Hayman. He laid a hand to his partner’s shoulder. ‘You may take the boy out of Hoxton,’ he said, ‘but you can’t – ’
A bell rang somewhere within the enclosure.
‘Ding, ding! Round two… We’re on!’
~
At close of play on Monday the Aborigines had been four wickets down for 34 runs. Mullagh and Twopenny, the two ‘not outs’, presented themselves at the stumps just after noon.
Messrs Frere and Walker resumed the bowling for Surrey. Twopenny and then Lawrence were swiftly caught, before King Cole, in partnership with Mullagh, brought the score up to 65. For the best part of an hour Mullagh mounted a skilful defence, until defeated off a slow. The remaining wickets fell quickly. Their score being in a minority of 139, the Blacks were obliged to follow on.
Walker completed his revenge, catching Cole out for a duck. With the diligent assistance of Peter, Mullagh, strident, doggedly defended for another two hours. He met unflinching with a couple of nasty smacks from the ball.
At the end of the second day’s play Mullagh’s 73 runs accounted for half his team’s second innings total, but it was not enough. The Aborigines lost by an innings and seven runs.
Due to his sterling performance on both days, Mighty Mullagh was declared ‘man of the match’. Hoisting him aloft in a chair, the players carried him off the pitch to the cheers of an appreciative crowd.
Later, he was awarded a cash prize. He shared it out, equally, among the other members of his team.
CHAPTER IX
The ‘Wednesday of Wednesdays’, the 27th of May, 1868
THE CRICKET BALL
‘The order of civilisation in the Christian sense seems to be first to make savages men and then to make them Christians… To convert the savage into a sheep shearer was something, but it is more to make him into a smart cricketer…the savage rises to quite a higher social level.’
~ Ballarat Star
Derby Day, a rare national holiday, interrupted the team’s Oval engagement during this action-packed ‘week of sports’.
The weather supplied all that the heart of any racegoer could wish. The Prince of Wales – Queen Victoria’s beloved Bertie, her eldest son Albert Edward – had travelled overnight from Scotland to reach the Epsom Downs in time. Re-christened for the day ‘Derby Sweeps’, the Black Cricketers also attended, Mullagh with his batting honours thick upon him. To their credit, none of the Australian party took a potshot at the M.C.C.’s royal patron.
The Aborigines pooled Mullagh’s prize money and bet on Forest King for the Derby Stakes: the jockey wore a jacket, of red stars on a yellow ground, that rather took their fancy. The eventual winner by half a length was the favourite, Blue Gown. In second place came King Alfred, and third, Speculum. The players lost their bet, and William South Norton his shirt.
The Sweeps, quitting the Downs early, were soon returned to their London base. They had been invited to a high society ball, and needed to make ready.
Come the evening the West End streets were a-glitter, Vanity Fair turned out in all of its beau monde flash and finery. With the Season at its height, everybody – everybody who mattered – was in London to see and be seen.
The course of ‘all England’s day’ saw citizens of every stripe commingling on the Downs, a few hours’ classless communion that kept everyone entertained. Then, in the day’s dying minutes, a purple velvet drape drew the length of Pall Mall. Handsome cabriolets parked three or four deep soon clogged theavenue entirely. Fine ladies and gentlemen swept into the hallowed portals of the awaiting Clubs – the Reform, the Travellers’, the Athenaeum. Rolls of red carpet laid across the paving slabs showed the way. Ragged onlookers loitered, respectfully enraptured: the poor, gathered by the wayside. Each thin scarlet strip re-established the great divide, a gulf more impassable than any known to nature.
Down a dark alleyway a side door stood open,
A bell rang somewhere within the enclosure.
‘Ding, ding! Round two… We’re on!’
~
At close of play on Monday the Aborigines had been four wickets down for 34 runs. Mullagh and Twopenny, the two ‘not outs’, presented themselves at the stumps just after noon.
Messrs Frere and Walker resumed the bowling for Surrey. Twopenny and then Lawrence were swiftly caught, before King Cole, in partnership with Mullagh, brought the score up to 65. For the best part of an hour Mullagh mounted a skilful defence, until defeated off a slow. The remaining wickets fell quickly. Their score being in a minority of 139, the Blacks were obliged to follow on.
Walker completed his revenge, catching Cole out for a duck. With the diligent assistance of Peter, Mullagh, strident, doggedly defended for another two hours. He met unflinching with a couple of nasty smacks from the ball.
At the end of the second day’s play Mullagh’s 73 runs accounted for half his team’s second innings total, but it was not enough. The Aborigines lost by an innings and seven runs.
Due to his sterling performance on both days, Mighty Mullagh was declared ‘man of the match’. Hoisting him aloft in a chair, the players carried him off the pitch to the cheers of an appreciative crowd.
Later, he was awarded a cash prize. He shared it out, equally, among the other members of his team.
CHAPTER IX
The ‘Wednesday of Wednesdays’, the 27th of May, 1868
THE CRICKET BALL
‘The order of civilisation in the Christian sense seems to be first to make savages men and then to make them Christians… To convert the savage into a sheep shearer was something, but it is more to make him into a smart cricketer…the savage rises to quite a higher social level.’
~ Ballarat Star
Derby Day, a rare national holiday, interrupted the team’s Oval engagement during this action-packed ‘week of sports’.
The weather supplied all that the heart of any racegoer could wish. The Prince of Wales – Queen Victoria’s beloved Bertie, her eldest son Albert Edward – had travelled overnight from Scotland to reach the Epsom Downs in time. Re-christened for the day ‘Derby Sweeps’, the Black Cricketers also attended, Mullagh with his batting honours thick upon him. To their credit, none of the Australian party took a potshot at the M.C.C.’s royal patron.
The Aborigines pooled Mullagh’s prize money and bet on Forest King for the Derby Stakes: the jockey wore a jacket, of red stars on a yellow ground, that rather took their fancy. The eventual winner by half a length was the favourite, Blue Gown. In second place came King Alfred, and third, Speculum. The players lost their bet, and William South Norton his shirt.
The Sweeps, quitting the Downs early, were soon returned to their London base. They had been invited to a high society ball, and needed to make ready.
Come the evening the West End streets were a-glitter, Vanity Fair turned out in all of its beau monde flash and finery. With the Season at its height, everybody – everybody who mattered – was in London to see and be seen.
The course of ‘all England’s day’ saw citizens of every stripe commingling on the Downs, a few hours’ classless communion that kept everyone entertained. Then, in the day’s dying minutes, a purple velvet drape drew the length of Pall Mall. Handsome cabriolets parked three or four deep soon clogged theavenue entirely. Fine ladies and gentlemen swept into the hallowed portals of the awaiting Clubs – the Reform, the Travellers’, the Athenaeum. Rolls of red carpet laid across the paving slabs showed the way. Ragged onlookers loitered, respectfully enraptured: the poor, gathered by the wayside. Each thin scarlet strip re-established the great divide, a gulf more impassable than any known to nature.
Down a dark alleyway a side door stood open,
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