The Times online Archive 1785-1985

The Times have put an online archive of the newspaper online to browse through...
http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/

As well as some historic events, there are lots of sporting events to look at such as the
Headingley 1981 Edition

and

Aussie Sookathon 1933 Ashes Tour Edition

Couldn't find anything about Captn Drunky spitting the dummy and gobbing off at the England balcony on 05 then?

Thankee JKL, I think I am going to go all Buckaroo on this thread.

I shall start by researching the Battle of Waterloo, stop by here and there - the Indian Mutiny/ War of Independence of 1857, maybe a few sojourns by the way (Crimea comes to mind), and shift smoothly into WW 1.

I may post the fruits of my research here. Or not.

But- Great thread!

furriner wrote: I think I am going to go all Buckaroo on this thread.

One is more than enough thank you

G.Wood wrote:Couldn't find anything about Captn Drunky spitting the dummy and gobbing off at the England balcony on 05 then?

Not during the timespan of the archive, um, no...

furriner wrote:Thankee JKL, I think I am going to go all Buckaroo on this thread.

I shall start by researching the Battle of Waterloo, stop by here and there - the Indian Mutiny/ War of Independence of 1857, maybe a few sojourns by the way (Crimea comes to mind), and shift smoothly into WW 1.

I may post the fruits of my research here. Or not.

But- Great thread!

No probs - love ruffling through old newspapers so thought I'd post it here if anyone was interested.

Any good photos of Madame Le Farge?

OI, dig out some articles on the Hambledon Club - I heard it was also a whorehouse and crack den. Well, opium anyway. There must've been some juicy expose's .

wow! this is great stuff. thanks jkl

Trouble brewing in France, The Revolutionaries have just stormed the Bastille!

JKLever wrote:The Times have put an online archive of the newspaper online to browse through...
http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/

As well as some historic events, there are lots of sporting events to look at such as the
Headingley 1981 Edition

and

Aussie Sookathon 1933 Ashes Tour Edition

Also have a look at Oz getting "lakered" at OT in 1956, return of the Ashes (after 19 years) at The Oval in 1953, Compo & Edrich's "vintage summer" of 1947, Hutton's 364, return of the Ashes at The Oval in 1926, Jack Hobbs equalling (and overtaking) W.G.'s career haul of centuries at Taunton in 1925 (run-up to that is quite interesting too as the press followed him around for several weeks waiting for him get the record and he had to give a rare press conference apologising for his run of low scores), "Jessop's Match" at The Oval in 1902, WG's last Test in 1899, his retirement in 1908 and obituary in 1915. There might also have been a reporter at the 6-day match at the SCG in December 1894 (14-20) which was the first to be won (by England) after a side had been made to follow-on after Oz posted 586 first up (still the record score posted first innings by a losing side) with George Giffen making 166 and Syd Gregory (at 6) making 201 since Queen Victoria is supposed to have followed the progress of the match avidly.

However, in many ways, the following is the most explosive article ever written by a "Times" reporter (Jiohn Woodcock, then Chief Cricket Correspondent) since it brought about the dismissal of an England captain (Woodcock calls for Close to be replaced on the forthcoming tour of the West Indies that winter although his suggestion of his replacement, M.J.K.Smith, was ignored in favour of Colin Cowdrey). There were no cameras at the match and the other reports of the match, though critical of Yorkshire's time-wasting tactics, did not think they were at all unusual or broke the spirit of the game. However Woodcoock was so highly respected, especially with the powers-that-be at Lord's that within days of the article appearing Close had been sacked as England captain. Woodcock's article was the equivalent of William Howard Russell's reports from the Crimea (which was before the Indian Mutiny, btw, Furri) which brought about the fall of Lord Aberdeen:

Yorkshire Fall From Grace

Good find Allan, cutting stuff indeed.

I notice the caption underneath the photo....

'Cook, ordinarily a club bowler with Stratford Upon Avon'

Does that mean he wouldn't have been contracted to Warwickshire in those days?

JKLever wrote:Trouble brewing in France, The Revolutionaries have just stormed the Bastille!

Highly unfortunate, especially as it caused the cancellation of a cricket tour of France by the newly-formed Marylebone Cricket Club, through the good offices of its President, the Duke of Dorset, then H.M.Ambassador to France, on whose land Thomas Lord had constructed a playing field (1 of 3 efforts, now Dorset Square). It was to be another 114 years before MCC were to mount another tour - this time to Australia (all previous tours had been privately arranged) where the mob was equally vocal if not as violent as the Paris mobs who stormed the Bastille.

Allan D wrote:

JKLever wrote:Trouble brewing in France, The Revolutionaries have just stormed the Bastille!

Highly unfortunate, especially as it caused the cancellation of a cricket tour of France by the newly-formed Marylebone Cricket Club, through the good offices of its President, the Duke of Dorset, then H.M.Ambassador to France, on whose land Thomas Lord had constructed a playing field (1 of 3 efforts, now Dorset Square). It was to be another 114 years before MCC were to mount another tour - this time to Australia (all previous tours had been privately arranged) where the mob was equally vocal if not as violent as the Paris mobs who stormed the Bastille.

There was no problem. The BCCI toured in their place.

taipan wrote:

Allan D wrote:

JKLever wrote:Trouble brewing in France, The Revolutionaries have just stormed the Bastille!

Highly unfortunate, especially as it caused the cancellation of a cricket tour of France by the newly-formed Marylebone Cricket Club, through the good offices of its President, the Duke of Dorset, then H.M.Ambassador to France, on whose land Thomas Lord had constructed a playing field (1 of 3 efforts, now Dorset Square). It was to be another 114 years before MCC were to mount another tour - this time to Australia (all previous tours had been privately arranged) where the mob was equally vocal if not as violent as the Paris mobs who stormed the Bastille.

