On Thursday 9 February 1888, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' announced that a cricket game was to be played on the Association Cricket Ground (since known as the Sydney Cricket Ground) beginning the next day. Of the two teams, one would be known as "An Australian Eleven"; the other was to be "selected from the two English teams."
The Australian team was selected from 13 named players but three other players - George Giffen, 'Affie' Jarvis and Billy Bruce - had already declared themselves unavailable for a variety of reasons.
On Friday 10 February, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' informed its readers: "Two prominent batsmen [of the thirteen selected], J Wood and Horan, found they could not give up their time for the match." This would have been Horan's sixteenth 'Test' for Australia stretching back to the first Test of all, in Melbourne in 1877. For John Wood, this would have been his first 'Test'.
The English team consisted of eleven players selected from the two English teams, both touring Australia in that summer of 1887-88. Seven players had been with "Shrewsbury's team" who had been invited by the NSWCA to tour; four were from "Vernon's team" organised by the Melbourne Cricket Club. Having two English sides touring in the same season suggests that the NSWCA and the MCC did not communicate much with each other.
THE 27th TEST MATCH
This game in Sydney has since been recognised as the 27th Test Match of all time and the two sides have been known as "England" and "Australia". The players have since been acknowledged as Test cricketers.
The match was considerably affected by rain. When play eventually got underway on Friday, 18 wickets fell in a few hours. England, sent in by Percy McDonnell, struggled to 113. Shortly before stumps, Australia had slumped to an alarming 8 for 26. Further rain prevented any play until Tuesday 14 February. Australia soon succumbed to its lowest Test score in all time, before or since - all out 42- as Lohmann (5-17) and Peel (5-18) made the ball spit viciously from the sodden wicket. Garrett's 10 was the highest score as batsmen were often caught in close attempting to defend the stumps. Shrewsbury, hovering in near the batsmen, snapped up 3 catches in each innings. England's 2nd innings of 137 set Australia an improbable 251 for victory. Australia was dismissed for 82.
The difficult conditions meant that it was probably a good match for any batsman to declare his unavailability. Four of the Australians who did play (Jones, Burton, McShane and Garrett) had played their final Test. Of the "two prominent batsmen" who had been chosen before withdrawing from the team, Tom Horan's Test career was over and John Wood was never summoned for Test duty again.
JOHN ROBERT WOOD, THE CRICKETER.
John Robert Wood (1865-1928) was a right hand batsman and a right arm medium pacer, educated at Sydney Grammar School. He had first played against an English touring side aged only 16 in November 1881 when he scored 8 and 5 in Newcastle for the 22 of Northern Districts against Shaw's XI who were touring Australia during the 1881-82 season. He fell both times to Yorksire's left arm slow bowler, Edmund Peate, who was to take 1076 wickets in 1st class cricket.
During his time at Grammar, Wood showed more promise as a bowler. He took 9 wickets against an ‘Australian XI’ who played the ‘18 of Newcastle’ during the school holidays in 1884. For the Grammar 1st XI, he took wickets consistently, often scattering the stumps, memorably in the annual game with Melbourne Grammar in December 1883 when he took 12 wickets for the match.
The description of him as a "prominent" batsman, however, seemed to have been based on a “brilliantly compiled score against Melbourne University” in 1887 and on his one game of 1st class cricket, just before the Sydney Test in 1888.
On 26 January 1888, the centenary of white settlement in Australia, JR Wood took the field for NSW following some productive performances over a number of seasons for Sydney University's 1st Grade side in the Sydney Club Competition. In 1885-86, he had won the 1st Grade bowling trophy, taking his wickets at 8.28. In October 1887, against the Albert Club, Wood's 44 and five cheap wickets were significant in University's victory by an innings and 98 runs.
NSW v VICTORIA 1888
At the Association Cricket Ground on 26 January 1888, NSW met Victoria for the fortieth time in a series of Intercolonial matches that had begun in February 1856. In Victoria's 267, Wood bowled 44 steady (four-ball overs) and took 3 for 65, including the wickets of Test players Billy Bruce and Frank Walters. By the third day, NSW was building a commanding lead and Wood joined Harry Moses at 7 for 346. Wood was dropped twice in his first eight runs but he later hit lustily to square leg and played some deft back cuts. By stumps, despite breaks for rain, he was 77 not out in a partnership that had already added 161 with Moses against a tiring Victorian attack and against wandering fieldsmen. On the fourth day,Wood was soon bowled off his pads for a breezy 81 by one of Harry Trott's leg breaks but Moses carried on to a monumental 297 not out in ten hours at the crease, for which he was later awarded a handsome trophy. It was Wood who caught the eye of the SMH correspondent:
"Wood's cricket was undeniably good and he promises to be a great accession to the batting strength of the colony. His batting was decisive and powerful. He put a ball from Robertson over the boundary at square leg..."
In Victoria's 2nd innings, Wood bowled another steady 33 overs and took 40 year old Harry Boyle's wicket as NSW won by an innings and 35 runs.
MELBOURNE, FEBRUARY 1888.
But, why did Wood declare his unavailability to play for Australia a fortnight after his commanding efforts in the Intercolonial match?
The answer may lie in two seemingly unrelated events that occurred in Melbourne during the 'Test' match in Sydney.
On Saturday 11 February, when play was washed out in Sydney, East Melbourne played Melbourne University at the East Melbourne Ground. Melbourne University had been sent in on a showery previous Saturday when little play had been possible. On 11 February, University advanced to 4 for 208 when the match was concluded. Batting at number four was Wood "the NSW Intercolonial player" who was bowled by Lewis for 21.
How did JR Wood come to play for Melbourne University?
The clubs had loose eligibility rules and the presence in Melbourne at that time of a current NSW player, a Sydney University player (1884-85 to 1887-88, while studying Arts and resident at St Paul's College) may have been an opportunity too good to miss for the Melbourne University selectors, some of whom may have played against Wood in the 1887 Intervarsity match.
But, what was JR Wood doing in Melbourne?
The following is only supposition. But it seems plausible.
An actress, Elizabeth Esther Helen Jennings (1864-1920), known by her stage name "Essie Jenyns", was playing Juliet at the Melbourne Bijou's production of 'Romeo and Juliet' from 30 January 1888.
'Essie" and JR Wood were to marry in Sydney in December 1888 and Wood may have combined a holiday in Melbourne with opportunities to see his intended on the stage and to play cricket on the two Saturdays, the second of which coincided with the Sydney Test.
WOOD'S SECOND AND LAST 1st CLASS GAME.
Whatever of this supposition, JR Wood was certainly back in Sydney by March 1888 when he was selected for a "Combined Australian XI" to play Shrewsbury's English XI beginning on Friday 9 March.
It was a dismal match for Wood who took no wickets - 0-32 and 0-21 - and was bowled twice by Yorkshire's Merritt Preston for 2 and 4. Preston was to live only two more years before he died after catching a cold. Tragedy hung over him throughout his short life. In 1883, he had bowled a ball in a club match which accidentally hit Albert Luty and caused his death.
The match against Shrewsbury's XI was Wood's second and last 1st class game.
MARRIAGE
JR Wood seems to have also discontinued his studies. There was some talk about his going to Cambridge University to complete his studies but nothing came of this. Both his father and mother had died in 1887 and John Wood inherited a considerable fortune. He and Essie were married at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney on 5 December 1888. Wood’s groomsman was Leo Neill who had played with him in the University cricket and rugby sides. The wedding was apparently boisterous and chaotic, attended by a large congregation that spilled outside the Cathedral's doors, such was the popularity of the actress and the cricketer. At the conclusion of the ceremony, in the crush of people "a riot broke out and much of the church furniture was damaged or removed as souvenirs."
Essie almost immediately retired from her promising career on the stage. JR Wood then played cricket only intermittently after their marriage.
A daughter, Esther Lyal Wood (1889-1971) and a son, John Morton Deveraux Wood (1898-1973), a decorated British Brigadier General during World War II, completed their family who then spent much of the rest of their lives living in England. They lived in luxury, even sailing around Europe on their yacht, 'Imogen'.
They did occasionally return to Australia to Newcastle where JR Wood had inherited 'Wood Bros and Co, Castlemaine Brewery'. JR Wood organised cricket games between a side known as the 'JR Wood's XI' which toured Victoria and Tasmania in at least 1896 and 1900 and which contained some former Sydney University players, Wood's former colleagues, including the Test player Roley Pope and the 1st class player, Dr Camac Wilkinson. In addition, Wood organised a Newcastle side which played various senior teams and visiting teams on the 'Asylum Ground.' In one of his last recorded games, in 1895, he scored an extraordinary 247 retired in 105 minutes for ‘Married vs Single’ in Newcastle.
JR WOOD. NSW RUGBY.
So, Wood was a Sydney University cricket 1st Grader, a NSW player selected for Australia, a comfortably wealthy brewery owner (his estate on his death was valued at 85,630 pounds), married to a famous actress.
In addition, JR Wood was also one of the pioneers of Intercolonial Rugby. The Sydney University Football (Rugby) Club was formally constituted in 1865 and, by the 1880s, was a dominant presence in the Sydney club competition. When he was an undergraduate, Wood played at least four seasons in the outstanding Sydney University 1st XVs of the time: Runners up in 1884 and 1886. Premiers in 1885 and 1887 (undefeated). He also played for NSW against New Zealand and four times for NSW against Queensland in a position then known as 'half back', the forerunner of what is now usually termed 'winger'. The full back for NSW in 1884 was Syd Deane who also represented NSW as a wicket keeper in cricket and who was almost chosen for Australia in 1890, only to be passed over in favour of Ken Burn who had never kept wicket before! Deane then became the first Australian actor to go to Hollywood during the Silent Era.
Sydney University Undefeated First XV 1887
Briefly, JR Wood's rugby career covered 1884 (when he scored tries in both games for NSW ), 1885 (when his 11 tries and 21 goals made him the highest point scorer for any club), 1886 (when his 53 points, including 7 tries, was the most for any player for any club) and 1887 (when he kicked a drop goal in the game when the first 'final' was played in the club competition and when University defeated Arfoma 12-0).
JR Wood was a sportsman of remarkably protean ability.
464 players have represented Australia in Test cricket.
JR Wood is not one of them.
But, had it not been for a trip to Melbourne in February 1888, he would have been Australian Test player no44, instead of representing Melbourne University in one solitary game.
James Rodgers
Acknowledgements:
Max Bonnell, SUCC historian.
Craig Fear, SU Rugby historian.
Alf James, Cricket historian
Steve Johnson, NSW Rugby