Cricket’s Lost Prodigy
Martin Chandler |Published: 2024
Pages: 200
Author: Lefèbvre, Michael
Publisher: Cricketbooks.com.au
Rating: 4.5 stars
The sub-title gives the name of the prodigy, The Story of Karl Schneider. I wonder just how much that will mean to those with an interest in cricket history. To those of us whose enthusiasm for the subject is almost boundless the reaction will be one of absolute delight that a biography of Schneider has appeared. For those whose interest is more casual however I suspect the name will mean very little.
Schneider was an Australian who played twenty times at First Class level in the mid 1920s. The same height (5’ 2”) as one of my childhood heroes, Lancashire batsman Harry Pilling, Schneider is noted not just for his diminutive appearance, but also for a career average just shy of 50 and the virtual inevitability, had he not died at the tragically early age of 23, that the left handed opening batsman would have played many times for Australia.
In the past information about Schneider has been sketchy. Few sources have ever managed to add a great deal to the bare bones of his story, and in large part the main talking point over the years has been precisely what his cause of death was. It was established firmly some years ago that that was leukaemia, although having read Cricket’s Lost Prodigy I can see how something that should never have been in doubt became unclear.
The reason we now have a full biography of Schneider is twofold. Firstly the man who has written the book, Melbourne lawyer Michael Lefebvre is, like Schneider, an alumni of Xavier College in Melbourne who he has written before on the subject of its sporting history.
The second reason is, essentially, luck. Donated to the college in 2002 were boxes containing Schneider’s personal archive and memorabilia and, beyond that, Lefebvre was able to speak to those descendants who had deposited the archive. He was thus able to tap their knowledge as well, and to have access to other photographs and items of family history.
As to the story itself that traces the Schneider family back to their German roots and Schneider’s father’s emigration firstly to England and then, in 1887, to Australia. An interesting back story is told before the young Schneider’s schooldays at Xavier College in Melbourne introduce the gifted young sportsman who, until he reached the First Class game, would seem to have been a highly talented leg spinner as well as batsman, and indeed an exceptional fielder and good all-round sportsman.
Whilst in Melbourne Schneider made his debut for Victoria in the match against Tasmania in which Bill Ponsford scored 437, but the Victorian selectors seldom seem to have given youth its head in those days and, when Schneider’s first year at University with a view to entering the legal profession was less than successful, he was persuaded to move to Adelaide where he ended up under the wing of Harry Hodgetts, the stockbroker who was later responsible for bringing Donald Bradman to South Australia and whose own remarkable story was the subject of a biography last year, which Lefebvre reminds me I really need to invest in.
Of course there were only a couple of seasons with South Australia before, in 1927/28, Schneider was part of a strong Australian side that toured New Zealand between February and April. Schneider’s figures for the tour are comparable with those for the rest of his career, but the schedule was a punishing one and he was clearly unwell by the end of the trip. He got back home but his health was failing and five months later he was gone.
The story of Karl Schneider is by definition shorter than most, but much of the cricket he did play was well covered by a variety of publications and he is mentioned in the memoirs of all of whom he played with and against. Most important of all to his biographer, and to those interested in his life a century on, are the contents of those boxes held by Xavier College. The treasures inside, and in particular the correspondence to Schneider and from him to other members of his family give an indication of the character of the man himself that would otherwise have been impossible to capture at this distance in time.
Cricket’s Lost Prodigy is an excellent account of the short life and times of a man who might, had he lived, have gone on to achieve greatness. Well written the book is, as have been all of the books in this, the publisher’s Nostalgia series, exceptionally well produced. The archive has contributed a fascinating selection of photographs, the limited statistics that are available for such a short career are present as well as an index and an appendix reproducing the text of a treatise on batting that was written by Schneider and published in an Adelaide newspaper in 1926.
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