T Rice: Romantic veil tale brings new twist to Ashes saga (6 May 1998)

6 May 1998

Romantic veil tale brings new twist to Ashes saga

By Tim Rice

THE shock news that England may not be travelling to Australia this winter to regain the Ashes of a burnt bail but the Ashes of Florence Rose Murphy's veil, will, all Englishmen hope, not dampen the sporting ardour of our team when they set out on what cynics already regard as mission all but impossible.

Miss Murphy, who presented the England captain, the Hon Ivo Bligh, with an urn of ashes after the England win at Sydney in January 1883, has recently been exposed by her daughter-in-law, the Dowager Countess of Darnley, as having burnt her veil, not a bail as claimed at the time.

This story rings only too true, if only because setting fire to a bail in the SCG bleachers, even in those less safety-conscious times, would have been a lengthy process certain to attract the attention of the most sluggish of groundstaff. A quick flash with an F R Spofforth souvenir lighter however, would have reduced a delicate veil to embers within seconds. But above all, Miss Murphy had romantic designs on the England captain, and the way to a cricketer's heart is via his sporting equipment.

It is unlikely that Bligh, later the Earl of Darnley, would have expressed more than a passing interest in a charred headscarf, but a roasted bail was the Full Murphy. Florence duly became Mrs Bligh (and later the Countess of Darnley), and she presented the urn to the Memorial Gallery at Lord's after her husband's death in 1927.

Extensive research by your correspondent (i.e. last Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald found in Los Angeles airport) has revealed that there were further torrid displays of passion taking place behind the pavilion in those pioneer days of Test cricket. Five months before Florence's conflagration, Australia achieved an extraordinary seven-run win at the Oval, their first on English soil. This led to the Sporting Times' mock obituary stating that the body of English cricket would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia, which in turn inspired Florence's pyre the following winter. The Australian captain at the Oval, W L Murdoch, removed a chunk of the ball that had secured victory and had it mounted in a gold and diamond brooch. This he gave to a bank manager's wife, Mrs Greenlaw, about whom little is publicly known, and about whose relationship with the leading Australian batsman of his day, even less.

The rest of the ball resides today at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and there is indeed a little piece missing. That segment is to be auctioned by Christie's down under on May 13 and is expected to raise around $A315,000 (£125,000), mainly because the gold and diamond brooch is still attached to it. The intrinsic worth of the item is around $A32,500, but its historical importance raises the odds considerably.

A letter from Jack Blackham, the Australian wicketkeeper in that Oval match, written in 1924 to Mrs Greenlaw's daughter, states that "your mother . . . was a great lover of cricket and a personal friend of Mr Murdoch".

However personal the friendship between Mrs Greenlaw and Billy Murdoch, we must assume that there was nothing doing by 1884, when on the boat home from Murdoch's fourth tour of England, the great player was captivated by the charms of Jemima Watson, an Australian gold-mining heiress from Bendigo and amateur actress. Jemima also caused Billy to forget about a Derbyshire lass of whom he had become fond during the tour. Possibly her distractions accounted for Murdoch's disappointing innings of six against Derbyshire in early June, though he ended the summer in a blaze of glory which included the first double century in Test cricket, 211 at his happy hunting ground, the Oval.

Murdoch married Ms Watson almost as soon as they were down the gangplank.

He scored only five and seven in his first Test as a married man just a week later and then, along with the entire Australian side, was dropped after the authorities refused to pay their team 50 per cent of the gate money for the next match. Murdoch, a solicitor, resumed full-time legal practice and did not return to the Australian XI until he captained his country for his fifth (fourth as captain) and final tour of England in 1890.

Murdoch and his wife eventually settled in England. He even played for England, against South Africa at Cape Town in March 1892, under the captaincy of Walter Read. He captained Sussex from 1893 to 1899, and then played for London County for a few years with his friend and rival, W G Grace. In 1911, seven years after his last first-class match, by now 56 years old and with five children, he revisited Australia after the death of his brother and father-in-law, to attend to family matters, but was never to return to his adopted country alive. He died watching a Test between Australia and South Africa, collapsing in the Melbourne pavilion from a stroke.

His distraught widow arranged for his body to be embalmed and shipped to England. During his funeral at Kensal Green cemetery on May 18, 1911, all play on English county grounds was suspended, such was the esteem in which he was held, both as a man and as a cricketer.

Billy Murdoch's energy, charm and zest for life captivated all who came into contact with him, male or female. It will be surprising if this is not reflected a century after his greatest cricketing achievements by a hefty sum being paid for his romantic offering to Mrs Greenlaw and disappointing if this does not cause MCC members to reflect further on the crucial contribution women have made to cricket.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)