Jack Marsh
Encyclopedia
Jack Marsh was an Australian first-class cricket
er of Australian aboriginal descent who represented New South Wales
in six matches from 1900–01 to 1902–03. A right-arm fast bowler of extreme pace, Marsh was blessed with high athletic qualities and was regarded as one of the outstanding talents of his era. However, his career was curtailed by continual controversy surrounding the legality of his bowling action; he was no-balled multiple times for throwing
. As a result of the debate over the legitimacy of his action, Marsh never established himself at first-class level and was overlooked for national selection. Marsh's lack of opportunities has often been attributed to racial discrimination.
Born into the Bundjalung
people at Yulgilbar on the Clarence River
in northern New South Wales
, Marsh first made an impression as a professional runner
, traveling to Sydney and then competing interstate, winning races as a sprinter and a hurdler. While in Sydney, Marsh began competing in the local club cricket competition and his action quickly came under scrutiny. He was first no-balled for throwing in 1897, but it was not until 1900 that he came to prominence in a trial match against the New South Wales state team. Marsh dismissed leading Test cricket
ers Victor Trumper
and Monty Noble
, but was called for throwing. Marsh vowed to prove the legitimacy of his action by bowling with his arm encased in splints
, which prompted the umpire to resign in humiliation. Having topped the bowling average
s in the local competition, Marsh was selected to make his debut in the Sheffield Shield. He made an immediate impression and led the first-class bowling averages for the season after three matches. He was no-balled in his second match by Bob Crockett
, but things came to a head in his fourth match when the same umpire no-balled him seventeen times, leading to angry crowd demonstrations. The cricket community was divided on whether Marsh's action was fair and various theories were propounded, which sought to show a motive for foul play against Marsh. The most popular of these theories was that Marsh was scapegoated in a campaign against throwing and was a soft target because of his race.
Marsh only played in two more first-class matches, which came in the two seasons following his no-balling. In a later season, the touring English cricket team
objected to his selection in an opposition team. There were calls for Marsh to be selected for Australia, but Noble, the New South Wales selector, refused to select him, citing his controversial action. In later years, Marsh turned to alcohol and was briefly jailed for assault
. He was killed in a brawl outside a pub
; two men, Henry Hewitt, a bookmaker
and Walter Stone a bookmaker's clerk were charged with feloniously killing
Marsh but were acquitted.
in northern New South Wales. His surname is believed to have possibly derived from that of Francis Henry Marsh, whose property Camira was separated from Yulgilbar by the Richmond Range. Details of Marsh's itinerant pre-cricket life are scarce, because aborigines were not on the electoral roll and Marsh had no written correspondence with others because he was illiterate.
Marsh made his first impression in the sporting arena as a professional runner
, following his brother Larry to the Sydney athletics tracks in 1893. A sprinter and hurdler
, Marsh had several wins in notable races. He was known for his rapid acceleration, which accounted for him being particular strong over 75 m. Aside from his victories in New South Wales
, he traveled to race in Queensland
and Victoria
. As with some other indigenous runners, Marsh was exploited by his trainer and was suspended for "running stiff
" in Sydney in 1895. A more recent study by Max Bonnell has come to the conclusion that Marsh was a world-class sprinter. He found that The Referee, the leading sports publication in Australia at the time, reported that Marsh has covered 100 yd in 9.8 s, which was equal to the world record set by American John Owen in 1890. Marsh had also posted a time of 9.9 s in the previous year. However, it was only eight years later that a publication briefly noted that Marsh's time was an Australian record.
Marsh also gained prominence in the inner-southern Sydney
suburb of La Perouse
, which had a large indigenous population, by demonstrating his boomerang
skills. Marsh, while throwing boomerangs, was spotted by cricket officials and he was persuaded to take up the sport.
, near central Sydney, representing South Sydney. Marsh's career was surrounded by controversy from the outset. In November 1897, he was no-balled for throwing
by William Curran in a match against Paddington. Following its merger with South Sydney, Marsh played for Sydney Cricket Club
. Marsh's second no-ball incident at club level came when he played for a Colts
XV
against the New South Wales state team
in a trial match in November 1900, before the start of the 1900–01 Sheffield Shield season. Curran called him on the first day of the match. Marsh had an eventful day, bowling Test batsmen Victor Trumper
, Frank Iredale
and future Test
player Bert Hopkins. Trumper was widely regarded as the finest batsman of his era, which was regarded as the "golden age"
of cricket, and he was seen as one of the most stylish batsmen of all time. Marsh also collected the wickets of Test batsmen and future Australian captains Monty Noble
and Syd Gregory
.
