The Test Match of 1880: a Detailed Scorecard

by Charles Davis

The match between Lord Harris’ England team and Bill Murdoch’s second Australian XI at the Oval in 1880 was the first Test match where the cricketing strengths of the two nations were close to representative. Among the major players of the day, only Spofforth was absent (through injury). The match was and is justifiably famous, and contained some remarkable performances in addition to its historical significance.

The match has been the subject of some excellent descriptive reports, notably in Cricket Lore, Vol 1, No. 3, p8ff (March 1992, Richard Hill, ed.). Published scores of the Test, however, are limited in detail, and conform to the practices of the day. A modern-style scorecard, with the extra statistical detail commonplace today, has not been available.

Fortunately, an original scorebook for this match survives, and is kept at the Surrey County Cricket Club. It is the oldest-known surviving Test match scorebook. A copy of this was kindly supplied to the author by Philip Bailey, and it has proved possible to “re-score” the match, using the scorebook and contemporary match descriptions (including the reports from The Times, reproduced in Alfred James’ volume The Second Australian XI’s Tour of Australia, Britain and New Zealand 1880-81), in order to calculate the batting times and balls faced for batsmen, along with other statistics.

Re-scoring matches from traditional scorebooks can be a challenging task, the essence of which is to reconstruct the order of overs bowled and assign each ball to a specific batsman. Fortunately, in the case of this Test, the compiler is aided by the fact that the ends of most bowling spells are delineated in the scorebook. However, there are complications, concerning the order of bowlers used and their overs. For example, in some cases a bowler’s first block of 20 overs is listed below his second block , and the order that the bowlers were actually used is not always the order listed in the scorebook. There are also a couple of cases where changes of bowlers were neither indicated in the scorebook nor mentioned in the match descriptions. These have been rather painstakingly inferred. At one point Albert Shaw “crossed” , i.e. bowled two consecutive overs from opposite ends. This was permitted (to a limited extent) under the Laws of the day.

There is a particular problem in that the occurrences of byes and leg byes get no mention in the bowling analyses. The approximate locations of these can be inferred when batsmen appear to change ends without runs being recorded. As it happens, all byes and leg byes can be accounted for, but in most cases their precise position cannot be pinpointed. This produces uncertainties in calculating balls faced for batsmen. So for most innings of significance, the Balls Faced listed below must be regarded as estimates, albeit fairly accurate ones. For example, the 152 by WG Grace is given as 294 balls, whereas the possible range is actually 289-298 balls, and Murdoch’s 153*, given as 358 balls, is actually in the range 350-366. It should be pointed out, however, that the “true” values are much more likely to be towards the middles of these ranges that at the extremes.

A coherent reconstruction of this match also requires that the batsmen crossed during some catches. These cases appear to be consistent with the match descriptions, including the famous catch off Bonnor by GF Grace (who died only weeks after this match). Folklore has it that the batsmen crossed twice while the ball was in the air, but the next ball of the same over, which was hit for four, was faced by Bonnor’s batting partner Boyle.

There is one odd anomaly in the scorebook. In England’s first innings, Boyle is listed as bowling 41 overs in the summary, yet in the detail, 44 overs are filled in. The value of 41 overs is also given in contemporary reports including The Times and Wisden. Somewhere along the line, the anomaly has been noted, and Boyle’s figures in later published reports were adjusted to 44 overs. However, it transpires that those last three overs, in which no runs are recorded, are in fact spurious; they don’t fit in to the sequence anywhere, and have been ignored here.

One other curiosity in the scorebook can be noted: the careful distinction of social status among the English players. There are five different indications of social standing, even though the eleven players included three brothers. There is a “Lord”, an “Hon.”, three “Esquires”, two players a denoted by initials and surname, while the three working-class professionals are known by surname only.

This work carried out as part of a project to bring the reported scores of as many historic Test matches as possible up to modern standards. The first volume of the resulting series, Test Cricket in Australia 1877-2002, which will include batting times for over 95% of individual Test innings played in Australia, is being published in 2002. A subsequent volume covering Tests played in England, which will include the match in question, is planned for 2003.

England v Australia, Kennington Oval: 6, 7, 8 September 1880.

Balls per over: 4. Captains: Lord Harris (Eng), WL Murdoch (Aus)

Umpires: HH Stephenson, R Thom.

Hours of play: 11:05, 11:20 or 11:30 to 2:00, 2:50 to 5:30-6:00 (approximate).

