Trott made it hell all-round for England in Adelaide

Author Steve Neal recounts the startling Test debut of a man who would go on to achieve cricketing immortality

The English team had grins plastered all over their faces soon after tea on the first day of the Test at the Adelaide Oval in January 1895. On a perfect batting wicket, they had reduced Australia to 157-9, the innings as good as over.

Andrew Stoddart, the England captain, had led his bowlers well and the Surrey quick, Tom Richardson, had picked up four wickets. The England bowlers not only had to contend with the perfect wicket but also the heat, an exceptional 38 degrees in the shade.

With just the one wicket to get, they were almost home and dry. They had won the first two Tests in this five-match series. The game was as good as over, the series finished, the Ashes in the bag.

They must have taken a particular pleasure in silencing the noisy Australian crowd, who had arrived in hope that morning by train and horse-drawn buggies from the outlying districts.

The first two Tests had been close, with the luck and the key moments in the games going England’s way. The talk in the clubs and pubs, and on the streets, had been whether Australia could pull things back in this game. Now, the scoreboard gave an answer – a pitiful total on this pitch.

The 21-year-old Albert Trott came to the crease, grandson of an Antiguan slave, making his Australian debut batting at No.10. At the other end was No.11 Syd Callaway.

Trott, who four years later would achieve his place in cricket folklore by becoming the only man to hit the ball over the Lord’s pavilion, opened by striking Lockwood over the chains, with the ball landing in a buggy, but as The Argus, the local paper reported: “The crowd were too depressed to indulge in more than a feeble cheer.”

Trott went after the English bowling, not slogging, playing only genuine cricket strokes. At five o’clock, the killing pace was too much for the fielders and they took an unauthorised drinks break. “Half a dozen of them gathered round one of the waterplugs and wetted their whistles,” it was reported.

By the time Richardson clean bowled Callaway, they had put on 81 for the last wicket in 70 minutes, with Trott 38 not out and Callaway making 41. They returned to the pavilion to a perfect storm of applause.

The English team, after their day in the field, couldn’t sleep that night in their hotel: sheets soaked, heads throbbing, some of them resorting unwisely to successive showers to cool down. Their sleepless night did for them when they batted, and they were all out for 124 with Callaway and George Giffen, the Australian captain, picking up five wickets each.

The third day was cooler. Australia had made 283-8, thanks to a century from Frank Iredale when Trott came in to bat. He took a liking to the right-arm fast bowling of Lockwood and drove him grandly, batting with the same confidence as in the first innings.

When Iredale was out last man Callaway came to the wicket, the scoreboard showing 347, with no one in the crowd expecting to see a repeat of the first innings. Callaway blocked at his end, drawing in the field, leaving the bulk of the stroke play to Trott.

Stoddart brought back Richardson in an effort to curtail this last-wicket nonsense. Even on the longest of the days Richardson never dropped his pace. The batsmen though scored off nearly every ball and the cheers rang out for Trott’s fifty, his next stroke for four being one of the finest off drives of the match.

One of his more unorthodox strokes was a cut over the head of cover that brought up the 400.

Richardson brought an end to the stand when he bowled Callaway. The crowd cheered Trott all the way in and his team-mates formed a queue to congratulate him. “Even his own comrades were astounded at the perfection of his batting,” reported The Argus. He had taken 90 minutes in making his 72 not out, with 11 clean, well-timed fours.

England had to chase 526 to win in this timeless game.

Notwithstanding his efforts with the bat, Trott had been primarily picked as a bowler. His stock ball was a mediumpaced off-break but he interspersed this with an occasional murderous yorker. It was this delivery that broke the stumps of opener Albert Ward and another quick one that hit Brown and laid him out

Trott had taken 8-43, a record that stands to this day on two counts: best in an innings on debut and best in Adelaide

on the ground.

The next day he bowled Jack Brown off his pads and had Stoddart dropped by Giffen in the slips. Undeterred he did his own fielding: Bill Brockwell stepped down the wicket and drove hard, but Trott leapt in the air, knocked it up with his right hand and caught it with both hands as it dropped.

Bobby Peel came in and spooned it back to Trott for a first-ball caught-andbowled, the easiest of chances.

And so it went on – some deceived by the quicker ball, others hitting out in desperation. His final act of the game was to catch Richardson at slip and put the ball in his pocket.

Australia had won by 382 runs. Trott had taken 8-43. This is a record that stands to this day on two counts: the best ever bowling figures in an innings on debut and the best Test match bowling at Adelaide. Luck had not come into it. The series was alive and his performance helped to build the legend of the Ashes.Yet within four years Trott had renounced Australia and was playing for England.

Over And Out: Albert Trott: The Man Who Cleared The Lord’s Pavilion, by Steve Neal, is published by Pitch Publishing, is out now, priced £12.99.