Roger Fenton
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sporting history Roger Fenton Cricket’s Earliest Photographs, 25 July 1857 oger Fenton is well known as the first official war photographer, travelling to R the Crimea in 1855. It was probably that military connection which helped Fenton take the earliest photographic record of a cricket match two years later when the Royal Artillery played the Hunsdonbury Club on 25 July. Although there have been suggestions that the match took place at the Artillery Ground in London, the rural background is almost certainly the village of Hunsdon. Fenton’s photographs combine to give a panoramic view of the ground, the game and its participants, despite the restrictions of the equipment of the time which meant any movement produced a blurred image. Fenton had developed that technique in the Crimea, an assignment for which he was recommend by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, after Fenton’s work photographing the royal family. Albert was the patron of the (Royal) Photographic Society, which Fenton had helped establish. Fenton had actually trained as a lawyer and then studied painting before turning to photography after visiting the Great Exhibition in 1851. Despite his impressive output and growing reputation, he turned his back on photography after just a decade and died in relative obscurity. Fortunately, his work remains. His images of the Crimea War were included in the ‘LIFE Collection of 100 Photos That Changed the World’, and his presence at that cricket match in 1857 reveals that little changes on the village green despite the passing decades. Roger Fenton’s panoramic views of the cricket match between the Hunsdonbury Club and the Royal Artillery XI in 1857, the earliest photographic record of cricket. 18 19 sporting collections Poster for ‘Dandy Shandy’ – claiming to be the A cricket poster, 1880, best of all non-alcoholic although the cricketing beverages. (31 x 24cm) scene used suggests a much earlier period. (24 x 17cm) Poster for the Sunday newspaper, ‘The People’, c1900. (70 x 60cm) Keen’s Mustard advertising board, 1892, with a Lord’s cricket scene as the background, possibly the occasion of the Eton-Harrow match. (46 x 65cm) 34 35 sporting straplineheroes W G Grace’s longevity meant that three royals were created Prince of W G Grace Wales during his career. He is pictured (left) with 1848-1915 the third, who became Edward VIII in 1936. octor William Gilbert Grace, the Father of Cricket, was the first of England’s legendary D sporting superstars, those players whose exploits and fame extend beyond their natural boundaries into a grateful nation’s consciousness. Incredibly, W G remains the greatest of them all, because of his countless achievements, imposing character and remarkable longevity. Grace was only 16 when he took 13 wickets for the Gentlemen of the South versus the Players in 1865, was 50 years old in his last Test and his unbroken run of 43 first-class seasons took him past his 60th birthday in 1908. His lasting legacy remains at Lord’s where cricketers walk through the Grace Gates, inscribed, ‘W G Grace, The Great Cricketer, 1848-1915.’ It’s hard to imagine that cricket would have prospered so quickly or emphatically without him. Grace knew his worth to the game, as did others. Signs outside grounds would often say, ‘Cricket Match: Admission Threepence. If W G Grace plays, Admission Sixpence.’ Over a century later, Grace is still one of the most recognisable faces in sport. ‘The Doctor’ was actually a qualified surgeon, often taking the field having been up all night on medical duties. When Lancashire’s A C M Croome gashed his throat on the pavilion railings attempting to save a boundary at Old Trafford in 1887, Grace held the wound together while help was summoned. It is claimed that his hand never once shook throughout the 30-minute ordeal. His contemporaries had the utmost respect for him. Lord Hawke’s verdict was simple: ‘The greatest there ever could be because no future player will ever have to play on the bad wickets on which he made his mark.’ Grace, himself, believed in keeping things simple: ‘In conclusion, never treat a straight ball with contempt, however badly bowled.’ George W Beldam, who played with W G for The bat used by Grace the London club, was in his last innings in also one of cricket’s 1914, with his original early photographers. signature. Grace believed He presented this album it was wrong to play of personal pictures to cricket while soldiers were Grace’s widow a few fighting in The Great War. months after his death. 