Victor Trumper at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Martin Chandler |Published: 2024
Pages: 60
Author: Cardwell, Ronald (editor)
Publisher: The Cricket Press Pty Ltd
Rating: 3.5 stars
I sometimes wonder how many more books about Victor Trumper there can be to be published, but I can say with absolutely certainty that this won’t be the last, as I will be reviewing another one in the coming weeks. That one will be the seventeenth to appear since 2014, and we still lack a definitive biography of this iconic figure of the ‘Golden Age of Cricket’.
Of those 17 Ronald Cardwell has edited, written, contributed to or published twelve of them, so I think we can take it as read that whilst there remains breath in his body the search for new aspects of Trumper’s life to explore will not cease. Cardwell’s passion is of course a shared one, and not just by his fellow Australians. As an Englishman I have always had a fascination for Trumper. I will not blame Cardwell for that, as initially at least the blame lies fairly and squarely on the shoulders of Neville Cardus, but in recent years Cardwell has certainly rekindled that particular fire for me.
The scope of this one is clear from its title, but then there is still plenty to explore given that the SCG was where Trumper played his home matches for New South Wales, as well as in ten Tests for Australia, eight against England and two against South Africa.
Thus it no surprise to see that one of the four main essays in the book is a look, statistically, at Trumper’s performances at the SCG. That is written by James Cattlin, and another James, this time Rodgers, pens another on one of the greatest of all Tests at the ground, the first of the two in the 1903/04 series. This is the match when, in large part thanks to RE ‘Tip’ Foster and his 287, England secured victory despite Trumper’s acclaimed 185 in the Australian second innings.
The most enjoyable of the four essays is however the one contributed by editor Cardwell. The subject is Trumper’s Benefit match at the SCG in 1913. The contest was between a New South Wales side captained by Trumper and one led by Clem Hill and styled as The Rest. More than 30,000 (paying in excess of £1,500) attended the four days of the match which, with the beneficiary contributing an unbeaten 126 and 61, was eventually left drawn.
This one isn’t just a match report however. Cardwell digs deep into how the game came to be arranged and also provides much of interest on the subject of JC Davis, a journalist and writer for The Referee, a much respected sporting magazine of the time. The closing essay, for which Cattlin and Cardwell join forces, looks at some items of Trumper memorabilia, including a piano, that remain at the SCG to this day.
Well presented and superbly illustrated Victor Trumper at the Sydney Cricket Ground continues its publisher’s fascination with its subject’s legacy. Those already caught in their slipstream will buy this one whatever I say, and those who aren’t could do a great deal worse than join us. The book is available from Roger Page
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