Other Matches
The tour began well for the Australians with an innings victory in their opening match at Uckfield against a team chosen by Lord Sheffield which included W. G. Grace, George Ulyett, Billy Barnes, Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury. Although Fred Spofforth, Harry Boyle and Billy Midwinter were all playing, the Australian bowling was performed by George Giffen and Joey Palmer only, and they both took ten wickets in the match. However, the key performance in conditions that helped the bowling was Alick Bannerman's innings of 94 which alone outscored the Sheffield XI's first innings total of 86.
The Australians had mixed success in their next five matches, winning against Surrey and an All-England XI but losing to Oxford, MCC and the Gentlemen. An innings of 71 by Tup Scott in a low-scoring match was the key to defeating Surrey by 8 wickets. Centuries by Grace, A. G. Steel and Barnes gave MCC an innings victory at Lord's and Warner described this feat as "remarkable".
The next ten matches prior to the Old Trafford Test were played mainly in the north of England and the Australians did very well in this period, through June and into early July. They lost only to the North by an innings at Old Trafford when their batting struggled against Ted Peate and Ulyett while good scores by A. N. Hornby and Barnes ensured the North's victory. Giffen had a memorable game when the Australians played Lancashire at Old Trafford, taking a hat trick in the Lancashire innings and then scoring 113. That match was drawn but the Australians defeated both Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire by the same three-wicket margin. Spofforth, Palmer, Peate and Tom Emmett dominated the match at Bradford in which only 255 runs were scored in total. At Trent Bridge, the bowling of Giffen and Palmer enabled the Australians to recover from a first innings deficit of 39 and win. In the return match against the Gentlemen at the Oval, the last three English batsmen including Lord Harris were all stumped by Jack Blackham.
Between the first and second Tests, the Australian victory over Middlesex, whose batting could not cope with Spofforth, was their only win in four matches at Lord's. The Australians struggled in a drawn game against Sussex for whom George Wyatt and Henry Phillips both scored centuries. Spofforth with 14 wickets and George Bonnor with an innings of 68 in a low-scoring match put the Australians back on track when they easily defeated a strong Players XI at the Oval.
An innings of 60 by Lord Harris helped Kent recover from a first innings deficit before the Australians, batting last, collapsed to lose by 96 runs at Canterbury. The first match against Gloucestershire was drawn, W. G. Grace scoring 116 not out for his county. The Australians won the second match convincingly with an innings total of 402 (Giffen 91, Billy Murdoch 89) before dismissing Gloucestershire for only 83. This began a good finish to the tour as the Australians won five of the last seven matches following the third Test. They twice defeated the South by an innings, Spofforth taking a total of 24 wickets in these two matches, but were again beaten by the North, for whom Dick Barlow scored a century and took ten wickets in the match.
Read more about this topic: Australian Cricket Team In England In 1884
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