D	Close of play	Not out batsmen	Day Runs	Wk	Ov	Min	Crowd
1	En 410/8	Lyttelton 4	410	8	199.1	340	20,814
2	En 420, Au 149, Au 170/6 (86 ov., 160 min)	Murdoch 79, Bonnor 13	329	18	172.3	330	19,863
3	Au 327, En 5/57		214	9	124.2	227	3,751
		TOTALS	953	35	496.2	897	44,428

ENGLAND	1st Innings	R	M	4,6	BF
EM Grace	c Alexander b Bannerman	36	81	4,-	94	Ct at Mid-off
WG Grace	b Palmer	152	255	12,-	294
AP Lucas	b Bannerman	55	109	5,-	121
W Barnes	b Alexander	28	50	1,-	67	Played on
Lord Harris (c)	c Bonnor b Alexander	52	90	7,-	97	Slip
F Penn	b Bannerman	23	35	3,-	45
AG Steel	c Boyle b Moule	42	50	5,-	66	Mid-on
Hon. Lyttelton (w)	Not out	11	21	1,-	32
GF Grace	c Bannerman b Moule	0	2	0,-	2	Slip
A Shaw	b Moule	0	6	0,-	4
F Morley	Run out	2	5	0,-	9
Extras	b 8, lb 11, nb 0, w 0	19
Total	210.3 overs All out	420		357	min

WG Grace 50: 102 balls, 2x4. 100 in 155 min, 211b, 6x4. 150 in 290b, 12x4.

AP Lucas 50: 117b, 5x4. Lord Harris 50: 92b, 7x4.

Fall of Wickets						Bowling	Wkt	R	Ov	M	nb,w	6s
Wkt	fow	R	Min	B		HF Boyle	0	71	41	15	-,-	-
1	91	91	81	189	E Gra / WG	GE Palmer	1	116	70	27	-,-	-
2	211	120	109	257	A Luc / WG	G Alexander	2	69	32	10	-,-	-
3	269	58	50	120	W Bar / WG	AC Bannerman	3	111	50	12	-,-	-
4	281	12	10	20	WG / L Har	PS McDonnell	0	11	2	0	-,-	-
5	322	41	35	85	F Penn / Harris	WH Moule	3	23	12.3	4	-,-	-
6	404	82	46	106	Harris / A Ste
7	410	6	6	13	A Ste / H Lyt	England 100: 216 balls
8	410	0	2	6	G Gra / H Lyt	200: 420 balls. 300: 637 balls.
9	413	3	6	16	A Shaw / H Lyt	400: 772 balls.
10	420	7	5	18	F Mor / H Lyt
357	min,	49.8 runs/ 100 balls

AUSTRALIA	1st Innings	R	M	4,6	BF
AC Bannerman	b Morley	32	48	5,-	54
WL Murdoch (c)	c Barnes b Steel	0	22	0,-	19	Ct mid-off
TU Groube	b Steel	11	39	1,-	44
PS McDonnell	c Barnes b Morley	27	49	2,-	41	Low at mid-on
J Slight	c GF Grace b Morley	11	29	1,1*	35	3rd man
JM Blackham (w)	c & b Morley	0	1	0,-	2	High catch
GJ Bonnor	c GF Grace b Shaw	2	9	0,-	8	Big hit: long-on
HF Boyle	not out	36	53	5,-	47
GE Palmer	b Morley	6	17	0,-	17
G Alexander	c WG Grace b Steel	6	13	0,-	20	Slip
WH Moule	c Morley b WG Grace	6	15	0,-	14	Short leg
Extras	b 9, lb 3, nb 0, w 0	12				*counted as 5 runs
Total	75.1 overs All out	149		153	min

Fall of Wickets							Wkts	R	Ov	M	nb,w	6s
Wkt	fow	R	Min			F Morley	5	56	32	9	-,-	-
1	28	28	22	47	W Mur / A Ban	AG Steel	3	58	29	9	-,-	-
2	39	11	25	50	A Ban / T Gro	A Shaw	1	21	13	5	-,-	1
3	59	20	14	31	T Gro / P McD	WG Grace	1	2	1.1	0	-,-	-
4	84	25	29	58	J Sli / P McD
5	84	0	1	2	J Bla / P McD
6	89	5	6	8	P McD / G Bon	Australia 100: 225 balls.
7	97	8	6	11	G Bon / H Boy
8	113	16	17	34	G Pal / H Boy
9	126	13	13	31	G Ale / H Boy
10	149	23	15	29	W Mou / H Boy
153	min,	49.5 runs/ 100 balls

