From left: JEK Studd, CT Studd and GB Studd © Wikimedia Commmons
May 31, 1882. Cambridge University, powered by the three gifted Studd brothers, defeated the great Australian side of 1882 in a historic encounter. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the match and at the role of the great cricketer and missionary CT Studd in the famous victory.
Cricket and Christ
“Only one life ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
CT Studd, the youngest and greatest cricketer among the three gifted Studd brothers, would write these lines later in his life. Barely two years after his sterling deeds against the Australians in the summer of 1882, he would be lost to the cricket world forever.
Converted to faith by a visiting preacher, CT received his calling when brother GB Studd fell ill. “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell,” so said he. And in February 1885 he embarked on a journey to save souls in China.
The rest of his life was a series of fascinating adventures as a missionary. He shaved his head and sported a pigtail, wore the loose Chinese tunics, walked across the great land to spread the word of God. After China, it was India where he served as the pastor of a church at Ootacamund. Finally it was the turn of Africa, and he first went evangelising in Sudan and then to Belgian Congo. In between there were visits to the United States to preach the gospel.
One of the classiest batsmen of his era, by far the best bowler among the Gentlemen cricketers, and an excellent fielder, he was seldom seen on the cricket field after the age of 24.
Yet, in 1882, at the tender age of 22, he was the toast of English cricket. That summer he scored 1,249 runs with four hundreds — two of them against the visiting Australians — and captured 131 wickets. He played the famed Test at The Oval that led to the birth of the Ashes lore, and it was too bad that skipper AN ‘Monkey’ Hornby kept him up his sleeve in the second innings and sent him in too late to do much but helplessly watch the last couple of wickets fall at the other end.
His brothers GB and JEK were able cricketers too — the former played four Tests and the latter served Cambridge University with distinction while also representing Middlesex. And never were the brothers at their synchronised best as against the Australians during the famed match at the end of May, 1882.
What CT Studd carried out for Christ were indeed lasting. But, contrary to what he wrote in the poem, what he did on the cricket field has lasted in the annals of history with comparable glory.
The all-conquering Australians
The Australians had started the tour magnificently, Hugh Massie smoting the ball all around the park at the Christ Church Ground, scoring 206 against Oxford University. After that Fred Spofforth, George Giffen and Harry Boyle made short work of the University men.
At Hove, they thrashed Sussex by an enormous margin of an innings and 355 runs. Captain Billy Murdoch did even better than Massie, scoring 286 not out. Joey Palmer captured 14 wickets in the game.
Charlie Thornton’s Orleans Club, fielding an almost representative English eleven, did have the better of the exchange at Twickenham. With WG Grace, Bunny Lucas, Dick Barlow, Alan Steele, Alexander Webbe and EM Grace it was an exceedingly strong outfit. But even then the Australians showed their mettle by hanging on to a draw by virtue of some magnificent batting by Murdoch in the second innings. Besides, most of the Australian cricketers were waymore keento watching the Derby than the result of this low key match.
At Kennington Oval, the visitors came from behind to pull off a stunning victory over Surrey. Conceding a lead of 70, they dismissed the home team for 48 in the second innings and were triumphant by six wickets. Boyle got 11 scalps and Tom Garrett six. Every bowler was in prime form, except perhaps The Demon himself.
The consensus was growing fast that this was the strongest Australian side to have visited the shores. They had started as usual by playing against the local sides of the colonies as they embarked on their tour. Before that they had beaten Alfred Shaw’s XI that had toured Australia. It had been ten weeks since they had tasted defeat.
GB was captain of Cambridge that year, and readily agreed to the request of a match that was conveyed by the Australians. The President of the Cambridge Cricket Club, an old Cambridge Don, cricketer and clergyman, was not very fascinated by the idea. The University was sure to get a sound beating. GB responded that it would not matter anyhow, because everyone expected that result.
The Tale of Three Brothers
It was a day bathed in sunshine and the attendance at Fenner’s was larger than ever before when Murdoch won the toss and elected to bat. As the University men walked out to field, there were voices remarking that they were in for a day’s outing. Initially it looked as if that was indeed in store.
Massie and Alec Bannerman opened against the medium pace of CT and the curly leg-breaks of Robert Ramsay. And Massie drove Studd for three boundaries and Ramsay for two. Runs were coming at great pace. Bannerman was stonewalling as usual. The Australians put on 47 before long. And then Massie cut under a ball from CT and was neatly caught at third-man.
Bannerman stuck around to score 50, but the rest of the batting collapsed quickly and surprisingly. The visitors were all out for 139. CT ended with 5 for 64, Ramsay, nicknamed ‘Twisty Tom’ because of his leg-breaks, finished with 5 for 61.
The hosts began their response through GB and JEK, but Garrett and Palmer was soon among the wickets. JEK, followed by two more University men, were already back with the score on 55. At this juncture CT joined his brother and captain.
A most remarkable innings followed. The brothers put on 34 before Spofforth castled GB for a personal score of 42. It had been an innings of part brilliance and part chance. At the other end, CT was batting with ease and class that spoke of the rarest of talent.
William Bather, a little known name in cricket, joined CT and put on a most determined resistance against superb bowling. There was a great deal of cheering as the hundred went up on the board. This was followed by a magnificent on-drive by CT which landed almost on the ring of spectators. Runs rushed forth rapidly. And another huge roar of applause greeted the batsmen when the Australian total was surpassed. Murdoch kept changing the bowling around, but CT continued to bat superbly. When the day ended, the youngest Studd was on 85 and the score was 187 for 4.
