• The Death of Captain Webster.
On the evening of Friday 31 March 1854, Captain Robert Webster climbed the stairs to his bedroom in the Governor’s Quarters of Darlinghurst Gaol. His breathing was laboured; his tread was heavy; he had only a few hours to live. His eldest son, Robert Edward Webster, also climbed the stairs to assist him. His father had been complaining of a cold for some days. Captain Webster, an Irish officer attached to the Garrison in Victoria Barracks, was the third Governor of Darlinghurst Gaol.
By 8.30pm, Captain Webster had been helped into bed but his condition grew worse. Dr Thornton Marshall, Assistant Surgeon of the 11th Regiment, was called from his quarters in Victoria Barracks but before he could arrive, Captain Webster was dead.
A magisterial enquiry was held the next morning. Thomas Harrison, Darlinghurst’s Deputy Gaoler or ‘Principal Turnkey’, thought that Captain Webster had been suffering from influenza. Doctor West conducted the post-mortem examination and concluded that the cause of death, however, had been “a fatty degeneration of the heart, the muscle of which was changed into fat.”
Captain Webster’s death at 47 caused great mourning at his Darlinghurst residence among the members of his immediate family – his wife, Anna, and their ten children. There was also a significant sense of loss at Victoria Barracks for an Officer who had served since 1825.
• The Postponement of a Cricket Match.
There was another consequence of this tragic death.
The Garrison Cricket Club had arranged to play the Sydney University team on Saturday afternoon at the ‘Garrison Ground’ at the rear of the military barracks which had been opened recently in February 1854.
In view of the circumstances, the teams agreed to postpone the game until the next Saturday, 8 April. Meanwhile, there was a funeral to organize.
On the afternoon of Monday 3 April, the various Sydney Law Courts adjourned their proceedings so that those wishing to attend the funeral may have been able to do so. Reverend Thomas Druitt, Chaplain of Victoria Barracks, conducted the service at St Stephen’s Church, Newtown, before Captain Webster’s burial at the Camperdown Cemetery in Church Street Newtown.
• Sydney University cricket begins.
‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ of Friday 7 April announced:
“The match between Sydney University and the Garrison, which was to have taken place last Saturday [1 April] but was postponed on account of the death of Captain Webster, is now arranged to come off tomorrow [8 April] on the ground at the rear of the military barracks.”
And so, on Saturday 8 April, at a ground known variously at the time as ‘The Military Cricket Ground’ or ‘The Garrison Ground’ (now where the ‘Sydney Cricket Ground’ stands), a team of soldiers representing the Garrison played cricket against a team of students representing Sydney University. The Garrison Cricket Club seems to have been formed in 1853-54 and to have played its first game against the Royal Victoria Club on Wednesday 15 February 1854 to mark the opening of the new Garrison Ground in the presence of the Governor of NSW, Sir Charles Fitz Roy. The band of the 11th Regiment played throughout the afternoon. The Garrison Club won by one run when the Royal Victoria Club’s last man was run out.
The Garrison then played at least two more games before meeting the students.
The soldiers who were part of a detachment which was lodged at Victoria Barracks appeared to be older and more experienced than their opponents.
The students were all undergraduates at the University and were aged between George Curtis’ callow 15 years and John Kinloch who was 21.
Where did they learn to play cricket?
What experience did they have in playing cricket games?
How did they form a team to take on the soldiers?
The answers to these questions are elusive.
But we do know something about the cricketing background of some of the students.
16 year old Rodney Stuart Riddell (1838-1907) opened the batting for University and probably faced the first ball in University’s innings, probably the first ball bowled against Sydney University in any game of cricket. Riddell was the son of the Colonial Treasurer, Campbell Drummond Riddell (1796-1858). He had been initially educated at Mr William Cape’s School in Darlinghurst, as was his opening partner, 17 year old Marshall Burdekin (1837-1886). There is no record of any organized cricket games played by Cape’s School but Riddell had certainly played a few games for the Royal Victoria Club, including the game against the Garrison referred to earlier. In fact, it was Riddell who was the last batsman who was run out to give the Garrison victory by one wicket.
Riddell was among the first students admitted to the University in October 1852, having passed the matriculation exams in Greek (‘The Iliad’ Book 5, ‘The Anabasis’ Book 1), Latin (‘The Aeneid’ Book 1, Sallust’s ‘Bellum Catalinae’), Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry.
Burdekin became one of the first to be conferred with a Master of Arts (1859), a barrister and a Member of the Legislative Assembly of NSW.
Others who played in the game on 8 April continued to play for University for some time but that gives no clue as to how they first learned the game.
Riddell did not finish his Arts degree, becoming a professional soldier, serving in the New Zealand wars in the 1860s, the Afghan Wars (1878-1880) and the War in the Sudan in 1885 as a Lieutenant Colonel. His great grandfather, Sir James Riddell was the first Baron of Ardnamurchon in Scotland and the hereditary title passed to Rodney. He was knighted, probably the first University cricketer to have that honour conferred on him. Thomas Henry Coulson (1833-1862) who had been among the first to be awarded a scholarship to the University in 1854, was the first of this team to die, aged only 29.
