The Ashes urn and the 1883 embroidered bag |
The cricket season now drawing to a close has marked for cricket fans the 100 year point since the legendary "Ashes" were created amid the excitement and enthusiasm of those "golden years" of cricket at the end of the nineteenth century.
It is perhaps of some interest for those of us who live in
the Blue Mountains to know that our region has had some connection with a
number of the people who helped shape the early contours of the story a century
ago.
When, on that sultry and overcast August day, in 1882,
players came onto The Oval at 12 noon, probably none of the 20,000 spectators
expected the events they were about to witness.
The strong Australian bowling combination was not
anticipated and, led by "The Demon" Spofforth, proceeded to wreak havoc on the
English batsmen.
The
colonials' victory by seven runs was the first Test win on English soil and the
humiliation was widely felt.
The famous
mock obituary appearing in print shortly after the
match announced the death and cremation of English cricket with the imaginary
ashes to be taken to Australia.
T. W. Garrett as a young man |
Part of that famous bowling combination was a young right-arm medium pace bowler named Thomas William Garrett who, five years before, had played in the very first Test in Melbourne at the age of 18.
Garrett had
a distinguished cricket career, touring England three times and playing in 19
Tests for Australia.
As well as
bowling, he was a fine cover fieldsman and also had some success with the bat,
scoring several first class centuries for NSW.
During the
1890s he was a successful captain of NSW leading his team to victory in the
Sheffield Shield on two occasions.
Off the
field, he was a solicitor and civil servant and in the early years of this
century, following his retirement from competitive cricket, Garrett and his
family moved out of Sydney to the Blue Mountains where he became a resident of
Springwood,
He lived
comfortably in "Braemar" and was an active member of the Springwood Progress
Association.
His
continued contribution to the administration of cricket and his encouragement
of young players like Victor Trumper made him something of a legend in
cricketing circles by the time of his death in 1943.
Cricketer T.W. Garrett, of Sydney, who played in the first Test match between England and Australia. SMH Picture by STAFF |
Following the
defeat of 1882 a team of English cricketers, captained by the aristocrat Ivo
Bligh (Lord Darnley), set out to retrieve the mythical "Ashes" so
unceremoniously transported by the upstart colonials.
It was
nothing less than a crusade to "resurrect" the honour of English
cricket.
It was during
this Test series, played in the Australian summer of 1882-1883, that the real
Ashes came into existence.
Again,
persons at one time associated with the Mountains
played a not insignificant part.
Australia
won the first Test in Melbourne and it looked as if the currency lads were going
to do a proper job of trampling on English pride.
Even the
London "Times" could not bring itself to record the defeat and
reversed the result in its report. But the England team rallied and won
the next two matches and hence the series. Honour was restored.
Following
the British victory and before the tourists returned home, their captain was
presented with three things that have become sacred relics in the folklore of
Anglo-Australian cricket and are protected with almost religious zeal by
the MCC.
These were,
some ashes supposedly of one of the Third Test bails, a small pottery urn and
an embroidered red velvet bag.
Of the
three it is the red velvet bag that is of interest to us for its story is
linked with one of the prominent families of early Katoomba.
Anne Fletcher |
The bag was
the gift of Mrs. Ann Fletcher whose husband, John W. Fletcher, was managing a school
in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra at the time of the Test series.
A year
later, in 1884, the Fletchers were to move to Katoomba where they opened The
Katoomba College, a boarding school for boys, in the building that was later to become the Royal Coffee Palace and then the headquarters of the Blue
Mountains City Council.
John W. Fletcher |
The
Fletchers were active in Katoomba life and affairs throughout the 1880s until
the depression of the early 1890s forced the school's closure in 1893.
The name of
the building was changed to The Priory and Mrs. Fletcher ran it as a boarding
house until 1896 when the family returned to Sydney.
The Royal Coffee Palace, Katoomba |
Sport was a
strong interest in the Fletcher family.
Mr.
Fletcher played most games well, and in the case of soccer and golf, was
prominent in establishing these sports in Australia.
The
Fletchers' eldest son, John William, played cricket for Paddington with Victor
Trumper and later represented Queensland in 1909-10.
A close
friend of the family was the Yorkshire born watercolourist William Blamire
Young.
It is quite
possible that he was the designer of the embroidery that decorates the velvet
bag as he often created designs for Mrs. Fletcher to work upon. He, too, was a resident of Katoomba in the 1880s being appointed
assistant master at The Katoomba College in 1885.
A letter
from Ivo Bligh thanking Mrs. Fletcher for her gift is housed with the other relics
at Lords.
Before the
tourists set sail with their recovered treasure they played a further match against a full strength Australian team in Sydney during February 1883.
Tom
Garrett, who had taken only three wickets and scored only 16 runs (three ducks)
in the previous three Tests, was dropped and into the team came Edwin Evans, an
accurate round arm spin bowler from NSW.
In 1877 he
had starred for NSW taking 5 for 94 against James Lillywhite's English
professionals.
He also had
the reputation of being an above average tail-end batsmen and he later toured
England with the Australians in 1886.
Evans is
the final link between these events surrounding the creation of the Ashes and
the Mountains.
His father,
James Evans, was the first licensee of the Pilgrim Inn at Blaxland (1830).
After first
leasing the property, he purchased it in 1833 and then re-sold it toward the
end of the decade.
Moving into
farming on the Nepean the large family became well known and respected in the
district.
The
Australians were successful in this last match but, with the Ashes safely in
their keeping, Bligh's team set sail again for England.
Despite
Australia's many victories since, the Ashes themselves have never returned.
Such is life.
Author: John Low, first published Blue Mountains Gazette 16 Feb 1983
Editor:
John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian