Lord's Cricket Ground

It seemed a fitting way to recognise Australia Day by visiting Lord’s Cricket Ground at St John’s Wood just north west of London.

Named after Thomas Lord, its founder in 1814, Lord's is the third cricket ground he established. It currently can seat up 28,000 spectators with plans to enlarge this capacity. This is small in comparison to the MCG which can seat more than 100,000 people. But Lord’s is big on atmosphere.

What makes it so special for us is Laurie’s family connection with two very famous Australian cricketers. Laurie’s great, grand father was George Henry Stevens (Harry) Trott, (his Mum’s grandfather) and Laurie’s great great uncle Albert Edwin Trott, Harry’s brother and Laurie’s Mum’s great uncle.

Harry Trott

Harry Trott was an Australian Test cricketer who played 24 test matches as an all-rounder between 1888 and 1898. He toured England four times in 1888, 1890, 1893 and 1896, scoring over 1000 runs on each occasion. 

He captained Australia in England in 1896 and made 143 runs in the first test at Lord’s.  He took six wickets and scored 156 at the Oval.  He was also captain of Australia V England in Australia in 1897/98.  On four tours to England from 1888 to 1896 he exceeded 1000 runs on each visit and totalled 145 wickets.  Six of his 10 centuries were made there.  He joined Bendigo United Cricket Club in 1902 after a long period of illness and was soon scoring well.  During 1902 and 1907 he made four centuries at BUCC and had a club career average of 44.8. 

Harry Trott

At right Harry Trott

Credit: "From photo by E. Hawkins & Co., Brighton" - K. S. Ranjitsinhji, The Jubilee Book of Cricket Third Edition

Harry Trott - all rounder. Also an effective slow leg spin bowler.

The Australian team toured England in 1893 to compete for The Ashes. The English won the series one Test to nil, with two drawn to recover The Ashes. Playing in all three Tests, Trott scored 146 runs in the series at an average of 29.20 and in all first-class matches he scored 1269 runs. While Trott did not take a wicket in the Tests, he took 38 wickets in all first-class matches that season. In the Second Test at the Oval, Trott scored 92 runs in the second innings after the Australians were forced to follow-on; an innings described as "really superb cricket" and "the finest exhibition he has ever given in England". England, regardless, still won the match by an innings. Harry Trott was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1894.

Albert Trott

An English team lead by Andrew Stoddard came to Australia in 1894-95 to defend The Ashes. A feature of the summer was the emergence of Albert Trott, (Laurie’s great, great uncle) and the performance of the brothers in tandem. Playing for Victoria against the touring side, the Trotts claimed 12 wickets and held eight catches between them; Harry scored 63 in the second innings. 

Albert Trott

During the second innings of the traditional Christmas fixture against New South Wales, Albert claimed five wickets, took three catches (two from Harry's bowling) and made a run-out.  In between these two games, England won the first Test at Sydney - a remarkable turnaround after they had been forced to follow on - by bowling the Australians out for 166 in the second innings. The second test at Melbourne saw another English victory; Trott played a rearguard innings of 95 in the second innings, to no avail. Attempting to stay in the series, Australia dramatically revamped their team for the next test at Adelaide. Albert Trott, making his Test debut, was one of four inclusions while Harry was elevated to open the batting. In a match played in intense heat throughout. Harry Trott made 48 on the opening day before he was run out. Albert was the dominant player of the match with an innings of 38 not out and 72 not out (both scored from the number 10 position), and a bowling return of 8/43 in England's second innings. Australia won the match by 382 runs.

In a Sheffield Shield match that followed, the Trotts extricated Victoria from a difficult situation. Chasing 155 to win, New South Wales fell for 99 with Albert taking four wickets and Harry five. In the fourth Test at Sydney, Australia batted first and scored 284 runs (Albert Trott 85 not out) before England were bowled out for 65 and 72 on a wicket affected by heavy rain. Opening the bowling in the first innings, Harry Trott dismissed Archie MacLaren, Johnny Briggs and Stoddart.