26 27 sporting collections A ‘Pinnace’ cigarette card advertisement display board More free football in fine condition, with photographs of the Aston images, this time in silk, Villa team, given away free in boxes of 50 and 100 displaying the league cigarettes. The series of cards, which came in different clubs’ colours, given away sizes, was launched in 1922 and ran until 1925. with BDV cigarettes. 58 59 sporting straplinehistory The Invincible All Blacks 1924-25 ail Porter’s 1924-25 All Blacks proved themselves more-than-worthy successors to G David Gallaher’s ‘Originals’, winning all 32 matches (including two in France and two in British Columbia), scoring over 200 tries on tour and becoming the ‘Invincibles’. Star of the show was George Nepia, just 19, who played all 28 games in Britain at full-back, a position he had never played in before. Another 19-year-old on the trip was Lui Paewai, already the youngest All Black in history at 17 years and 45 days. The tour was not without controversy. Cyril Browlie became the first player to be sent off in an international after referee A E Freethy had issued a general warning at Twickenham. Despite being down to 14 men for 70 minutes, the All Blacks, inspired by Cyril Brownlie’s brother, Maurice, won 17-11. The All Blacks exacted revenge for that one defeat on the 1905 tour with a conclusive 19-0 victory over Wales in Swansea. Yet the match that might have really tested the tourists, against Scotland, never took place because of an argument going back to 1905. Gallaher’s All Blacks had asked for a guarantee of £200 to play Scotland. The canny Scots, worried about being out The number-10 jersey of pocket, instead offered them any money left over worn by the youngest- after expenses. Such was the success of the tour, The All Blacks XV which ever All Black, Lui the SRU treasurer handed the tourists a cheque for beat the North Midlands Paewai, in the 8-3 victory £1,700. 40-3 at Villa Park, with over Llanelli. That was the background to the SRU informing Cyril Brownlie (back row, New Zealand that it would not be granting them fourth left) and George a fixture. Considering Scotland won its first Grand Nepia (front, far right). Slam in 1925 and is still waiting for its first-ever win over the All Blacks nearly 90 years later, it was probably an even more costly mistake than the financial one made in in 1905. A menu card from the banquet given in honour A pre-tour souvenir of the of the ‘Invincible’ All second New Zealand tour Blacks on their return to to Britain, match results New Zealand, signed by added in ink. the whole squad. 88 89 sporting collections A distinctive Eric Fraser Underground poster for the 1926 FA Cup, won by Bolton Wanderers with a goal from David Jack, who had also scored the first-ever goal in a Wembley final three years earlier. Posters A 1920s Norman Wilkinson railway poster for the like this would have been situated above the heads of Gleneagles Hotel and golf course, which will host the seated passengers on the tube. (24 x 30cm) Ryder Cup for the first time in 2014. 101( x 156cm) 90 91 sporting straplineheroes Jardine’s famous harlequin-design Douglas J ardine cap, which infuriated Australian cricket supporters almost as 1900-58 much as ‘leg-theory’ bowling. epending on your viewpoint, or more likely Jardine’s bat from the where you were born, Douglas Robert Bodyline series. It was DJardine is either a great sporting hero or the a ‘William Gunn Extra man who nearly destroyed cricket and broke up the Special’ and is signed by Jardine at Bramall Lane Commonwealth. members of both teams 1933, c1990. There are no half measures where Jardine is from the 1932-33 series. By Joe Scarborough. concerned. He has polarised sporting opinion for Also inscribed on the Oil on canvas, 70 x 90cm 80 years. He certainly got under the Australians’ face is ‘Australia Won 1, Jardine, and Harold skins, which for most cricket followers in England England Won 4’ and on Larwood, may have been has always been regarded as no bad thing. the back, ‘Presented to carpeted by Lord’s after His job as England captain was to bring home Frank Oxenham by D bringing back the Ashes, the Ashes in 1932-33, which he did in a convincing R Jardine 1933’. Jardine but England’s captain was manner, 4-1. His critics claimed that he didn’t care batted at number six in a hero to cricket fans all how he did it. the first two Tests, but over the country, even in There was a general view after Australia returned showed his defiance by Yorkshire, and here the with the Ashes in 1930 that England would not see opening for the rest of Bramall Lane crowd are them again until Bradman had retired.