AUSTRALIA	2nd Innings	R	M	4,6	BF
AC Bannerman	c Lucas b Shaw	8	7	1,-	14	Mid-wicket
HF Boyle	run out	3	10	0,-	7	Att. 2nd run
WL Murdoch	not out	153	315	17,-	358
TU Groube	c Shaw b Morley	0	2	0,-	1	Slip
PS McDonnell	lbw b WG Grace	43	75	9,-	76
J Slight	c Harris b WG Grace	0	2	0,-	1	Long-off
JM Blackham	c EM Grace b Morley	19	49	2,-	54	Point
GJ Bonnor	b Steel	16	23	3,-	29
GE Palmer	c & b Steel	4	7	1,-	9	Taken at mid-off
G Alexander	c Shaw b Morley	33	56	5,-	59	Slip
WH Moule	b Barnes	34	90	4,-	99
Extras	b 7, lb 7, nb 0, w 0	14
Total	176.3 overs All out	327		325	min

Murdoch 50: 113b, 1x5, 4x4. 100: 215min, 250b, 1x5, 11x4. 150: 350b, 1x5, 17x4.

Murdoch took 40 balls to progress from 96 to 100. His 5 included overthrows.

Fall of Wickets							Wkts	R	Ov	M	nb,w	6s
Wkt	fow	R	Min	B		F Morley	3	90	61	30	-,-	-
1	8	8	7	18	A Ban / H Boy	AG Steel	2	73	31	6	-,-	-
2	13	5	1	5	H Boy / W Mur	A Shaw	1	42	33	18	-,-	-
3	14	1	2	6	T Gro / W Mur	WG Grace	2	66	28	10	-,-	-
4	97	83	75	166	P McD / W Mur	W Barnes	1	17	8.3	3	-,-	-
5	101	4	2	8	J Sli / W Mur	AP Lucas	0	23	12	7	-,-	-
6	143	42	49	105	J Bla / W Mur	F Penn	0	2	3	1	-,-	-
7	181	38	23	56	G Bon / W Mur
8	187	6	7	19	G Pal / W Mur	Australia 100: 200 balls.
9	239	52	56	124	G Ale / W Mur	200: 415 balls. 300: 655 balls.
10	327	88	90	200	W Mou / W Mur
325	min,	46.2 runs/ 100 balls

ENGLAND	2nd Innings (set 57)	R	M	4,6	BF
Hon. A Lyttelton	b Palmer	13	25	1,-	32
GF Grace	b Palmer	0	4	0,-	2
AP Lucas	c Blackham (w) b Palmer	2	12	0,-	18	Leg side
F Penn	not out	27	44	3,-	46
W Barnes	c Moule b Boyle	5	14	1,-	15	Mid-on
EM Grace	b Boyle	0	1	0,-	2
WG Grace	not out	9	17	1,-	20
Extras	b 0, lb 0, nb 1, w 0	1
Total	33.3 overs 5 wkts	57		62	min

Fall of Wickets							Wkts	R	Ov	M	nb,w	6s
Wkt	fow	R	Min	B		HF Boyle	2	21	17	7	-,-	-
1	2	2	4	6	G Gra / H Lyt	GE Palmer	3	35	16.3	5	1,-	-
2	10	8	12	36	A Luc / H Lyt
3	22	12	8	23	H Lyt / F Penn
4	31	9	14	34	W Bar / F Penn
5	31	0	1	2	E Gra / F Penn
6	*	26	17	36	WG / F Penn
62	min,	42.2 runs/ 100 balls

Bowling Spells

The summary below gives all the overs bowled in sequence, with the bowling pairs in operation at any given time. The number of runs off each over is given, but not a ball-by-ball breakdown, except in the overs where wickets fell. For example, the bowling began with an over by Boyle, from which one run was hit, while Palmer bowled the first over from the other end, conceding four. After 26 overs, Boyle was replaced by Alexander.

England First Innings (Commenced 11:30)

HF Boyle	1		3		0		0		4		1		0		0		0		1		2		3		4
GE Palmer		4		3		5		0		0		4		2		1		0		1		0		1		0

G Alexander	1		2		0		2
GE Palmer		0		5		1

G Alexander		1		0		6		1		0		5		5
AC Bannerman	1		4		0		0		0		8		3		3W.1

91 for 1: EM Grace c Alexander b Bannerman 36 (92 balls), WG Grace 48* (98 balls)

GE Palmer	0		2		1		1		0		4		2		0
AC Bannerman		2		3		2		0		3		5		4

GE Palmer		0		1		0		0		1		0
G Alexander	0		4		2		0		4		2

GE Palmer		0		1		0		1		3		2		0
HF Boyle	4		0		2		2		0		1		2

GE Palmer		2		Lunch
PS McDonnell	5		6	167 for 1

AP Lucas 41* (85 balls), WG Grace 82* (191 balls)

