The Australians at Sheffield Park 1884-1886
Martin Chandler |Published: 2025
Pages: 144
Author: Smith, Steve
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3 stars
This one is Steve Smith’s fourth book, and the first that doesn’t involve cricket in North America, his first title being a biography of Bart King, the next the story of the first First Class match played by the Philadelphians, and finally an account of a tour of North America in 1899 by a team led by Ranji.
I understand that Steve still has other projects that do involve Philadelphia, but this time he has concentrated on cricket in England or, to be more precise, the game as it was played during the ‘Golden Age’ at Sheffield Park in East Sussex.
The ground was owned by the third and, as it turned out, last Earl Sheffield, the earldom dying with him in 1909 in the absence of an heir. A cricketer himself in his youth the man usually referred to as Lord Sheffield is much better known as a benefactor of the game and, as the man who donated the Sheffield Shield to Australia, his name is still spoken today.
A wealthy man Sheffield spared no expense in the creation of the playing area at his estate and his generosity was such that he would allow all spectators free entry, as many as 25,000 taking advantage of that to attend the first day of the match against the 1896 Australians.
And it is the five fixtures that his Lordship’s eponymous eleven played against the Australian tourists of 1884, 1886, 1890, 1893 and 1896 that are the focal point of the book. All five sides were led by WG Grace and, with the possible exception of the first, have the look of England sides about them.
The fact that the first match was lost by an innings doubtless had something to do with the strengthening of the sides thereafter and the 1886 and 1893 matches were won and the home team had the better of a draw in 1896. Only in 1890 did the tourists repeat their triumph of 1884. In that encounter they had the good fortune, after the second day was rained off, to turn up for the final day to find the ground bathed in sunshine. A classic sticky wicket was the outcome and despite WG scoring top scoring with 20 his side fell to a dismal 27 all out.
Each of the five matches are described in detail and are followed by pen portraits of those on either side who made the major contributions to the match. But that is not all and the story of the third Earl himself is also woven into the narrative. It is not a full biography by any means but certainly highlights some of the more interesting aspects of the life and times of a man who deserves to be better remembered than he is.
The Australians at Sheffield Park 1884-1896 is self-published by Steve through Amazon and is available as a paperback or limited edition hardback. As a means of getting a book on the market Amazon has improved and the reproduction of the images is certainly better than I expected. That said I do have one grumble in that I always find it a little jarring when text is not justified.
Ultimately however the book is well worth reading and, if you are interested only in the matches against the Australians, it contains a rather more detailed account than those that appear in Roger Packham’s 2009 published Cricket in the Park. If the other aspects of the book catch your eye, and particularly the issues surrounding the non-appearance at Sheffield Park of the 1888 Australians, then tracking down a copy of Packham’s book should not prove unduly difficult.
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