Australian Cricket Book Victor Trumper Ashley Mallett

Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby winner".

His birth place remains a mystery to cricket historians being unrecorded on the public record in either Sydney or Auckland (the two cities generally agreed to be the most likely), but is widely accepted as falling on 2 November 1877. Trumper died in great pain of Bright's Disease in Darlinghurst, Sydney on 28 June 1915 at the age of 37.

While at Crown Street School he showed early ability as a batsman and when only 17 years old made 67 for a team of promising juniors against A. E. Stoddart's touring English team at Sydney Cricket Ground. In 1894-5 he played for New South Wales against South Australia but made only 11 runs in his two innings. At his next attempt he did no better and was left out of representative cricket for two years. M. A. Noble, always a good judge, was confident about young Vic's ability, but it was only after some controversy that Trumper was made a last minute selection for the 1899 Australian team to England. He soon showed his ability, scoring 135 not out against England at Lords and 300 not out against Sussex. After the Lords innings in June 1899, the great English batsman WG Grace approached the Australian dressing room and gifted Trumper his own bat, declaring, "From the present champion to the future champion." That bat now belongs to the Australian Museum collection in Canberra.

His most remarkable test season was played in England in 1902. It was one of the wettest summers on record, yet Trumper in 53 innings scored 2,570 runs, and without a single not out had an average of 48.49. Harry Altham wrote: "From start to finish of the season, on every sort of wicket, against every sort of bowling, Trumper entranced the eye, inspired his side, demoralized his enemies, and made run-getting appear the easiest thing in the world."^[1]

CB Fry added, "He had no style, and yet he was all style. He had no fixed canonical method of play, he defied all orthodox rules, yet every stroke he played satisfied the ultimate criterion of style -- the minimum of effort, the maximum of effect."

"No one," wrote Plum Warner, "ever played so naturally. Batting seemed just part of himself, and he was as modest as he was magnificent."

His health in later seasons declined. Yet his last 68 first-class innings, in 1910-14, gave him an average of 60. His ability as a batsman, however, cannot be valued by averages or the number of runs scored. His mastership was shown on bad wickets, for when other batsmen were struggling merely to keep their wickets intact, he was still able to time the ball and execute strokes all round the wicket. In February 1913 a match was played for his benefit between New South Wales and the rest of Australia which, with subscriptions, yielded nearly £3000. Trumper's health declined rapidly in 1914 and he died as a result of Bright's Disease on 28 June 1915. Trumper was buried in Waverley Cemetery after the largest funeral procession ever seen in Sydney (with 20,000 mourners lining the route) and was survived by his wife Sarah, his son Victor and daughter Nancy.

Trumper was modest, retiring and generous. A teetotaller and non-smoker, his general conduct was an example to his fellow players, and he was a great favourite with the public both in England and Australia. Monty Noble had no hesitation in calling him the world's greatest batsman, a genius without compare.

In 1902, in arguably his greatest innings, he became the first player to achieve the very rare feat of making a century on the first morning of a Test match, scoring 103 before lunch against England at Old Trafford.

Although Trumper is best known for his prowess as a cricketer, he was also a competent rugby player and can lay claim to being the prime mover in the development of rugby league in Sydney. He attended the initial meeting that formed the New South Wales Rugby Football League, a body that would go on to conduct the major national rugby league premiership of Australia.

He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1903.

His son, Victor Trumper (1913-1981), played seven first-class games for New South Wales in 1940-41, he was also the uncle of Admiral Sir Victor Smith (1913-1998), the first Australian to be promoted to the rank of Admiral. Victor Thomas' maternal ancestry was of the Coughlin family which also included NSW's first female statistician and Australia's Northern Territory's Chief Minister Clare Martin. The family was originally from County Offaly, Ireland until the Cromwell invasion then left County Cork in the 1850s just after the Potato Famine.

The revival of Victor Trumper's public reputation as one of Ausralia's greatest ever cricketers alongside Don Bradman began in earnest in 2008.

The Sydney Cricket Ground Trust announced on 12 June 2008 that the new grandstand on the old hill at the SCG was to be named in Trumper's honour.

On 2 November 2008 the SCG Trust hosted the first Victor Trumper Day, a sporting and cultural retrospective organised by Sydney school teacher David Strange to honour the life of Trumper on the 131st anniversary of his birth. Former internationals and celebrities including Greg Matthews, Stuart MacGill, Greg Page, Mick Molloy and Tim Farriss wore slatted pads, sausage gloves and 1907 skull caps to recreate the Golden Age of Cricket and raise money for charity in Trumper's name.

Trumper Park Oval in Paddington, New South Wales is also named in his honour.