John James Lyons (1863-1827) Test Cap # 51

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Full name John James Lyons
Born May 21, 1863, Gawler, South Australia
Died July 21, 1927, Magill, Adelaide, South Australia (aged 64 years 61 days)
Major teams Australia, South Australia
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium

Profile
John James Lyons, born at Gawler, in South Australia, on May 21, 1863, died in Adelaide on July 21, aged 64. He visited this country on three occasions--in 1888, 1890, and 1893. Those whose cricket memories go back over 30 years, will remember him as a very fine hitter indeed.

Walter Frank Giffen (1861-1949) Test Cap # 50

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Full name Walter Frank Giffen
Born September 20, 1861, Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia
Died June 28, 1949, North Unley, Adelaide, South Australia (aged 87 years 281 days)
Major teams Australia, South Australia
Batting style Right-hand bat

Profile
Walter Frank Giffen was an Australian cricketer who played in 3 Tests between 1887 and 1892. He was the brother of the great all-rounder George Giffen.Giffen has been called "one of the worst Test batsmen of all time and it was alleged that he played Test cricket only because his brother refused to play unless Walter was also selected.Giffen lost the tops of two fingers when he got his left hand trapped between a pair of cog-wheels in 1886.Giffen worked for the South Australian Gas Company for nearly 50 years.

One of the least successful Test batsmen of all time, there isn't much doubt that Walter Giffen was only picked for Australia's tour of  England in 1893 because his famous brother George twisted a few arms. That wasn't the part of Walter's body the Australian selectors had in mind after a Test career which yielded scores of 2, 0, 1, 3, 3 and 2. Poor Walter might have done better if he hadn't lost the tops of  two fingers when he got his left hand trapped between a pair of cog-wheels in 1886. He was a sound batsman and concentrated mainly on defence. He hit many hundreds in Adelaide club cricket and played for South Australia. As a fieldsman he excelled in the deep.

Test debut Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 25-Mar 1, 1887

Last Test Australia v England at Adelaide, Mar 24-28, 1892

First-class span 1882-1902

John Thomas Cottam (1867-1897) Test Cap # 49

Full name John Thomas Cottam
Born September 5, 1867, Strawberry Hills, New South Wales
Died January 30, 1897, Coolgardie, Western Australia (aged 29 years 147 days)
Major teams Australia, New South Wales
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Legbreak

Profile
John Thomas Cottam (5 September 1867 in Sydney, New South Wales – 30 January 1897 in Western Australia) was an Australian cricketer who played in one Test in 1887.Cottam played in only one first-class match - for New South Wales against the touring English cricket team - before making his Test debut in the Second Test against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Cottam made just four runs as Australia lost by 71 runs Cottam's career in cricket would end shortly after his Test debut. The former cricketer was lured to the goldfields at Coolgardie, Western Australia, near Kalgoorlie,

John Cottam, who died from typhoid, aged 29, in Western Australia on January 30, 1897, was one of five men drafted in to the Australian Test team at Sydney in 1886-87 because several established players had demanded, and been refused, payment for loss of earnings from their regular jobs. Cottam was 19 and had played only one first-class game for New South Wales against England, and even for that he was a last-minute choice. In the Test he was out for one and three and never played for Australia again. He never even played Sheffield Shield cricket though he did tour New Zealand with a state team in 1889-90, batting well on bad wickets- He was reported to be a powerfully-built man, a stylish bat and a popular performer; his drift away from cricket in the eight years before his death remains a mystery

Only Test Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 25-Mar 1, 1887 

First-class span 1886-1890

Frederick John Burton (1865-1929) Test Cap # 48

Full name Frederick John Burton
Born November 2, 1865, Collingwood, Melbourne, Victoria
Died August 25, 1929, Wanganui, New Zealand (aged 63 years 296 days)
Major teams Australia, New South Wales, Victoria
Batting style Right-hand bat
Fielding position Wicketkeeper
Other Umpire