There was no problem. The BCCI toured in their place.

And voted in favour of the French remaining as a full member of the international governing body.

Anyway, what would be the point in touring France? They play with metal balls in a sand pit! Its well known we can't play on slow low wickets, or against bowlers who bowl a heavy ball!

JKLever wrote:Good find Allan, cutting stuff indeed.

I notice the caption underneath the photo....

'Cook, ordinarily a club bowler with Stratford Upon Avon'

Does that mean he wouldn't have been contracted to Warwickshire in those days?

Probably not, as the Warwickshire staff was quite small and they had a healthy league system which they could call on for players. It was only 5 years since the distinction between 'gentlemen' (amateurs) and 'players' (professionals) had been abolished and there were still a lot of genuine amateurs knocking around (although I suspect Cook would have received a match fee). Jim Laker had turned out as an amateur for Essex (at the suggestion of Trevor Bailey), playing on a match-to-match basis, in the early 60s after being banned by MCC from playing professionally.

Cook seems to have been called on in place of Jack Bannister, the current radio commentator, who was David Brown's opening partner and retired at the end of the following season. David Cook, who turned out 9 times for the Bears in CC matches during the '60s and once in a Gillette Cup match in 1967 seems to have been no mug with the ball as he took 23 wickets @23.21 in the course of his brief career. His brother had also turned out twice for Warwickshire in the early '60s. The gap between the best of club and county cricketers then was obviously not as great as it is today. He was also born in the right place to play for the Bears!

David Cook

Looking at the two teams in that match I also noticed that Yorkshire fielded 10 past, present or future Test players (only FST's mate, Tony Nicholson missing out) and Warwickshire fielded 7 (including Billy Ibadulla). 1967 was the last season before special registration came in so it is also notable that Ibadulla was the only overseas player (and he had qualified for Warwickshire by residence as had Mushtaq Mohammed for Northants) in the match. The following season Warwickshire registered both Rohan Kanhai and Lance Gibbs to play for them.

But the French couldn't even keep their heads down.

Why would Laker have been banned from playing professionally?

taipan wrote:Why would Laker have been banned from playing professionally?

I may have got that slightly wrong. Laker retired from playing for Surrey at the end of the 1959 season (he had been dropped from the Test side following the disastrous Ashes tour which England lost 4-0 the previous winter). He published a book Over to Me in 1960 which contained severe criticisms of his county and Test captain, Peter May, who was an iconic figure at both Lord's and The Oval and both MCC and Surrey revoked his honorary memberships (though they were later restored).

He did come out of retirement to play for Auckland but could not play for another English county, under the rules as they existed at the time, without Surrey giving their permission, as he was still technically registered with them as a player, which they refused to do. However, Bailey pointed out that there was nothing to stop Laker registering as an amateur with Essex and being paid a match fee for the matches he played in which he did from 1962 to 1965.

Hope I've made that clear, and I apologise for any confusion or misunderstanding.

Allan D wrote:

taipan wrote:Why would Laker have been banned from playing professionally?

I may have got that slightly wrong. Laker retired from playing for Surrey at the end of the 1959 season (he had been dropped from the Test side following the disastrous Ashes tour which England lost 4-0 the previous winter). He published a book Over to Me in 1960 which contained severe criticisms of his county and Test captain, Peter May, who was an iconic figure at both Lord's and The Oval and both MCC and Surrey revoked his honorary memberships (though they were later restored).

He did come out of retirement to play for Auckland but could not play for another English county, under the rules as they existed at the time, without Surrey giving their permission, as he was still technically registered with them as a player, which they refused to do. However, Bailey pointed out that there was nothing to stop Laker registering as an amateur with Essex and being paid a match fee for the matches he played in which he did from 1962 to 1965.

Hope I've made that clear, and I apologise for any confusion or misunderstanding.

Thanks Allan, sounds like a restraint of trade to me.

JKLever wrote:Trouble brewing in France, The Revolutionaries have just stormed the Bastille!

Mob Stops Play! "Let them play boules!"

The 1789 English Cricket Season - Other Events

taipan wrote:Thanks Allan, sounds like a restraint of trade to me.

It certainly was, t, and MCC and Surrey would have been laughed out of court today. The Lord's establishment had an almost mediaeval mentality when it came to players criticising their elders and betters, as the case of Johnny Wardle, the Yorkshire and England left-arm spinner, had demonstrated only two years before Laker's brush with the authorities:

"Though in the favourable conditions of 1958 Wardle was very successful, friction between him and the Yorkshire committee, which had existed for many years prior to this point, became intolerable when Wardle announced he would write an article in The Daily Mail that was openly critical of the running of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Although MCC had chosen Wardle for the coming Ashes tour, they withdrew immediately Wardle made this announcement, and Yorkshire responded by dropping Wardle for the Bank Holiday match with Lancashire. They never recalled him, and when Wardle announced he would play for struggling Nottinghamshire Yorkshire steadfastly refused to allow Special Registration."


Johnny Wardle

great 1969 front page: features the Kray brothers and Basil d'Oliveira.

I'm sure there's a headline for the following year regarding the Lord's 'Test' between England and the Rest of the World to replace the cancelled South African series:

"Rest of the World Triumphant as England Collapses"

Obviously that headline (if it ever existed) came from one of the red-tops but this headline from that match could have been used for any number of matches, past and present:

Eng. v. RoW, 1st 'Test', Lord's, 18 June 1970