With Australia entering the most eagerly anticipated battle with England for The Ashes in decades, the Bendigo Advertiser continues a series by avid historian PETER MacIVER looking at Bendigo’s links to the origins of perhaps the most famous trophy in world sport...
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NO SPORTING career would be complete without the unusual or funny stories that seem to keep after-dinner speakers busy once their sporting days are done.
Here are a few involving WL Murdoch.
Always happy to score a duck
THE public receptions for the Australian XI were, for the most part, fine affairs, where the cricketers ate well, but this was clearly not the case in 1878 in Yorkshire.
The Morning Bulletin of Saturday, November 21, 1896 reported on a speech Jack Blackham, the former Australian XI wicketkeeper, made during lunch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1896: “Jack revived a story of the 1878 trip, when the team had to divide and go to two hotels in a Yorkshire town.
“One contingent fared sumptuously, the other contingent badly, getting next to nothing to eat. Billy Murdoch was invited to dinner by one of the sumptuous farers, who took pity on his captain. And what do you think Billy did? He smuggled a roast duck, took it to the theatre with him, took it afterwards to his lodgings, and he and Jack Blackham had it for supper – by far the best feed they had during their stay at Todgers’s, as Jack Blackham called their hotel.
Rooming with the Demon
SHARING a room is something with which most travelling players of sport would be very familiar.
On occasion, Murdoch appears to have shared a room with Fred “The Demon” Spofforth who was obviously a man who thought about his game a great deal.
This was recorded in The Windsor and Richmond Gazette of Saturday December 20th 1902: “At one time Spofforth was fairly ‘cricket mad,’ and Billy Murdoch relates that often when he longed to drop off to sleep at midnight, Spoff’ would keep him awake by starting bowling problems and starting discussions on them.
“‘For God’s sake, Spoff, give cricket a rest,’ Billy would shout in despair, and ‘let me go to sleep; I’m fairly dog tired.’
“‘All right,’ the Demon would reply, ‘but just think of this for a moment. If Grace gets ‘set’ tomorrow, and, after sending him down three or four cannon balls, I suddenly let him have a medium one with a lot of break from the off ?’
“‘Oh, dry up, or I’ll send you a boot that will break your blasted jaw!’ Billy would roar, but Spoff ‘would keep on until his room-mate started snoring, as a hint that the Demon was merely wasting his science on the midnight air.’”
Bail-out doesn’t help Billy
IT WASN’T just Spofforth who could bowl like a demon. In its “Cricket Memories” section the Adelaide Mail of Saturday, January 5, 1924 reports that: “When playing against Surrey at the Oval in 1895 he(Murdoch) was bowled by Richardson with a ball which sent a bail 55yds 3 in.”
Headspins against the leg break
AN ARTICLE in the Kalgoorlie Miner from 1946 recounts a story told by Murdoch.
“CB Fry has recounted another occasion on which a bird was caught instead of a ball. Fry says that WL Murdoch, the famous Australian captain, told him that during a match in the provinces in 1886, Tom Horan was fielding at third man when a batsman slashed at the ball and missed and the keeper took the ball close to the wicket. Tom Horan saw a ‘something’ flashing past his ear, made a sudden grab and caught a swallow.”
There is also an amusing story told about Murdoch involving Ted Peate, the Yorkshire and England slow bowler, which was reported in The Clarence and Richmond Examiner of Saturday, February 19, 1910.
“Peate, of course played repeatedly against the Australians. Mention of the fact recalled to him reminiscences of some of their famous players. George Giffen tells a story about an Australian batsman and his dislike of Peate’s bowling.
“The Yorkshireman beat him with a clipping leg-break in one innings. The batsman, determined that it should not happen again, got hold of a bat in his room at the hotel and began to make strokes at imaginary balls.
“At one he would play back and mutter, ‘That’s the way to play you, Peate.’ Then he would play forward, remarking, ‘Not this time, Peate, my boy.’
“At last he ventured on a big hit at a leg-ball, and, swinging round with a ‘How do you like that, Peate?’ sent the toilet seat, which he had forgotten all about, in fragments to the floor.
“Later in the day, confident that he would make a score, he faced the real Peate, and was clean bowled the first ball. Peate himself said that the hero of the crockery performance was always said to be WL Murdoch; in fact, he was told so by CTB Turner.”
Ted Peate was of course the last man bowled in Australia’s famous win of 1882 at the Oval which created the legend of The Ashes. As this year’s Ashes series approaches it is also worthwhile thinking about Murdoch’s suggestion for creating real ashes, written in an article for the London Daily Mail in 1905.
“And to provide real ashes, I do not think anything could be more appropriate than to get the only “WG” to cremate one of his bats, which, without doubt, would provide real tangible ones.” A great idea at the time, but I suspect not so practical now.
Coining phrases and showing respect
ONE final story about Murdoch falls into the “believe it or not” category.
While looking for information about Murdoch I came across a story written in 1976 and now published on the Lytham St. Annes website.
The story was about the English bowler RG Barlow who took Murdoch’s wicket more than a few times over the years. Talking of a cap belonging to Murdoch on display in his cricket collection, his son told the author: “He took off his cap and gave it to my father in admiration for him after England had won the Ashes and that led to the saying ‘I take my cap off to you’.”
Whether that is how the saying came about or not, I think all those who love cricket should take their cap off to WL Murdoch, a man who is truly a legend of the great game.
• Footnote: I would like to recognise the help I received in researching this story and thank the National Library of Australia for their excellent newspaper databases. I must also thank the wonderful people in the local studies centre of Bendigo Library for the help I received from them. Any mistakes are my own.
• See part four of this series – the legend of Harry Boyle – in Friday’s Bendigo Advertiser.
