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Sporting Bygones: When Hobbs and Rhodes carved their names into glorious Ashes folklore
Wilfred Rhodes
IT remains the highest opening partnership for England against Australia.
Jack Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes’s 323, at Melbourne in 1912, is a record that has stood the test of time.
This Friday marks the 100th anniversary of that famous stand, when Surrey star Hobbs and Yorkshireman Rhodes carved their name into Ashes folklore.
Hobbs scored 178 and Rhodes 179, their efforts underpinning a total of 589 – then the highest in the formative history of Tests.
England went into the game, the fourth of the series, with a 2-1 lead over Clem Hill’s men.
They knew another victory would give them the series, and they made an excellent start after winning the toss.
Five wickets from Sydney Barnes and four from Frank Foster saw Australia dismissed for 191.
England ended day one on 54-0, Hobbs (30) and Rhodes (23) having laid the foundation for their famous stand.
On the second day, the pair came into their own, the Yorkshire Post headlines heralding their heroics:
ENGLAND 323 FOR ONE!
MAGNIFICENT STAND BY HOBBS AND RHODES
NEVER EQUALLED IN TESTS
AUSTRALIAN BOWLERS COLLARED AND DEMORALISED
YORKSHIREMAN’S BIGGEST INNINGS FOR THE OLD COUNTRY
The match report was sadly devoid of colour, taking the form of a run-of-play narrative from the Press Association, but conveyed a tale of dominant batting interspersed with occasional good fortune.
According to PA, Rhodes gave a difficult chance at the wicket when he had made 31 off pace bowler Charles Kelleway and was almost bowled by Warwick Armstrong on 35.
Hobbs, too, rode his luck – he should have been stumped on 100 and gave a sharp chance on 126 to Warren Bardsley at square-leg off Kelleway – but he unfurled some sumptuous strokes before being caught by wicketkeeper Sammy Carter off spinner Ranji Hordern in the closing stages of the evening session.
Rhodes survived to reach stumps on 157, with George Gunn on 22 as England closed on 370-1.
Rhodes did not last long on day three, inching past Hobbs’s score before edging pace bowler Roy Minnett to Carter after almost converting his maiden Test century into a double.
The PA correspondent paid tribute to his performance.
“The Yorkshire player’s innings was not flawless, but he gave a great exhibition of sound and solid batting.
“He occupied the wicket for six hours and 57 minutes, and among his hits were 14 fours.
“He was accorded a great ovation on retiring.”
Trailing by 398 on first innings, Australia faced a thankless task.
They were comprehensively blown away on day four as England captain Johnny Douglas took 5-46, Foster and Barnes sharing the other wickets as Australia were bowled out for 173 to lose by an innings and 225 runs.
England went on to win the fifth and final Test in Sydney to run out 4-1 victors – a notable achievement considering they lost Pelham Warner, their first-choice captain, after the opening tour match through illness.
But Warner was not too poorly to appreciate the efforts of Hobbs and Rhodes.
“I have long since exhausted my vocabulary of praise in favour of Rhodes and Hobbs,” wrote Warner in the Westminster Gazette, “and thanks in a very large degree to their superlative work, our batting was eminently successful.
“In innings after innings, they gave us a wonderful start.”
Of the tour as a whole, Warner observed: “The team had some rare batting triumphs, but the batting never struck me as being relatively so good as the bowling and general out-cricket.
“Of our bowlers, Foster and Barnes achieved wonders. Finer bowling than theirs I have never seen on hard, true wickets.
“In the Test matches, they took 66 wickets (Barnes 34, Foster 32) out of the 95 that fell.
“Every man was animated by one thought – the honour of English cricket – and we are proud and happy to have returned victorious.”
Rhodes – the only England player to have batted from No 1 to No 11 in Test cricket – was one of the game’s greatest all-rounders.
During a first-class career that spanned more than 30 years, he took a world record 4,204 wickets at 16.72 and scored 39,969 runs at 30.81.
Rhodes was not renowned as a batting stylist – “two or three effective strokes but a sound technique”, was Warner’s verdict – and, in later years, was criticised for his square-on stance.
But he rarely allowed anything loose on the offside to escape and, on an unforgettable day in Melbourne a century ago, shared with Hobbs in a slice of history.
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