Albert was born in 1873 and was a test cricketer for both Australia and England. He was named as one of the Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year in 1899. He is believed to be the only batsman to have struck a ball over the top of the Lord’s Pavilion. He is also one of only two players to take two hat tricks in the same first-class innings. Despite his notoriety, having played in 375 first class matches including five tests, he was almost penniless when he died at the age of 41.

Albert sets sail to play for England

It was in 1896 that Harry had been named captain of the Australian team touring to England. Despite Albert averaging 102.5 with the bat in the test series against England in Australia, he was not selected for the tour. Nonetheless, Albert sailed to England independently in 1896, on the same ship as the Australian touring side.

He started to play for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1896, and with the help of the Australian cricketer and test umpire Jim Phillips, he started to play for Middlesex in 1898. Despite missing a month due to an injured hand, he took 102 wickets in his first season. He was at the peak of his powers as an all-rounder in 1899 and 1900. In 1899 he scored 1175 first-class runs and took 239 wickets, and in 1900 he scored at 1337 runs and took 211 wickets. 

Albert’s bowling action

Albert Trott's penchant for the spectacular did not fail him: having already landed the ball on the pavilion balcony at Lord’s in the match, he became the first (and to this day the only) batsman to hit a ball over the current Lord's pavilion, bludgeoning Monty Noble out of the ground on 31 July 1899. The ball hit a chimney and fell into the garden outside the house of Philip Need, the Lord's dressing room attendant.

Albert was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1899. He took all 10 wickets in an innings (10 for 42) bowling for Middlesex against Somerset at Taunton in 1900.  Albert Trott was widely acknowledged as the finest all-round cricketer of his day.

After retiring from cricket, Trott suffered a lengthy illness. In 1914, he wrote his Will on the back of a laundry ticket, leaving his wardrobe and £4 to his landlady. Shortly afterwards, one day before the 15th anniversary of his famous strike over the pavilion at Lord's, he shot himself in Willesden Green, Middlesex.  He is buried at Willesdon New Cemetery in plot 613P at the expense of Middlesex County Cricket Club.  A headstone was erected in 1994.

At left a sculpture of Albert Trott by Daniel Lucas but we don't know where it is.         

                                                                   At right Albert’s headstone at Willesden New Cemetery

The South African-born English cricketer Jonathan Trott claims to be a distant relation to Harry and Albert Trott but hasn't revealed how as yet.

The Australian team pictured during the summer of 1894–95. Albert is seated in the front row, on the right;
 his older brother Harry is at the far left of the middle row.

When at Lord’s we were privileged to take a tour of the ground and pavilion including the amazing media centre. At the conclusion of the tour a member of staff brought out one of Albert Trott’s cricket bats dated 1895. Our guide, Steven Murray, knew all about the Trotts and their history.

One of Albert’s bats on loan to Lord’s from Wisden’s Museum

The beautiful pavilion, presently being cleaned

The original terra cotta pavilion is a beautiful Victorian structure opened in 1890 after the previous building burnt down. It contains the very famous Long Room, dressing rooms for each team and umpires, committee meeting rooms and dining room. It is steeped in history with pictures of famous cricketers and benefactors hanging proudly.

In the team dressing rooms are honour boards preserved to record the names of cricketers who have either scored a century when playing at Lord’s or captured five wickets in the one innings.

Interestingly some of the world’s best cricketers are not on the honour boards because they did not achieve one of these two milestones at Lord’s. Names not included are Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist,  Brian Lara or Muttiah ­Muralitharan.

Harry Trott’s name on the honour’s board in the visitors’ dressing room at Lord’s

One of the most distinctive and famous features of the Lord's ground is the significant slope across the field. The north-west side of the playing surface is 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 ins) higher than the south-east side. In the photo of the pavilion above you can get some sense of the slope from the line along the front of the white seating and the grassed out field.

The view from the Media Centre

And what’s all the fuss about?

The tiny urn of ashes An ex-perfume bottle!

Acknowledgement to Wikipeadia for some information and some photos used in this Post.

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Next we visit Cambridge!