The Shorter Wisden 2013 Read Online Free PDF Page A

to a 3–0 trouncing of Australia in 1886. Like Ulyett, Steel was a genuine all-rounder
– an attacking middle-order batsman and a leg-spinner who could turn it both ways; unlike Shaw, he was more interested in wickets than maidens.
    Steel was educated at Marlborough and Cambridge, and in his first full season of first-class cricket, in 1878, claimed 164 wickets at 9.43 apiece. For eight years, he rivalled Grace as the most
glamorous cricketer in England. As the journalist and broadcaster Alan Gibson – who always included Steel in his all-time XIs on account of his Christian names – later wrote: “He
used to wear a pill-box cap, a lavish moustache, a shirt buttoned to the neck, and a swaggering sash – at least that was how he liked to be photographed, the pattern of a Victorian
gentleman/cricketer.”
    In 1884, Steel became the first to score Test centuries in both England and Australia, as well as the first to score a Test century at Lord’s, where he has pride of place at the top of the
honours board. His record with the ball was less remarkable in Tests (29 wickets at 20) than in first-class cricket (789 at under 15). But as late as 1926, the historian H. S. Altham stated:
“Even today he must be written down as the best leg-break bowler in history.”
    After the last of Steel’s 13 England appearances, in 1888, only one batsman had scored more Test runs at a better average – WILLIAM LLOYD MURDOCH (1854–1911).
Armed with a small physique, quick footwork and stylish off-side strokes, Billy Murdoch was the outstanding Australian batsman of his era, a prolific accumulator on good pitches – his 211 on
a flat’un at The Oval in 1884 was Test cricket’s first double-century, and its highest score until 1903 – but technically good enough to cope in all conditions. He was the
nation’s champion, and it was his run-out that triggered that riot in Sydney. “He always thought he was going to make a century,” said C. B. Fry. “At least he did not think
he was
not
going to, no matter whether he had a month of minute scores behind him.”
    Murdoch made 153 in the first Test ever played in England, in 1880, and scored more than 1,300 first-class runs on each of three subsequent visits. He led Australia on all of them, and was the
first successfully to combine captaincy with consistent personal performances. A qualified solicitor, he gave up serious cricket after marrying into a mining family in the mid-1880s, having fallen
out with the Australian authorities over the share of gate receipts awarded to players. But he was lured back to lead the 1890 Ashes trip. He became a close friend of Grace, and joined an English
tour of South Africa in 1891-92, appearing in one match now deemed of Test status.
    Murdoch played in 16 of Australia’s first 17 Tests. The only one he missed was the very first, when his omission – as possible wicketkeeper – prompted
Australia’s best bowler to withdraw his services. FREDERICK ROBERT SPOFFORTH (1853–1926) was without question the greatest Test bowler of this period, and a key figure as Australia
challenged England’s notion of supremacy.
    Fred Spofforth began as an underarm bowler, but changed after watching the English cricketers on their 1863-64 tour. After his boycott of the inaugural Test, he took four wickets in the Second.
In 1878, he caused a sensation by claiming ten as the Australians dismissed MCC twice in a day at Lord’s, for 33 and 19. He would henceforth be known as The Demon. Injury prevented him from
playing in the 1880 Test, but in 1882 he bowled Australia to their famous win at The Oval after England – including Grace, Ulyett and Steel – had been left 85 to win. Incensed by
Grace’s devious run-out of Sammy Jones, who had left his crease to repair a divot, Spofforth urged his team on with the words: “Boys, this thing can be done.” And he saw that it
was, taking seven for 44 to clinch victory by seven runs.
    A bank clerk who