It might be 10 years since 2005, but it’s 120 years since the first great Ashes battle – a series that was also led by a true hero of English sport, writes David Frith.
First published in 2015
First published in 2015
It was the first great Ashes series. There have been a couple since to match it, but England’s triumph in Australia in 1894/95 elevated Anglo-Australian competition to a peak that has simply been sustained as the years have passed. Even Queen Victoria took an interest in the scores as they came through via the new cable service.
England’s skipper was Andrew Ernest ‘Drewy’ Stoddart, widely known as ‘Stoddy’, miserably overlooked in the 100 years since his death. Having already led his country bravely and thrillingly on the rugby field, and in Australian Rules football matches in Melbourne in 1888, he was the first and still the only man to captain England in three sports.
Beloved by cricket followers in both countries, Stoddart put an astounding number of landmark entries into cricket’s story. His 485 for Hampstead in a club match in 1886 was for years the highest score in any cricket game. In 1893 at Lord’s he became the first captain to declare a Test innings closed. It was also at his home ground at Lord’s that season that he became the first batsman since way back in 1817 to score twin centuries in a match there. That same summer, for Middlesex against Notts, he also became the first batsman to reach three figures before lunch on the opening day of a county match.
Onward charged Brown, to rapturous applause from the immigrants in the MCG crowd, on to his century, cutting and pulling manically, to 140, when he was caught. His stand with Ward was worth 210 – a new overall Test record – in only 145 minutes. England were almost home.
They did it: 298 in only 215 minutes off 88 six-ball overs: stats worth pondering. The Ashes had been won in a sensational series, the like of which would not come along until 2005. And the skipper who steered England through that series? “A courteous gentleman,” wrote MacLaren, “his delight over the success of any member of his side was beautiful to behold. His kindness to me was such that I always felt I could never do enough to make myself worthy of his affection.”
Drewy Stoddart, who shot himself on April 3, 1915, 100 years ago, England’s favourite and finest sportsman, and not even a memorial plaque or gravestone for him a century later.
