with 4 losses, including 1 disqualification;
3 draws; and 2 no contests.
Corbett has been called the ‘Father of Modern Boxing’ for his scientific approach and innovations in technique. He also pursued a career in acting, performing at a variety of theatres.
Following his retirement from boxing, Corbett returned to acting, appearing in low-budget films and giving talks about pugilism.
On the evening of the 31 August 1969, the former World Heavyweight Champion, Rocky Marciano, was killed, along with a family friend and the pilot, when their single-engine Cessna 172-H came down in the American Midwest, on the eve of his 46th birthday.
Rocky Marciano
The trio had taken off from Midway Airport in Chicago, despite warnings of stormy weather on their flight path. At around 9 pm the descending Cessna hit an oak tree in the middle of a pasture, south-west of Newton Airport. The impact ripped off one of the wings and sent the disintegrating plane bouncing across farmland before it came to rest in a creek bed.
The intended destination, a trip of around two and a half to three hours, was Des Moines, Iowa, where a former high school sports star who had known Marciano since childhood, was opening an insurance business. The ex-champ, famously retired from the ring in 1956 with an undefeated 49-0 record, had agreed to make an appearance there to support the venture and a surprise party also awaited him.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived a short time later and struggled to locate the plane, eventually discovering the scene of devastation.The Jasper County medical examiner later concluded that all three men had been killed instantly. Air accident investigators moved in and a little over a month later the National Transportation Safety Board released a report which blamed the pilot, concluding that he was neither experienced nor qualified enough to cope with the weather conditions he faced that night.
On the 30 August, 1914, the English athlete, Sydney Wooderson, MBE, was born in Camberwell, London. Standing just 5 ft 6 inches tall, and weighing in at less than 9 stone, he was dubbed ‘The Mighty Atom’, and was at his peak in the 1930s and 1940s, setting a world mile record of 4 minutes 06.4 seconds at London’s Motspur Park in 1937, which stood for nearly 5 years.
Sydney Wooderson
He attended Sutton Valence School in Kent, where at 18 he became the first British schoolboy to break 4 minutes 30 seconds for the mile.
At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he suffered an ankle injury and failed to qualify for the 1,500 metres final. However, after surgery, his performance increased and culminated in his world mile record. In 1938 he set world records in the 800 metres and 880 yards, with times of 1 minute 48.4 seconds and 1 minute 49.2 seconds, respectively.
Off the track Wooderson was a solicitor, his poor eyesight ruling him out of active service during World War 2. Immediately after the war, he ran his fastest mile, 4 minutes 04.2 seconds, just behind Arne Andersson of Sweden.
He was awarded an MBE in the 2000 Birthday Honours List for services to Blackheath Harriers and athletics.
Wooderson lived in retirement in Dorset in the South of England. He remained a life member of Blackheath Harriers and was twice its President. He died in 2006 in a nursing home at Wareham, Dorset.
On the 29 August 1842, the eminent Victorian cricketer and rugby footballer Alfred Shaw was born in Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire (1842-1907).
Shaw bowled the first ball in Test cricket, and was the first to take five wickets (5 for 35) in a Test innings. He made two trips to North America and four to Australia, captaining the English team in four Test matches on the all-professional tour of Australia in 1881-1882.
Alfred Shaw
Shaw was one of the few cricketers of his time whose Christian name was used more frequently than his initials. Standing only 5 feet 6½ inches tall, Shaw put on copious weight near the end of his career, and his naturally corpulent build was so dramatically accentuated, he did not look to be the era’s finest medium-pace bowler, but there were few who questioned his credentials
Shaw’s first-class career extended from 1864-1897, and most of his matches were played for for Nottinghamshire. He had the unusual distinction as a professional of frequently captaining the county, which was vindicated when he took Notts. to four successive Championships from 1883 to 1886. He was a natural leader with a powerful personality, but his connection with Notts. all but ended after that last triumph. As his team-mates observed, the county went into rapid decline upon his departure.
During Shaw’s early career, he suggested that the creases should be made by whitewash, and this was gradually adopted through the 1870s. The origin of creases is uncertain but they were in use at the beginning of the 18 century when they were created by scratching, the popping crease being 46 inches in front of the wicket at each end of the pitch. In the course of time, the scratches became cuts which were an inch deep and an inch wide. The cut was in use until the second half of the 19 century when whitewashing replaced it.
In 1881, Shaw led a strike of Notts. professionals, demanding a formal contract of employment to guarantee an automatic benefit at the end of an agreed playing period. The Nottinghamshire Committee thought this was unjustified, and dropped every member of the team who agreed with Shaw. Eventually a reconciliation was reached, and Shaw resumed the captaincy.
Shaw’s first-class bowling average is by far the lowest of any bowler to have taken 2,000 or more wickets, by a substantial margin. But the pitches of the 19 century were far more bowler-friendly than those of today. Still, this did not stop W.G. Grace from asserting that, between 1870 and 1880, Shaw was ‘perhaps the best bowler in England’. Certainly, he was supreme among slow bowlers.
For many years he was on the MCC groundstaff. In 1874 he took all ten wickets for the club in a first-class innings. In 1875, against the MCC, he returned bowling figures of 7 for 7 off 41.2 overs, with 36 maidens.
In 1894, he bowled 422 overs his county, conceding 516 runs and capturing 41 wickets. The following year, at Trent Bridge, a year when it was so cold that K.S. Ranjitsinhji kept his hands in his pockets and fielded the ball with his feet, Shaw bowled 100.1 five-ball overs as his former team accrued 726 runs. He retired 2 matches later, and only returned to the first-class scene in 1897 to play the Gentlemen of Philadelphia.
Shaw helped fellow cricketers Andrew Stoddart and Arthur Shrewsbury to organise what became recognised as the first British Lions rugby union tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1888-1889. The team played 55 matches, winning 27 of 35 rugby union games and 6 out of 18 matches played under Australian rules.
He subsequently became a publican and died in Gedling, Notts. aged 64.
On the 28 -29 August 1922, the first Walker Cup Match, was held at the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, New York. The United States won 8 to 4.
There had
been heavy rain for several days before the event and course was very wet.
In February 1922 the USGA sent an invitation to the
R&A to send a team representing the British Isles to America to play a
match against a team representing the USGA. It was suggested that 10
players-a-side would be a suitable number.
The
Invitation to play the International Match was accepted, and the R&A
appealed to clubs to subscribe to a fund to finance the expense, estimated at £2,000
to £3,000.
The British team left Liverpool on 3 August on the Carmania and returned to Southampton on 19 September on the Aquitania.
There were eight players in each team. Four 36-hole matches of foursomes were played on Monday, August 28 and eight singles matches on Tuesday, August 29. Matches level after 36 holes were played to a finish.
US Team:
Playing captain: William C. Fownes, Jr.
Chick Evans, Robert A. Gardner, Jesse Guilford, Bobby Jones, Max Marston, Francis Ouimet, Jess Sweetser
GB Team:
Playing captain: Robert Harris [Scotland]
Colin Aylmer [England], John Caven [Scotland], Chubby Hooman [England], Willis Mackenzie [Scotland], Cyril Tolley [England], William Breck Torrance [Scotland], Roger Wethered [England], Reserve: Bernard Darwin [England].
Darwin, the golf correspondent of The Times, travelled with the team and became the official reserve. He was added to the team when the captain Harris could not play, having been bitten by a giant sandfly. Darwin played the American captain, Fownes, in the final singles match, which he won by 3 and 1.
Results: Foursomes: US 3 GB 1 Singles: US 5- GB 3 – Result: US 8 – GB 4
