Tom Kendall

Thomas Kingston Kendall, died at Hobart on the 17th of August at the age of 72. He had lived in Hobart for forty-three years, being employed all that time by the Mercury Newspaper, but he was born in Bedfordshire. Tom Kendall may be described as, perhaps, the best Australian bowler who never came to England. Indeed in his young days, though his opportunities in first class company were few, he ranked as a left handed bowler, slow to medium pace, with the famous Frank Allan. From all accounts he had a wonderful command over his length and could break either way. He was regarded as one of the certainties for the trip to England in 1878 but for some reason he was dropped after the preliminary tour. Still though so little was seen of him in big matches he did enough for fame. Next to Charles Bannerman he had the biggest share in beating James Lillywhite's team at Melbourne in March 1877--the first victory gained by Australia over an England side on level terms. In that match Kendall took eight wickets for 109 runs and in the return--won by the Englishmen--six for 106. Writing home to the Sportsman at that time James Southerton said how greatly Australian cricket had improved since his visit with W. G. Grace's team three years before and expressed a positive opinion that if Kendall were in England no representative side would be complete without him. Such praise from such an expert should have prepared us for the class of bowling we were to see in 1878. Kendall was past his best when Ivo Bligh's team toured Australia in 1882-83 but, as one reads in the first Badminton Book, he greatly impressed A. G. Steel. Two incidents in Kendall's career deserve record in Wisden. Playing at Melbourne for Fifteen of Victoria in 1874 he got W. G. Grace caught off his bowling for eight and in March 1892, when Lord Sheffield's team visited Hobart, he bowled the great man for 27.--S. H. P.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack