Date-stamped : 18 May94 - 18:23
AUSTRALIA V ENGLAND 1886-87 (1st Test)
Played at Sydney Cricket Ground on 28, 29, 31 January

Result: ENG won by 13 runs

Leading 'The Combined Australian  Eleven'  for  the  first  time,
McDonnell  became  the  first captain to invite the opposition to
bat on winning the toss in  a  test  match.  Turner  and   Ferris
bowled  unchanged throughout their first innings at test level to
dismiss 'Shaw's Team' for what was England's lowest  score  until
1994.   In  the  second innings, A.C.Bannerman batted for an hour
without adding to his score.  His elder brother Charles Bannerman
-  the  man  who  had faced the first ball, scored the first run,
reached the first hundred and had been the first batsman  to  re-
tire  hurt  in Test cricket - made his first appearance as an um-
pire at this level.

The England team represented the  cream  of  professional  talent
playing in the country at that time. Six of the players were from
Nottinghamshire, the county of the organisers, Alfred  Shaw   and
Arthur  Shrewsbury.   Shrewsbury  later committed suicide, but in
his day was the leading opening batsman in the country.

Both Midwinter and Ferris played for both England  and  Australia
(Midwinter  played  for England in the early 1880s, Ferris played
for Gloucestershire in the 1890s and was picked for  an   English
tour  to  South Africa in 1895/6 (?)).  Ferris and Turner came to
England with the Australian  touring  team of  1888,  and   broke
numerous  bowling  records.   Turner took over 200 wickets in the
season.  He is also the only bowler ever to have taken 100  wick-
ets in an Australian domestic season (1887/8).

<END> Contributed by Richard (r.head@ic.ac.uk)