Beschreibung:

Australian tour of England 1921. An original presentation scorebook for the Australian tour of England, recorded and compiled by W.H. 'Bill' Ferguson, the Australian official scorer for the tour. The scorebook half bound in black leather with blue cloth boards with gilt title and decoration to front board 'The Australian Cricket Tour 1921'. The scorebook begins with a copper plate hand written dedication 'To Peter Dawson Esq, in grateful remembrance and in deep appreciation of the many kindnesses extended to the members of the XV Australian Cricket Tour 1921', the following page has an original sepia postcard size photograph of the Australian touring party including the manager, Sydney Smith, seated and standing, in front of a pavilion with crowd behind. Signed around the image in black ink by the players, signatures are Warwick Armstrong (Cpt) (signed to the image), Mailey, Carter, Collins, Oldfield, Macartney, Taylor, Pellew (who has signed twice), Hendry, McDonald, Gregory, Bardsley, Ryder, Mayne and Sydney Smith, lacking the signature of Andrews from the full touring party. The scorebook covers all thirty nine matches played on the tour beginning with the tour match at Leicestershire, L. Robinson's XI (Old Buckenham, Norfolk), Surrey, Yorkshire, The Services, Essex, M.C.C., Oxford University, England (1st Test, Trent Bridge), Cambridge University, Middlesex, Gloucestershire, England (2nd Test, Lord's), Hampshire, Surrey, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, England (3rd Test, Headingley), Lancashire, West of Scotland, Scotland, Perthshire, Scotland (Edinburgh), Durham County, Yorkshire, England (4th Test, Old Trafford), Essex, Glamorganshire, Lancashire, Warwickshire, Kent, England (5th Test), The Oval), Gloucestershire, Somerset, England XI (Eastbourne), Sussex, South of England (Hastings), C.I. Thornton's XI (Scarborough) and v Cumberland XI (Whitehaven). Each match is beautifully recorded in ink in Ferguson's distinctive hand. Full details for each match include the batsmen's individual number of minutes batted, bowling analyses, extras, time of innings, fall of wickets and result of each match. In addition, there are brief notes on the weather conditions, who won the toss, the names of the umpires and scorers and other observations i.e. 'Prince of Wales lunched with the team (v Surrey May 7-10th), 'Prince of Wales visited the match' (v Gloucestershire, June 8-10th) etc. The vendor's grandfather was Alfred Jeacocke who played for Surrey and M.C.C. from 1920-1934 and he somehow acquired the scorebook and it has remained with the family until now. Jeacocke during his first class playing career worked in his family's business in Smithfield Market each day before cricket, rising to start work at 3am and continuing until play was due to start in any match in which he played. The vendors parents moved from South London to Manchester when he was only four but managed to maintain contact until he passed away in 1961. Alfred Jeacocke features in the scorebook playing for Surrey against the Australians. The vendor recalls that his Grandfathers house featured a room filled with Wisdens dating back to the 19th century, Surrey handbooks, cricket bats and equipment. The scorebook, a 'Library Cricket Score Book' was published by Walter S. MacKenzie, Athletic Good of Edinburgh, appears to have been rebound at some point in the past. A unique record of this Australian 1921 tour and 100 years since Ferguson compiled the scorebook. Good/very good condition
Australia won the Test Series 3-0 with two Tests drawn. Warwick Armstrong again, topped the bowling averages with 100 wickets on tour at 14.44, Ted McDonald took 138 wickets at 16.55. Charlie Macartney had a very successful tour topping the batting averages scoring 2317 runs at 59.41 with a highest score of 345 made in a single day against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in June 1921, the Australians winning the match by an innings and 517 runs, Warren Bardsley also averaged over fifty with 2005 runs at 54.18 Australia played 38 matches, winning 22, drawing 14 and lost, just twice. The recipient of the scorebook, Peter Dawson, we presume, is the well-known Glaswegian whisky distiller and entrepreneur who during the Australian tour of England 1909 invited the team on a fourteen day motor tour through Scotland as his guests, the team included Warwick Armstrong. The 1921 tour was Armstrong's swan song in first-class cricket. On the journey back to Australia, he suffered a relapse of the malaria that had plagued him since his earlier visit to Malaya. This kept him from taking part in any of the matches in South Africa, allowing Herbie Collins to captain Australia for the first time. Armstrong resigned from his job with Melbourne Cricket Club and drawing on contacts he had made while on tour took a role as an agent for Dawson's Scotch Whisky. He remained in the liquor trade until his retirement in 1946. As a footnote and reflection of Dawson's showmanship as well as the export potential of his whiskies, cases of Peter Dawson Special and Old Curio blended whiskies were on board the S.S. Politician when she ran aground off the Hebridean island of Eriskay in 1941. That event and those of the following days inspired Sir Compton Mackenzie's tale, Whisky Galore!. Quote from Bill Ferguson's autobiography 'Mr Cricket' 1957. Page 56 'I made a study of cricket scoring because I was in the unique position of having to earn a living at it. I use a score book of my own design, a book which contains at least twice as much information as any other in the world and, at the conclusion of each day's play, I copy all the important figures into a more orthodox book which is kept as the official record of the tour. Very jealous of the secrets contained in my own book, I have resisted many attempts by managers, skippers and players to commandeer it'. Over the years, Knights Auctioneers have now sold four scorebooks compiled by 'Bill' Ferguson, the Australian tours of England in 1912, 1921 and 1930 and the M.C.C. tour of Australia in 1936/37...