JT Tyldesley in Australia

Martin Chandler | 9:15am GMT 10 December 2023

Published: 2023
Pages: 58
Author: Sissons, Ric
Publisher: Red Rose Books
Rating: 4 stars

In the past I have been know to bemoan, more than once, the absence of a full biography of the great Lancastrian batsman of the ‘Golden Age’, JT Tyldesley. It is something that I have generally done on those not infrequent occasions when the man behind Red Rose Books, Martin Tebay, has produced one of his short run limited editions dealing with a particular match in which JT was involved.

It is not something that I will be able to do for much longer however, as a project I was first told about some years ago is finally coming to fruition and the early months of 2024 should finally see that biography arrive, fittingly with Red Rose as the publisher. In the meantime we have, to whet our appetites, a book about JT from the pen of Ric Sissons, one of Australia’s best known cricket historians, and therefore just the man to write this account of JT’s two trips down under.

JT’s first visit to Australia was in 1901/02, as a member of a side led by his county captain, Archie MacLaren. Two years later the MCC organised their first tour of Australia, and JT was a member of the successful side led by ‘Plum’ Warner that was responsible for reinventing the concept of ‘The Ashes’.

The reputation that has come down the years for JT is of the one professional batsman of his era with the same stylish technique that the legendary amateurs like Ranji, MacLaren and Fry had. He is also renowned for his performances on poor wickets one of which, his 62 out of an all out total 103 in England’s second innings in the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1903/04 attracted universal praise.

Sissons’ book, as it must given its subject matter, covers the cricket played throughout both tours but, in truth, it is not so much about that as the social structure of cricket in England at the time and more particularly the respective roles of the gentlemen amateurs and professional players, an area throughly explored by Sissons in his groundbreaking The Players: A Social History of the Professional Cricketer, published in 1988.

What makes this book so interesting, apart from an account of two Test series that are not particularly well chronicled elsewhere, is the account of what went on behind the scenes. Tyldesley was a rather different man to most professionals in that he also had his own business, a sports outfitters, so he clearly had a business brain. The negotiations over his and other pro’s fees for the tours, particularly the latter one, are fascinating. Let down badly in the end JT, unsurprisingly, declined the opportunity to tour Australia again in 1907/08.

Sissons’ account draws heavily on contemporary sources, and in particular letters written by JT that were published at the time. They give an interesting flavour of the times and how, despite his reputation as a poor businessman, MacLaren’s trip was, commercially if not in cricketing terms, considerable more successful than that organised by the MCC.

Published in a signed limited edition of 62 copies, to coincide with that remarkable innings at the MCG, JT Tyldesley in Australia is an excellent read, and is available directly from its publisher or, in Australia, from Roger Page.