English cricket team in Australia in 1928–29

English cricket team in Australia in 1928–29
Date 18 October 1928 — 23 March 1929 Location Australia Result England won the 5-Test series 4-1
Teams
Australia	England
Captains
WM Woodfull	APF Chapman
Most runs
WM Woodfull (511) J Ryder (492) DG Bradman (468)	WR Hammond (905) EH Hendren (472) JB Hobbs (451)
Most wickets
CV Grimmett (23) DD Blackie (14)	JC White (25) G Geary (19) H Larwood (18) MW Tate (17)

The England cricket team toured Australia in 1928–29. England, known as the MCC in matches outside the Tests, retained The Ashes, winning the first four Tests and losing the last for a 4–1 series victory.

Writing in the 1930 Wisden, SJ Southerton wrote  :

England were stronger in batting, more reliable and consistent in bowling and very definitely superior in fielding.

The series was defined by the prodigious runscoring of Walter Hammond, playing his maiden Ashes series, who with a run of scores of 251 at Sydney, 200 and 32 at Melbourne, and 119 not out and 177 at Adelaide, scored a then-record series aggregate of 905 runs at an average of 113.12; the record has only been surpassed once, by Donald Bradman in the 1930 Ashes.

The MCC team

Percy Chapman leads out his powerful 1928-29 England team out onto the field

The MCC touring party was  :

• Percy Chapman (Kent) (Captain)
• Jack White (Somerset) (Deputy Captain)
• Douglas Jardine (Surrey)
• Jack Hobbs (Surrey)
• Herbert Sutcliffe (Yorkshire)
• Wally Hammond (Gloucestershire)
• Patsy Hendren (Middlesex)
• Ernest Tyldesley (Lancashire)
• Phil Mead (Hampshire)
• Maurice Leyland (Yorkshire)
• Maurice Tate (Sussex)
• George Geary (Leicestershire)
• George Duckworth (Lancashire) (wicketkeeper)
• Les Ames (Kent) (wicketkeeper)
• Harold Larwood (Nottinghamshire)
• "Tich" Freeman (Kent)
• Sam Staples (Nottinghamshire)

Tests

First Test (Brisbane)

30 Nov - 5 Dec Scorecard	England 521 (175.3 overs)	v	Australia 122 (50.4 overs)	England won by 675 runs The Gabba, Brisbane, Australia Umpires: DA Elder (Aus) and GA Hele (Aus)
	EH Hendren 169 (314) H Larwood 70 (132) JM Gregory 3/142 (42 overs) CV Grimmett 3/167 (40 overs)		J Ryder 33 H Larwood 6/32 (14.4 overs)
	8/342 (dec) (135.1 overs)		66 (25.3 overs)
	CP Mead 73 (263) DR Jardine 65* (194) CV Grimmett 6/131 (44.1 overs)		WM Woodfull 30 (73) JC White 4/7 (6.3 overs)

Second Test (Sydney)

14 - 20 Dec Scorecard	Australia 253 (108.2 overs)	v	England 636 (272.1 overs)	England won by eight wickets Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia Umpires: DA Elder (Aus) and GA Hele (Aus)
	WM Woodfull 68 (216) G Geary 5/35 (18 overs)		WR Hammond 251 (605) DD Blackie 4/148 (59 overs)
	397 (151.4 overs)		2/16 (7 overs)
	HSTL Hendry 112 (305) WM Woodfull 111 (286) MW Tate 4/99 (46 overs)		G Geary 8 (21) HSTL Hendry 2/4 (3 overs)

Third Test (Melbourne)

29 Dec - 5 Jan Scorecard	Australia 397 (180.5 overs)	v	England 417 (195 overs)	England won by three wickets Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia Umpires: DA Elder (Aus) and GA Hele (Aus)
	J Ryder 112 (219) AL Kippax 100 (255) G Geary 3/83 (31.5 overs) H Larwood 3/127 (37 overs)		WR Hammond 200 (472) DD Blackie 6/94 (44 overs)
	351 (165.5 overs)		7/332 (159.5 overs)
	DG Bradman 112 (281) WM Woodfull 107 (309) JC White 5/107 (56.5 overs)		H Sutcliffe 135 (462) CV Grimmett 2/96 (42 overs)

Fourth Test (Adelaide)

1 - 8 Feb Scorecard	England 334 (183.1 overs)	v	Australia 369 (160 overs)	England won by 12 runs Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia Umpires: DA Elder (Aus) and GA Hele (Aus)
	WR Hammond 119* (374) CV Grimmett 5/102 (52.1 overs)		A Jackson 164 (331) JC White 5/130 (60 overs) MW Tate 4/77 (42 overs)
	383 (200.4 overs)		336 (151.5 overs)
	WR Hammond 177 (603) DR Jardine 98 (378) RK Oxenham 4/67 (47.4 overs)		J Ryder 87 (155) JC White 8/126 (64.5 overs)

Fifth Test (Melbourne)

8–16 March Scorecard	England 519 (215.1 overs)	v	Australia 491 (271.3 overs)	Australia won by five wickets Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia Umpires: GA Hele (Aus) and AC Jones (Aus)
	JB Hobbs 142 (301) M Leyland 137 (330) TW Wall 3/123 (49 overs) PM Hornibrook 3/142 (48 overs)		DG Bradman 123 (247) WM Woodfull 102 (381) G Geary 5/105 (81 overs)
	257 (86.3 overs)		5/287 (134.1 overs)
	JB Hobbs 65 (126) MW Tate 54 (57) M Leyland 53 (138) TW Wall 5/66 (26 overs)		J Ryder 57 (172) WAS Oldfield 48 (156) A Jackson 46 (75) WR Hammond 3/53 (26 overs)

Further reading

• Ralph Barker & Irving Rosenwater, England v Australia: A compendium of Test cricket between the countries 1877-1968, Batsford, 1969, ISBN 0-7134-0317-9.
• Percy Fender, The Turn of the Wheel: MCC Team in Australia 1928-29, London, 1929
• Bill Frindall, The Wisden Book of Test Cricket 1877-1978, Wisden, 1979
• Chris Harte, A History of Australian Cricket, Andre Deutsch, 1993
• Ray Robinson, On Top Down Under, Cassell, 1975
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1930