Black Lords of Summer, The: The Story of the 1868 Aboriginal Tour of England and Beyond

   AUSTRALIANA ABORIGINAL

  The talented black cricketers who toured England in 1868 have become one of Australia’s enduring sporting legends. Aboriginal sporting heroes are found in many sports today, from football to tennis, boxing and athletics, but it was very different in the nineteenth century when the pastoral frontier was still bitterly disputed by whites and blacks.

Aboriginal workers on the Wimmera sheep stations began to develop and organise their cricketing skills during the 1860s and were recruited into a team by station owner and former Test cricketer Tom Wills. On Boxing Day 1866 they played before 8000 people at the MCG, followed by a disastrous Sydney tour which lead to the deaths of some players.

Former test player Ashley Mallet has dramatically reconstructed this important pioneering tour of England and has also included the careers of later black players, including the famous fast bowler Eddie Gilbert who died tragically without fulfilling his potential.

Aboriginal Australian cricket players

An amazing account of the establishment and reception of the Aboriginal team which represented Australia in the 1868 tour of England.

First Edition.

• xiii, 221 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm.
• #150823
• Cricket — Tournaments — England — History
• Cricket players, Aboriginal Australian — Victoria
• Cricket players — Australia
• Government policy – Initial period and protectionism
• History – Biographies – Indigenous
• Race relations – Racism
• Sport – Cricket
• Wimmera (NW Vic SJ54-03)