A very Australian showdown: Where first-class cricket all began

The 23-year-old son of a bookseller was as unlikely a hero as any in Australia's first-ever first-class match, which marks its 175th anniversary this month.

And the location of the match – Launceston – seems about as unlikely as the hero, given Tasmania was the last state to enter the Sheffield Shield when it did so more than a century later, in 1977-78.

So who was this hero? And what exactly was this match?

The background

Way back in 1851, Tasmania was still known as Van Diemen's Land. The remote island on the other side of the treacherous Bass Strait was associated back in the Motherland with the unforgiving conditions of its convict settlements. Launceston at the time was still a primitive town, without drainage, sewerage systems, or streetlights.

What was in place however, was the sport of cricket. Over on the mainland, in the Port Phillip District (which was at the time in the process of formally separating from New South Wales and becoming the Colony of Victoria), there was growing interest around the prospect of an inter-colonial match.

In January 1850, a proposal was sent from the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) to Mr John Marshall of the Van Diemen's Land Bank for an 11-per-side match to take place in Launceston, in April that year.

While that proposal went unanswered, the Victorians were undeterred. They were also serious, and eager, and so they persisted, and ultimately a match date was agreed to for February 11, 1851.

The Victoria squad travelled over on the Shamrock, an iron paddle steamer and three mast schooner that had been built in England a decade earlier. The transportation fee was £5 per player, though those costs were largely covered by funds raised through MCC subscriptions.

It was reported that the Victorian team, which had named eight of its players in the November prior to the match, had been training hard, even implementing a £1 fine for anyone who failed to turn up for the scheduled sessions without sufficient reason.

The Tasmanians meanwhile were willing to utilise talent beyond the boundaries of Launceston. In order to field their best possible XI, they looked south to Hobart, from where John Marshall, John Tabart, and Walter Westbrook joined the side. Marshall, to whom the initial proposal from the MCC had been sent, was in his fifties but still renowned as the best cricketer on the island, and was duly made captain.

Under the expertise of captain George Gilmore, the Shamrock made its voyage untroubled across the Bass Strait and wound its way to the mouth of the Tamar River, where message of its arrival was received at the Windmill Hill Semaphore Station, not too far from the Launceston Cricket Club Ground, where the match was to be played.

After reaching Launceston on match eve, the Victorians were put up in the two-storey Cornwall Hotel, where a subscription dinner that evening was attended by around 100 people. The following night, the Hotel was also set to play host to a grand ball, for which tickets were sold out.

But before that, the main event had to take place.

The clash

Despite the high-profile nature of the contest, the state of the Launceston Cricket Club Ground was nothing like what we expect from cricket venues today. In fact, umpires Charles Lyon (from Victoria) and Charles Weedon (from Launceston) spent some time before play on that Tuesday morning inspecting the surface to establish the flattest area on which to play.

It might have been this that led to Tasmania captain Marshall's decision to bowl first when he won the toss. The other theory is that the Tasmanians, used to underarm bowling only, were concerned about the prospect of facing the Victorians' faster 'round-arm' attack.

A large crowd had gathered for the occasion, with local businesses even closing. An estimated 1,000 people (out of a Launceston population thought to be around 5,000-6,000) watched on as Victoria made 82 across a couple of hours in the tough batting conditions. Joint top scorers with 17 apiece for the visitors were their captain, William Philpott, and No.8 James Brodie; it is worth remembering that this was a time when there were no fours or sixes, meaning all runs made had to be achieved from scampering between the wickets.

For Tasmania, slow bowler William Henty (4-52) and paceman Robert McDowall (5-27) each sent down 13 overs unchanged, collecting nine wickets between them, with wicketkeeper Marshall effecting a run-out.

The hosts made a strong initial reply with the bat, reaching 0-25 at the lunch interval to round out a solid session. Afterward, openers Gervase du Croz (27) and Marshall (13) took the score to 40 in around 90 minutes, before Philpott threw the ball to Thomas Antill (7-33), who quickly upended the Tassie innings with three wickets in four balls, including both set openers.

With George Gibson (8) and Westbrook (10) adding to the solid top-order foundation, some late runs from Vincent Giblin (7) and McDowall (11), and an especially handy tally of 24 extras (Tasmania had only conceded three), the locals put together a total of 104 from 32 overs, giving themselves what would prove to be a vital 22-run lead in the process.

Despite 20 wickets already falling, the day one action was far from over, and in Victoria's second innings, the carnage continued. Henty (5-26) and McDowall (3-21) were effective once again, and were it not for the heroics of opening bat Thomas Hamilton, whose 35 across an hour held the innings together, the visitors would have been humbled for a much lower total than the 57 they mustered.

In fact, Hamilton's innings was the only double-figure score among the Victorians, who then faced the challenge of defending a lead of just 35.

The three innings had been played out in just over six hours, yet with both teams eager to push for a result and 30 minutes still remaining in the scheduled day, there was time for late drama.

After his stunning effort first time around, Antill (6-19) shared the new ball with Brodie, and the former immediately wreaked havoc on the Tasmania batting order, capturing five quick wickets to leave the hosts in all manner of trouble at 6-15 when stumps was called.

According to reports at the time, that evening's grand ball was quite the event, with around 350 of "the elite and beauty of the island" dancing until 4.30am the following day. The cricketers among them had to front up for an 11am start to day two, with Victoria needing just four wickets and Tasmania still 21 adrift from their target.

When play resumed, the not out batters from overnight experienced contrasting fates, with Charles Arthur dismissed for a duck to give Antill his 13th wicket for the match.

At the other end though, was the hero of our story. The 23-year-old Tabart, who started the day on two, might have been out when he skied a ball early on in proceedings, but the opportunity was missed. Soon after, he began navigating his side towards victory.

Born in London, Tabart had moved to Tasmania in the 1830s, where his father became a farmer in Tasmania's midlands. Eventually, he took over the Fonthill property, which still exists today.

With McDowall (4no) as his partner, the Tasmania No.4 zeroed in on the target. He ran one four and played Antill as well as anyone, and as the tension escalated and the excitement among the estimated 1,500-strong crowd grew, the pair calmly finished the job, Tabart's lead hand of 15no securing a pulsating three-wicket win.

Local newspaper The Cornwall Chronicle labelled the match "one of the most exciting contests ever seen" and the overall event as "the best holiday this community has witnessed".

After playing another match the very next day in Bishopsbourne, just west of Launceston, the Victorians made a quick visit to Hobart before re-boarding the Shamrock the following Monday. 

Having climbed the boat's rigging, the team's captain, Philpott, delivered a farewell speech to the big crowd gathered, praising the people of Tasmania and voicing his hopes to build on the relations between the two colonies.

In fact, an agreement had already been made about a return fixture.

The legacy

Only years later would this contest be officially recognised as the first-ever first-class cricket match in Australia. Another 13 months on, at Emerald Hill in Melbourne, many of the same faces featured when the two sides met again, with Victoria this time claiming a 62-run win.

Slowly the inter-colonial contests became more frequent. Tasmania played eight times through to the mid-1870s and Victoria closer to 30, with New South Wales joining the fray from 1856.

It was a steady build through to the first Test match, played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877, and the establishment of the Sheffield Shield in 1892-93, from which Tasmania were excluded for reasons of travel logistics and perceived standard.

But in the eyes of many, the heights that cricket has scaled since those amateur, sepia-toned days can find its humble origins at Launceston, 175 years ago.

Author's note: The vast majority of research for this story comes from 'The Grand Match', written and published in 2016 by Tasmanian cricket historian Rick Smith, who also supplied the photos.