BUSH CRICKET (John Terrell)

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BUSH CRICKET contains many things that are unique about Australian and world cricket, including those big matches involving Australia on the gravel in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in 1897. Then Australian cricket captain George Giffen recalled:

Three months before we were there the site of the ground was a forest of scrub. The Westralians, who are nothing if not energetic, had cleared the scrub, and put down in the centre of the ground a concrete wicket. In the in-field the soil had been well watered and was fairly hard, so that the ball bounced off it all right. But, what of the outfield? The dust was inches deep, and the ball stopped very quickly after reaching it. To make matters worse, it was a windy day when we were there, and occasional gusts of wind blew up the dust in dense clouds, so it was impossible to continue the game. The batsmen could not see the bowler, leave alone get a sight of the ball. While, on the way down to the ground in a dray drawn by eight horses, one could not, from the box-seat, see the heads of the leaders! Such is cricket in Westralia.

Two former Test cricketers are buried in Goldfields cemeteries.  One of them, ex-New South Welshman John Cottam, succumbed to typhoid fever in 1897 at the age of 29, and was laid to rest in the Coolgardie Cemetery.  The other is ex-Victorian John Edward “Jack” Barrett, who became a medical practitioner after his cricket career ended. He died in 1916 and was buried at Peak Hill, north of Meekatharra, at the age of 49.

The book identifies more than 150 Test cricketers from seven different countries who have played on the Goldfields in different matches since the goldrush era more than a century ago.

One chapter, titled “Extremes of the Game”, tells of a Kanowna player who “clean bowled” the entire Kalgoorlie cricket team, something that has never been achieved in Australian first class cricket. Another story recounts a Country Week side that was bowled out for just six runs by a pair of Goldfields spinners who opened their team’s second innings bowling attack.  And then there was turn-of-the twentieth century champion Tom Hardacre who walked 12 miles through the bush to Kalgoorlie after missing his Cobb and Co. Coach from Kanowna, and put together a match winning innings of 87 not out for his team White Feather.

Woven into the manuscript of BUSH CRICKET, the author John Terrell highlights a number of interesting events that have punctuated the history of the Western Australian goldfields.  Things like the influence of future US President Herbert Hoover on the development of water supplies in the Golden West, race riots, the murder of gold stealing detectives Pitman and Walsh, the discovery of the famous Golden Eagle nugget, the nickel boom and the advent of Twenty-20 cricket.

PUBLICATION DATE: Oct 2009