Australian Cricket Team in England in 1884 - Tour Preparations and Voyages

Tour Preparations and Voyages

The Fourth Australian team was selected after Christmas 1883 at which time Victoria were playing New South Wales at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in a match which ended on New Year's Eve with a three wicket win by Victoria. Another match was arranged to start on New Year's Day, also at the MCG, between the Fourth Australians and a Combined XI. All the tour selections except Spofforth were playing, though Scott played for the Combined XI. Murdoch scored a career-high 279 not out and McDonnell 111 in a total of 619, the result being a draw. A return match with the Combined XI was arranged in February at the Association Ground in Sydney. Scott played for the Fourth Australians, replacing Alexander, and Spofforth played for the Combined XI, the Fourth Australians winning by 9 wickets.

Unlike other Australian touring teams, the 1884 team organised the project themselves and so it was a private business venture which involved none of the Australian colonial cricket associations. The players invested agreed sums to fund their travel and cover any losses.

After one final match in Adelaide, which was the last time South Australia needed odds (i.e., extra men) to compete, the tourists left Melbourne on 11 March 1884 aboard the P & O steamer Sutlej and arrived at Plymouth on 29 April. With a programme of 32 fixtures arranged, the first game in England began on 12 May at Sheffield Park, Uckfield and the last game against the South of England was completed on 12 September. The team travelled home on the SS Mirzapore and reached Melbourne again in early November. Murdoch enjoyed a shipboard romance on the return voyage with an heiress called Jemima Watson whom he married at Fitzroy, Victoria in December, only a few weeks after the Mirzapore berthed.

The outward bound voyage had a short stopover at Colombo where the Australians played a drawn game on Galle Face Green against a Ceylon XVIII in a one-day match on 1 April. The return voyage also stopped off in Colombo and the team played another odds match, again on Galle Face Green and drawn, on 23 October.