A Nation’s Shame Part Two

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (July 6^th 2009)[1]

Editor’s Note

The 74^th Ashes Series will begin in November 2025 in Perth, Australia. England has won 32 series outright and retained the Ashes once as they were the holders in a drawn series – Australia has kept the Ashes six times in drawn series. They have won 34 series outright, meaning they have held the Ashes 40 times, compared to England’s 33.

            The first tour by Australians took place before the ‘first’ Ashes Series. It was made by Aboriginals in 1968. It has taken far too long to credit their achievements, some of which are detailed below.

The Editor

The New Norcia Cricket Team

Before Preston North End (1888-89) and later Arsenal (2003-04) claimed that name in football for those seasons, the New Norcia Cricket Team was known as The Invincibles. The team was founded by a Roman Catholic priest named Rosendo Salvado in 1879 as a means of gaining converts, believing it to be part of the humanising purpose of his evangelical mission. The town itself had been founded for that purpose by Spanish Benedictines in 1847.

The New Norcia Cricket team dominated the local club scene before the Western Australia Cricket Association was established in 1885. After playing informally for a while they were noticed, but the reporting was racist at first and then patronising. Nevertheless, spectators could not fail to be impressed by their athleticism in the field as they successfully defended improbable totals.

The team included some exceptional players and like the first indigenous Australian tourists, they entertained crowds with demonstrations of their athletic talents in breaks. Johnny Walley possessed a powerful and accurate throwing arm. In an interval at a match in Perth he threw down a top-hat at a distance of 100 yards and at another he hit an umbrella stuck in the ground at an even longer distance.

He wasn’t the only indigenous player of great sporting prowess. Johnny Maher was their star bowler, once taking the incredible figures of 6 wickets for 2 runs as the team destroyed the Metropolitans, dismissing the supposedly better team for just 13. Felix Jackimara could bat and bowl as well and Patrick Yapo was an impressive batsman too.

The team walked to every match, played and then walked home, even distances of 130 kilometres – the distance from New Norcia to Perth. It kept them fit. They never lost for five years. They were known as the New Norcia Invincibles. Traditional skills, especially spear-throwing helped them – their throwing was accurate and long.

Their best player was Johnny Blurton. Although he was an all-rounder of great ability, he occasionally kept wicket with great dexterity as well. His timing and ability gave his batting power and his wrist-strength control of his placement. Like the team, he won over critics with performances of great skill. The team was resurrected briefly in the 1900s but finally passed into cricket history in 1906.

The Invincibles of New Norcia have an important place in the history of indigenous cricket and indeed Australian sporting history. Blurton’s cricketing prowess ran in his genes; his great-grandson, John McGuire captained an indigenous cricketers’ tour of England. At the time he was Western Australia’s only A-Grade cricketer.

The Invincibles provide inspiration to indigenous cricketers to this day, although they don’t receive the recognition that they deserve. Sadly. they are not alone in that respect. Jack Marsh wasn’t just a talented cricketer who should have represented Australia in Test cricket, he was a fantastic athlete too.

The World Record Holder

His career was shrouded in controversy. He ought to have been recognised in his lifetime as one of the greatest Australian sportsmen ever. Marsh was a world class sprinter in the 1890s; he equalled the world record that the American John Owen set in 1890 of 9.8 seconds four years later. A year earlier Marsh had run a tenth of a second slower; he was clearly a talented sprinter, but it took eight years for his time to be recognised as an Australian record, let alone the world record it had been.

Marsh suffered as other indigenous Australian athletes had from racism and exploitation. He was suspended briefly for the equivalent of match-fixing in 1895, but returned to the sport to win other prestigious races in Victoria and Queensland – he was born, bred and died in New South Wales. In his prime he was faster than anyone in Australia, but records were not so prized a commodity in those days as amateurs treated professional runners with contempt and Marsh was an indigenous Australian for whom no records were kept.

Nevertheless, some of his sporting achievements were acknowledged, both on and off the track. His last race was a handicap in 1906 billed as a world record attempt by a then up and coming athlete, Arthur Postle. Given a two-yard start Marsh dominated the early part of the race, but was caught on the line. Postle was awarded the race even though many thought that it was a dead heat. Postle went on to become one of the greatest athletes that Australia produced, having held world records from 50 yards to 200 yards..

The sporting career of Jack Marsh ended then. Marsh had also proved himself to be a great cricketer – a fast bowler that should have played for Australia[2]. He was denied the chance and after his sporting career ended he lost the advantages that he had previously enjoyed and his life spiralled towards a tragic end – he was murdered in 1916. He has yet to be given the respect he deserves as one of the greatest sportsmen Australia ever produced.

---

[1] This article was first published in the Magazine in 2009. It was originally not in two parts, but it has been split for the convenience of readers.

[2] The cricketing career of Jack Marsh was bedevilled with racism and controversy as was his life. For further information see the series of archive articles published here The Record Breaker (Parts 1 to 7).