The following day, the crowd was even larger. Special excursion trains had been arranged from London and other places, and people flocked in to watch CT take on the Australians.
Spofforth bowled Bather at 207, then Palmer struck the stumps of Ralph Spencer. But CT was joined by another able man, Perceval Henery, a Middlesex cricketer of considerable experience.
The hundred of CT brought forth a great tumult of cheering, following which he drove Spofforth for two handsome boundaries. And then he snicked Palmer. Murdoch, playing as wicket-keeper with Jack Blackham sitting the match out, had dropped quite a few in the game, and would miss more; but he held on to this one. The young man walked back to rousing ovation for a splendid 118. The Cambridge University first innings amounted to 266.
CT’s job was far from over. Soon he was sending down over after over with Ramsay at the other end. He got the dangerous Massie early. Four wickets fell before the Australians erased the deficit.
Fighting half centuries by Tom Horan and George Giffen allowed the visitors to breathe a bit easy at the end of the day, finishing at 212 for 6.
Early next morning, CT caught Giffen off his own bowling and then pouched the stubborn Palmer off Ramsay. Eight down for 225, just 98 runs ahead, the Australian tail resisted valiantly. Boyle and Garrett put on 35 and then Boyle and Spofforth 31. The end came when Ramsay spun one past Spofforth and Charles Wright, later a stumper for England, whipped off the bails. According to Horan, it was a “very erroneous decision, and admitted to be so by the Cambridge men themselves. As in former cases, HH Stephenson [the man who had led the first England team to Australia in 1861-62] was the umpire who made the error”.
Once again CT and Ramsay had accounted for all the wickets, the former 3 for 106 in 69 four-ball oversand the latter 7 for 118 in 71.
Cambridge University required 168 to win, and opinion was greatly divided on whether they could make them. JRK and GB went in and batted beautifully. Cheers greeted every run, especially as every ten was raised. The two brothers stayed together long enough and the ground erupted as 100 was registered.
GB was out for 48, his second valuable contribution in the match. But, the score was already 106. Palmer and Giffen triggered a mini collapse as three more wickets fell relatively quickly, but CT was there with the resolute Bather in tow. The youngest brother remained not out with 17, and made the winning hit. Cambridge University triumphed by six wickets.
Before the match, Horan had said, “I hear they have a set of Studds in the Eleven. We shall win if we can get them Studds out.” He was right. Only, the Australians did not manage to get them Studds out.
In spite of his reservations about the umpiring, Horan did write: “It is no use trying to make excuses about our defeat, for we won the toss and went in on a capital wicket, and in fact, had everything in our favour for a long score.”
It was actually Punch that gave the brothers the nickname ‘The set of Studds’. But there was a banker and a cricket fan who went one better. He had three gold studs for his evening-dress shirt engraved with the initials of the three brothers. Whichever made top score any day when all three were playing, went top in the shirt that night.
The Brief Second Coming
Just days before the match against the Australians, CT had scored 126 not out for the University against the Gentlemen of England. In July he scored two more hundreds, for the Gentlemen against Players, and for MCC against The Australians.
He toured Australia with Ivo Bligh’s team, on the mission to bring back The Ashes. He played the next two seasons in England before beginning his new life as a missionary.
He returned to the cricket field thrice more, in the Indian winter of 1902-03. When the motley crew of Oxford University Authentics visited India, with the likes of his former England captain Hornby and the lob bowler George Simpson-Hayward in their midst, CT walked out of his church in Ootacamund and into the cricket field once again.
He turned out for Madras Presidency at Chepauk, and scored a patient unbeaten 14 in the first innings and a classy 56 in the second. He also captured the wicket of Simpson-Hayward.
The following match was for Southern India against the Oxford University Authentics at Trichinopoly, and CT fell to the lob bowling of Simpson-Hayward for 20 in the first innings while Ralph Williams dismissed him for a duck in the second.
And in early January of 1903, he turned up at the Polo Ground of Old Delhi, representing the Gentlemen of India in his first First-Class appearance in 18 years. It was also to be his final First-Class game.
He did not score many. The curiously named Horatio James Powys-Keck, the Worcestershire left-arm fast bowler, got him in both the innings for 11 and 4. But Studd did bowl Williams in the game.
He never played cricket again.
When in China, he wrote to his younger brothers Reggie and Bertie, both at Eton, the following about the noble game:
“I do not say ‘Don’t play games of cricket and so forth. By all means play and enjoy them, giving thanks to Jesus for them. Only take care that games do not become an idol to you, as they did to me. What good will it do to anybody in the next world to have been even the best player that has ever been? And then think of the difference between that and winning souls for Jesus.”
Reggie (Reginald Augustus) and Bertie (Herbert William) both played First-Class cricket for MCC, as did the other brothers Edward John Charles and Arthur Haythorne Studd. Reg also played for Hampshire, while Bert played for both Hampshire and Middlesex.
On a side note, JEK Studd was the first person to carry the Olympic Flag for Great Britain. The year was 1908 (the previous versions did not have the traditional parade of nations). Studd was, however, not a participant.
Brief Scores:
Australia 139 (Alec Bannerman 50; CT Studd 5 for 61, Robert Ramsay 5 for 64) and 290 (Tom Horan 51, George Giffen 59; Robert Ramsay 7 for 118) lost to Cambridge University 266 (GB Studd 42, CT Studd 118; Joey Palmer 6 for 65) and 168 for 4 (GB Studd 48, JEK Studd 66) by 4 wickets.