GE Palmer	5		2		0		7		0		1		2		4
AC Bannerman		3		2		0		2		4		1		2		1

HF Boyle	1		1		0		5		0		1		6		3		1		0		0		0		1		4
AC Bannerman		3		21W.		0		1		0		1		0		0		2		7		7		0		1		3

211 for 2: AP Lucas b Bannerman 55 (124 balls), WG Grace 112* (231 balls)

GE Palmer	1		3		7
AC Bannerman		3		1

GE Palmer		1		0		..W.		3		0		1		0		0		2		0
G Alexander	..W2		8		1		0		1		1		1		0		5		9

269 for 3: W Barnes b Alexander 28 (66 balls), WG Grace 142* (285 balls)

281 for 4: WG Grace b Palmer 152 (294 balls), Harris 2* (12 balls)

GE Palmer		4		5		HF Boyle	0		2		0		0		5		4		7
AC Bannerman	0		4		1			.4.W		1		4		4		0		2		2

322 for 5: F Penn b Bannerman 23 (45 balls), Harris 20* (54 balls)

GE Palmer	1		0			8		0		6
AC Bannerman		3		WH Moule	3		2		0		4

G Alexander	6		0		.W.4		0		0		410 for 8
WH Moule		4		5		1		..W.		W	Stumps at fall of wicket

404 for 6: Lord Harris c Bonnor b Alexander 52 (97 balls), Steel 41* (60 balls)

410 for 7: AG Steel c Boyle b Moule 42 (69 balls), Lyttleton 4* (4 balls)

410 for 8: GF Grace c Bannerman b Moule 0 (2 balls), Lyttleton 4* (8 balls)

Second Day

On re-start at 11:05, Moule completed his 11th over (a maiden), then:

GE Palmer	0		2		2		1
WH Moule		1		W…		3		..R

413 for 9: A Shaw b Moule 0 (5 balls), Lyttleton 7* (19 balls)

420 for 10: F Morley run out 2 (6 balls), Lyttleton 11* (32 balls)

Australia First Innings (commenced 11:40, second day)

F Morley	5		0		1		4		4		1		2		1		0		3		4		0		W…		0		1		4		1
AG Steel		0		1		7		0		0		.1.W		1		0		0		0		0		0		3		4		4		…W		2

28 for 1: WL Murdoch c Barnes b Steel 0 (19 balls), Bannerman 24* (28 balls)

39 for 2: AC Bannerman b Morley 32 (54 balls), Groube 3* (25 balls)

59 for 3: TU Groube b Steel 11 (44 balls), McDonnell 8* (11 balls)

A Shaw	2		1		4		0		1		0	F Morley		.W.W		.2.W		3		1		1		3		4
AG Steel		4		3		2		1		4		A Shaw*	0		3		3		1.W4		0		0		2

*Shaw changed ends by bowling two consecutive overs (permitted at that time)

84 for 4: J Slight c GF Grace b Morley 11(35 balls) , McDonnell 22* (33 balls)

84 for 5: JM Blackham c & b Morley 0 (2 balls), McDonnell 22* (33 balls)

89 for 6: PS McDonnell c Barnes b Morley 27 (76 balls), Bonnor 0* (1 ball)

97 for 7: GJ Bonnor c GF Grace b Shaw 2 (8 balls), Boyle 5* (4 balls)

F Morley		W…		0		0		1		Lunch	4		4		1			1
AG Steel	1		2		4		4		..2W	126 for 9		1		7		WG Grace	2		W

113 for 8: GE Palmer b Morley 6 (17 balls), Boyle 15* (21 balls)

126 for 9: G Alexander c WG Grace b Steel 6 (20 balls), Boyle 22* (32 balls)

149 for 10: WH Moule c Morley b WG Grace 6 (14 balls).

Australia Second Innings (Follow-on commenced ~3:20)

A Shaw	0		1		.W..		0		1		0		0		0		0		2		0		0		4		2		0		3
F Morley		0		7		13,1*,1		W…		2		0		5		4		4		1		4		0		0		5		0

*Boyle run out after completing one run.

