The Handsome and Extravagant George Bonnor

Martin Chandler | 9:14am BST 01 September 2024

Published: 2024
Pages: 65
Author: Cardwell, Ronald
Publisher: The Cricket Press Pty Ltd
Rating: 4 stars

What did I know of George Bonnor before I opened Ronald Cardwell’s latest welcome contribution to the literature of cricket? Not a great deal is the answer to that one, although at the same time the name was a familiar one.

I knew Bonnor was a very tall man, and a batsman who played plenty of Tests back in the 1880s. I knew too that his record was a modest one, albeit that there had been a spectacular century. The only bit of minutiae that had stuck in my head was that he was famously caught by Fred Grace in the solitary 1880 Test in England from a skier hit so high that Bonnor was on his way towards completing his third run when the ball dropped into Fred’s hands.

In fact I didn’t realise quite what a modest record Bonnor had, at least in England. In ten Tests here spread over five series he managed just 97 runs at an average of 5.39, and that for a specialist batsman. His record in Australia was rather better, that century and both his half centuries coming in home Tests, where his 415 runs came at a much more respectable 34.58.

In truth however the standard books on Australian cricket and cricketers don’t actually include a great deal of additional information about Bonnor something which, I suppose, is what spurred Ronald Cardwell into action. A man who’s life’s work seems to involve rescuing lesser known Australian cricketers from obscurity has turned his attention to Bonnor and has approached his task with his customary thoroughness and, as importantly, enthusiasm.

It turns out that Bonnor’s parents were both English, although not the first members of his family to emigrate to Australia. They ended up in Bathurst New South Wales and Bonnor had eight siblings altogether. Cardwell follows all of them and there are, not unnaturally, descendants of some that he was able to locate, although Bonnor himself never married nor had children.

The picture that emerges is not a complete one, but even though Bonnor only ever gave one interview, and that as late as 1910, two years before his death at the age of 57, Cardwell does a fine job not only of reconstructing Bonnor’s cricket career but also his life outside the game. More than that however with the judicious use of contemporary sources Cardwell also manages to put a good deal of flesh on the bones of Bonnor’s character and personality.

The Handsome and Extravagant George Bonnor is published in a limited edition of 180 copies and is available in Australia from Roger Page, or in the Northern Hemisphere from Boundary Books