Profile

Frederick John Burton played first-class cricket for New South Wales, Victoria and in 2 Tests in 1887 and 1888 for Australia.He later lived in New Zealand where he was an established cricket umpire. He was chosen to keep wicket for Australia in the Second Test of the 1886-87 series when Jack Blackham was unavailable. Blackham returned for the only Test of the following season but Burton was retained as a batsman even though his career average was only 15 - he was out for one in each innings.His best score was 47 for New South Wales against Victoria in 1887-88 when he batted three hours and helped Harry Moses in a stand of 185; Moses went on to make 297. Burton later settled in New Zealand and died in Wanganui.

Test debut Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 25-Mar 1, 1887
Last Test Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 10-15, 1888
First-class span 1885-1896

Reginald Charles Allen (1858-1952) Test Cap # 47

Full name Reginald Charles Allen
Born July 2, 1858, Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales
Died May 2, 1952, Sydney, New South Wales (aged 93 years 305 days)
Major teams Australia, New South Wales
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium

Profile
Reginald Charles Allen (2 July 1858 in Glebe, New South Wales – 2 May 1952 in Sydney) was an Australian cricketer who played in one Test match against England in 1886-87.Allen also played for New South Wales and was top scorer in the first innings of the state match against the England team – under the name "A. Shaw's XI" – that immediately preceded the second Test.He batted at No 3 in his only Test, scored 14 and 30, and took two catches. In his second innings, he was caught by one of his own side, Charlie Turner, who was fielding as a substitute for England. His obituary in Wisden in 1953 says that he turned down the opportunity to tour England.He was the uncle of the England Test captain Gubby Allen, who was born in Australia.

Only Test Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 25-Mar 1, 1887
First-class span 1878-1888

Charles Thomas Biass Turner (1862-1944) Test Cap # 46

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Full name Charles Thomas Biass Turner
Born November 16, 1862, Bathurst, New South Wales
Died January 1, 1944, Manly, Sydney, New South Wales (aged 81 years 46 days)
Major teams Australia (Test: 1886/87-1894/95); New South Wales (1882/83-1909/10);
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast

Profile

© En.wikipedia.org

Charles Thomas Biass "Charlie" Turner, a bowler ranking with the best ever produced by Australia, and by many who played against him considered without superior, died on New Year's Day in Sydney, aged 81. Records that stand to his name tell of his work with the ball, but it is remarkable that in the first set of photographs that appeared in Wisden he is holding a bat and wearing pads in company with his colleague J. J. Ferris, grasping a ball in his left hand. Chosen with G. A. Lohmann, of Surrey, Robert Peel, of Yorkshire, John Briggs, of Lancashire, and S. M. J. Woods, of Cambridge University and Somerset--himself an Australian--the two members of the team captained by P. S. McDonnell fully deserved the honour, for they practically dominated every match in which they played on this their first visit to England. In a season when bowlers accomplished wonderful things, almost beyond belief in these days, Turner took 314 wickets at 11.12 runs apiece and Ferris 224 at 14.10 each-- G. H. S. Trott coming next with 48 at 23.41.

In nine matches against specially chosen sides, three representing England, 70 wickets fell to Turner and 41 to Ferris, seven others claiming only 23 between them. The habit prevailed at that time or relying upon two or three bowlers on a side for the chief work of the season and McDonnell carried this custom to the extremelimit, but of the other specialists picked by C. F. Pardon, Lohmann for Surrey was almost as supreme with 253 wickets at 10.69, Beaumont, with 59, giving most help in carrying off the championship in this year of bowlers' triumphs mainly on rain-affected pitches.