8 for 1: AC Bannerman c Lucas b Shaw 8 (14 balls), Boyle 0* (4 balls)

13 for 2: HF Boyle run out 3 (7 balls), Murdoch 2* (2 balls)

14 for 3: TU Groube c Shaw b Morley 0 (2 balls), Murdoch 2* (6 balls)

A Shaw		0		WG Grace	0		0		0		1		5
W Barnes	0		1			0		2		4		5

WG Grace		2		5		.44W		1..W		4		0		3		0			1		6
AG Steel	3		8		0		1		0		1		3		1		F Morley	0		4		0

97 for 4: PS McDonnell lbw b WG Grace 43 (76 balls), Murdoch 41* (97 balls)

101 for 5: J Slight c Harris b WG Grace 0 (1 ball), Murdoch 43* (102 balls)

A Shaw	4		0		8		2		1		AP Lucas	0		0		0		4		8		1
F Morley		1		0		0		2		0			0		W…		9		0		1

143 for 6: JM Blackham c EM Grace b Morley 19 (54 balls), Murdoch 65* (154 balls)

W Barnes bowled the last over before stumps, for 4 runs. Stumps second day:

Australia 170 for 6, Murdoch 79* (175 balls), Bonnor 13* (13 balls).

Third Day

F Morley	2		0		1		1		0		2		1		1		1		0		0		0		0		0
AG Steel		4		4		W..4		1		…W		0		4		2		5		1		2		8		1

181 for 7: GJ Bonnor b Steel 16 (29 balls), Murdoch 87* (182 balls)

187 for 8: GE Palmer c & b Steel 4 (9 balls), Murdoch 89* (192 balls)

F Morley		4		1		1		0		1		0		.4W.		0		0		0
WG Grace	0		2		0		0		0		4		0		1		4		5

239 for 9: G Alexander c Shaw b Morley 33 (59 balls), Murdoch 101* (256 balls)

F Morley		0		1		3		A Shaw	0		0		0		1		4		7
AG Steel	5		0		2		2			2		0		5		1		1

A Shaw		1		0		0		1		0		AP Lucas	0		0		0		3
F Morley	0		0		2		1		0		8	WG Grace		4		1		9

AP Lucas		0		7		W Barnes	0	Lunch		.1W
F Penn	0		1		1	AG Steel		324 for 9	2

327 for 10: WH Moule b Barnes 34 (99 balls), Murdoch 153* (358 balls)

Lunch break 2:00 to 2:50 (Murdoch 152, Moule 33). All out at 2:55.

England Second Innings (Commenced 3:13, third day)

HF Boyle	2		0		2		0		0		1		4		1		0		0		1		2		W.W1
GE Palmer		.W..		0		5		1		…W		1		3		.1.W		0		4		0		2

2 for 1: GF Grace b Palmer 0 (2 balls), Lyttleton 2* (4 balls)

10 for 2: AP Lucas c Blackham b Palmer 2 (18 balls), Lyttleton 8* (20 balls)

22 for 3: Hon. Lyttelton b Palmer 13 (32 balls), Penn 6* (9 balls)

31 for 4: W Barnes c Moule b Boyle 5 (15 balls), Penn 10* (30 balls)

31 for 5: EM Grace b Boyle 0 (2 balls), Penn 10* (30 balls)

HF Boyle (cont.)		0		1		0		6
GE Palmer (cont.)	5		6		1		1		5

F Penn 27* (46 balls), WG Grace 9* (20 balls)

England won by 5 wickets. Winning run hit by WG Grace.

Match ended at 4:15, third day.

Details of Major Innings

As discussed earlier, the exact number of “dot balls” faced by batsmen is uncertain. However, the centuries of WG Grace and Murdoch can be reasonably rendered as follows: (m= maiden over, [f] =fall of wicket, [L] =Lunch break, [S] = Stumps.)

Grace’s 152 ball-by-ball.

..3…3m4m.1m…..2…1m…1..1.1313.1m1..3m…1…1..121mm..m3.11..413 [f] .2…21…11m..11…1mm..1..2.m…4…m..4m…m..1…1m1..1..2.232… [L] 41..1…21m43.2..3…..2….1..11.121 [f] m1.1m1.1..241m.1m4..241m…1..11…..4. [f] 14..41..W

Murdoch’ s 153* ball-by-ball.

11 [f] 1m [f] .11.m…5mm..2……4.mm..1.1m2..1m..1mm.1m…1.1.112….44.4 [f]…11 [f] .22…12..1…1m12.4.4……mm2….mm [f] m44.m..11.4.. [S] .4….4. [f]..1..1m [f] 1m…1…2…3..1mmm.m1…….1mm..11..m [f] 1m4…11m.m.132……2m1.1..1.4……1m2……1..1m.44…4..1m42….1..31m.1