Invincibles, The: New Norcia’s Aboriginal Cricketers 1879-1906

It caused nothing short of a sensation in February 1879 when a fledgling team of Aboriginal cricketers from New Norcia Benedictine Mission appeared from nowhere to take on the colony of Western Australia’s leading cricket teams and subject them to some humiliating defeats. How was it that this tiny and isolated outpost of Catholic Spain set in the heat of the Western Australian bush could have given rise to such an extraordinary sporting phenomenon? In this ground breaking book, Western Australian historian Bob Reece traces the colourful history of The Invincibles and their spectacular contests during the 1879, 1881, 1881, 1882 and 1886 cricket seasons against Metropolitan Cricket Club, Fremantle, Guildford, York and teams from the Victorian Plains. Dismissing belief that cricket was intended by Bishop Salvado as a ‘civilising’ device and that local pastoralist Henry Lefroy was responsible for its introduction at New Norcia, the book shows that the mission’s Aborigines themselves took the initiative. The Invincibles, as they came to be called, excelled in batting and bowling as well as fielding, challenging the notion that cricket was quintessentially an Englishman’s game involving typically English skills and values. They were responsible for lifting the standard of cricket in the colony during the years before the formation of the WACA in November 1885. What was the reason for their outstanding success? Contemporaries attributed it to inherited skills adapted from hunting, but these were mission-educated Aborigines removed from traditional hunting and gathering practices. The Invincibles were a social, not racial, phenomenon. They practised hard and played as a tightly-knit group, their highly-developed communication skills and co-operative efforts as a team reflecting close ties and upbringing in a cohesive and supportive village community over two decades. First Edition, pp. xi, 161, illusts #0418 Foreword by John Inverarity