Test debut Australia v England at Sydney, Jan 28-31, 1887

Last Test Australia v England at Sydney, Feb 1-4, 1895

First-class span 1882-1910

Hugh Hamon Massie (1854-1938) Test Cap # 45

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Full name Hugh Hamon Massie

Born April 11, 1854, near Belfast (now Port Fairy), Victoria
Died October 12, 1938, Point Piper, New South Wales (aged 84 years 184 days)
Major teams Australia, New South Wales
Batting style Right-hand bat
Relation Son - RJA Massie

Profile 
Hugh Hamon Massie was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia.Massie's role in the 1882 Ashes Test at The Oval was almost as pivotal in deciding the result as Fred Spofforth's celebrated performance with the ball.With Charles Bannerman as his opening partner, the hard-hitting Massie scored 55 in 57 minutes from just sixty deliveries, with nine fours, to give the Australians a chance.They duly took the match to win by seven runs.His son Robert John 'Jack' Allwright Massie was also a noted New South Wales cricketer.

Hugh Massie was an Ashes Legend, but his brave son Jack never wore the baggy green. No writer of fiction would have dared to invent the character of Jack Massie. A young giant, powerful enough to excel at boxing, rowing and rugby, little enough to be a champion hurdler, pricise enough to be and expert rifle shot and with the fine co-ordination of an outstanding cricketer.

That would be hard enough to credit. But who would suspend disbelief so far to accept that such an athlete could also be a brilliant scholar, a successful buisnessman and an unflinchingly courageous, highly decorated war hero? Massies story is almost unbelievable.

John James Ferris (1867-1900) Test Cap # 44

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Full name John James Ferris
Born May 21, 1867, Sydney, New South Wales
Died November 17, 1900, Addington, Durban, Natal, South Africa (aged 33 years 180 days)
Major teams Australia, England, Gloucestershire, New South Wales, South Australia
Batting style Left-hand bat
Bowling style Left-arm bowler

Profile

John James Ferris (21 May 1867 in Sydney – 17 November 1900 in Durban), a left-arm swing bowler, was one of the few cricketers to play Test cricket for more than one country.Born in Sydney, Australia, Ferris made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Alfred Shaw's touring English team on his home ground in 1886/87. He took seven wickets in the match, including five in the second innings,and after several more good displays was selected for the first Test, also at Sydney. The England first innings was a disaster as they collapsed to what remains their lowest Test total of 45 all out, Ferris bowling unchanged with Charlie Turner, but despite his nine wickets in the game England, inspired by Billy Barnes' second-innings 6–28, scraped to a 13-run win.

Ferris took another nine-wicket haul in the second Test, but again England were victorious, though in the only Test of the 1887/88 tour he could manage "only" six as the Englishmen came out on top yet again. He went with the Australians to England in 1888, and at Lord's for the first time in his career played in a winning Test side, his partnership with Turner accounting for no less than eighteen England wickets as Australia recorded a 61-run win. The Ashes remained in England, however, as the home side won the other two Tests. In 1889 Ferris was named as one of the first Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

He went to England again in 1890, taking 13 wickets in another series defeat and no less than 186 in the season as a whole, but then moved there permanently, playing a single Test for his adopted country against South Africa in 1891/92. Coincidentally, his former Australian team-mate Billy Murdoch also made his first England appearance in this match, which was not given Test status until some time later. Ferris' performance helped crush the home side by an innings and 189 runs, but it was to prove his final international appearance. He had taken 61 Test wickets at an average of just 12.70 only George Lohmann had a better career average.

Ferris played several seasons of county cricket (1892–1895) with Gloucestershire, for whom he scored his only hundred in 1893 but was otherwise something of a failure. At the end of his career, he appeared in a single Sheffield Shield match for South Australia in 1895/96, opening the batting but making nought, then finally in 1897/98 in two more games for New South Wales. In his last match he made a half-century but did not bowl a single ball.Ferris' end was a tragic one: he enlisted in the British Army for the Second Boer War, but contracted typhoid and died at Durban, South Africa at the age of 33.

Test debut Australia v England at Sydney, Jan 28-31, 1887

Last Test South Africa v England at Cape Town, Mar 19-22, 1892

First-class span 1886-1898