University’s first outstanding cricketer, however, was the 21 year old John Kinloch (1833-1897) who had been born in Dublin and who played his first recorded match in 1847-48 (for Union Club at Hyde Park). He was both experienced and talented, bowling fast underarm. One contemporary wrote that he “takes but a short run and delivers the ball sharply with a very rapid pace, very straight along the ground. His bowling has a peculiar ‘spin’ and is therefore successful.” He seldom scored runs, however, and was a “stiff and heavy” fieldsman who played with a monocole because of his short-sightedness.
Kinloch was eventually a prolific wicket-taker in club matches and he played three times for NSW against Victoria, each time on the losing side, taking 12 first-class wickets at 11.16 and scoring just 5 runs.
He was an important figure in NSW cricket, chairing the first meeting of the NSW Cricket Association in 1859. For many years, he was the secretary or the organiser of the University teams. It was he who reported in 1859 that University had first played cricket in 1852 and that the club had been formed in 1852 but there is no evidence for this claim. It seems highly unlikely that games involving Sydney University would have been played in 1852, given the fact that the University was established by an Act of the NSW Legislative Council in only September 1850; that the first meeting of the Senate of the University took place on 3 February 1851; that the first matriculation exams took place on 4 October 1852; that the inauguration ceremony took place (where Sydney Grammar School now stands) on 11 October 1852; that the first 24 students were admitted only in October 1852. If University did play any games in 1852, the team would have been selected from only 24 undergraduates.
• The game on 8 April 1854
If the soldiers were expecting to have an easy time of it against the young students, especially when the Garrison led by 16 runs on the 1st innings having made 49 to University’s 33, they may have been unprepared for a significant comeback.
The pitch was challenging for batting. ‘Shooters’ were common. Bowling was either underarm or round arm. Bats were rough-hewn. The ball was smaller than its current version. Batsmen wore no protective equipment. Players wore coloured shirts and buckskin boots. There were no boundaries and batsmen had to run all their ‘notches’. It appears that not all 22 players were available for the entire match. Private Fry was replaced by Private Hartnett in the Garrison’s 2nd innings and, for University, James Bowman batted in the 1st innings but was replaced in the 2nd innings.
No bowling figures were recorded and bowlers were credited with wickets only when the batsman was out bowled. So Kinloch took at least eight wickets for the match, George Leary took at least three, Coulson at least two and James Wilson at least two.
In their 2nd innings, the Garrison succumbed to the bowling of Kinloch and George Leary. Private Plank top-scored with 10. Byes were next top-scorer with 5. University was left with 51 to win and steady batting, even from Kinloch, who was inevitably run out but not before he had got to double figures, saw University home by 2 wickets.
• More cricket in 1854
On Monday 10 April, on a day of drizzling showers, Kinloch and Coulson represented The Junior Marlebone (sic) Club against the Union Club at Hyde Park.
Sunday 16 April was Easter Sunday and no games were scheduled over the Easter season.
Then, on Saturday 22 April, at the Garrison Ground, the two teams met again. University’s team was unchanged except that Burdekin’s place was taken by David Scott Mitchell, a name easily recognized. When he died in 1907, he left his vast collection of books and an extraordinarily generous gift of 70,000 pounds, to the State of NSW. The Mitchell Library still bears his name. In this game, however, he was bowled by Captain McDonald for 0.
University won convincingly by 8 wickets. Kinloch’s bowling was irresistible. In the Garrison’s 1st innings of 49 of which Captain McDonald made 14, Kinloch took 7 wickets. When the soldiers went in again, 19 behind, after University’s George Curtis made easily the highest score of the match with 26, Kinloch took another 4 wickets and University had 20 to win. Remarkably, Kinloch swiped 12 not out and University lost only two wickets in passing the score.
‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ was fulsome in its praise:
“On the university side, during the first innings, the batting of Messrs Lee [who made 10] and G Curtis was very good; and in the second innings, that of Mr Kinloch, while his bowling we can venture to say, was scarcely ever surpassed in this country.”
The next Saturday, 29 April, University played its first three-aside match against the Bank Club. So dominant were the three University players that Rodney Riddell scored all the runs and Ed Lee took all the wickets without the third University player meriting a mention. In the following days, one more three-aside game and a two-aside game were played between University, represented by Riddell and Lee, and the Bank, a side formed from players who worked at one or two of the banks in Sydney. University won both games, so that by the end of its first season, University had been victorious in all five of its games.
The emergence of the University teams did not carry much permanence. Only one game was played in 1854-55 (when University fielded five players who had not played in 1853-54) and none in 1855-56.
• The Sydney University Cricket Club is formed in 1864
The University moved from the city to its present expansive site in 1855 and, by 1857, had adopted the Coat of Arms and the motto (“Sidere Mens Eadrem Mutato”- “The mind stays the same while the stars change”).
By 1864-65, the Club which owed so much to Kinloch’s leadership and enthusiasm was formally re-constituted or re-formed with a written constitution and colours. This Club, whose date (1864) is on the badge of the Sydney University Cricket Club, reappeared on 20 April 1865. Its opponent was the Military & Civil Club (a successor to the Garrison Club) and the game was played at the ground formerly known as the Garrison Ground which was then called the ‘Military & Civil Ground.’
We can say with some certainty, however, that a team known as ‘Sydney University’ played ‘The Garrison’ in 1854, 170 years this season.
James Rodgers