The calls of throwing so infuriated Marsh that at the end of the day's play, he announced that he would wear splints
when he was bowling the next day. Marsh took this action to ensure that his elbow was kept straight and to demonstrate that he could bowl fast without throwing. Marsh had previously performed such an exhibition to ground members and the requisite splints and bandages were acquired from the nearby St. Vincent's Hospital
, in order to bind his bowling arm. The hospital provided a medical certificate stating that Marsh could not move his elbow while encased in the splints. Marsh was proactive in attempting to defend the legitimacy of his bowling action. Marsh's intentions were published in the Sydney Morning Herald and Curran was made away that Marsh would seek to challenge him.
Marsh and his club sought a speedy resolution to the problem because Sheffield Shield matches were due to begin in a matter of weeks. They perceived a danger that other umpires in the Sydney competition would follow Curran's lead and call Marsh, effectively outlawing him, resulting in the loss of the club's leading strike bowler. By wearing the splints, Marsh showed his belief that Curran would call him on the second day. This never happened, because Curran withdrew from his position by the luncheon adjournment on the second day, believing that he had been humiliated. Curran's resignation was widely criticised by the media and he was reprimanded by the First Grade Committee for his action. Bowling "as fast as ever", Marsh went on to finish with 6/125 from 33 overs as New South Wales were bowled out for 320.
at the Adelaide Oval
in December 1900, just a month after he was no-balled for throwing. The selection indicated that the state selectors were prepared to overrule Curran's judgment. In a high scoring match, Marsh was the most successful of the New South Wales bowlers, taking five wickets
for the loss of 181 runs
(5/181). Clem Hill
scored 365 not out
, which remains the highest individual score compiled at the Adelaide Oval in a Sheffield Shield match. At the time, South Australia's total of 575 was the highest ever score against New South Wales in the competition. Marsh took two early wickets to have New South Wales 2/43 before Hill amassed his triple-century. He returned to take three of the last four wickets, displaying an ability to break through the defenses of batsmen—all of his wickets were bowled
.
A week later, Marsh's action was again under scrutiny when he played his second shield match against Victoria
in Melbourne
. While Richard Callaway
—the New South Wales umpire officiating the match—was satisfied with Marsh's bowling action, his Victorian counterpart Bob Crockett
was concerned with the twisting of the bowler's wrist. Crockett no-balled Marsh three times in the match, but was reluctant to elucidate on the reasons for his call. Marsh took 3/39 and 3/51 respectively, dismissing Test batsmen Peter McAlister
, Warwick Armstrong
, Jack Worrall
and Frank Laver
. Marsh bowled three of his victims.
According to cricket historian Bernard Whimpress
, the early signs of a conspiracy against Marsh were raised by a journalist from The Age
of Melbourne
by the name of Old Boy. The journalist set a possible agenda by raising a question about Marsh to Crockett on the day before the bowler was called, possibly predisposing the umpire to take action. If Old Boy could be relied on, then observers suspected that Marsh's faster and slower ball were dubious. The reporter did not specify which ball he questioned, except to say that one ball per over was doubtful. The events in Australia occurred against a backdrop of a throwing frenzy in England
. A fortnight earlier, the captains of the English county teams had drawn up a list of prohibited bowlers. In Australia, Jim Phillips
had set the tone by no-balling Australian Test bowler Ernie Jones
. The events in England were seen as a catalyst for a clean-up campaign against dubious bowling actions. Historians regarded Marsh as a prime target due to his indigenous heritage and his supple wrist action.
Marsh's third Sheffield Shield match was the return fixture against South Australia in January 1901 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
(SCG); New South Wales reversed the result of the corresponding match three weeks earlier. South Australia batted first and were bowled out for 157, with Marsh taking the leading figures of 5/34. These included the prize wickets of Hill and George Giffen
, Test players who went on to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
. New South Wales then piled on 918 before completing an innings victory by bowling the visitors out for 156 in the second innings. The margin of an innings and 605 runs set a new record for the largest victory in first-class history. Marsh took 5/59 and did the bulk of the damage, removing five of South Australia's top six specialist batsmen, at one stage reducing the visitors to 6/114. Marsh bowled six of his opponents and was not questioned by either umpire. At this point, Marsh led the first-class averages in bowling, with 21 wickets at a bowling average
of 17.38 in three matches. The match was Marsh's career high point; it was to be the only ten-wicket match of his brief career.
The controversy over Marsh's bowling action came to a head in the return match against Victoria at the SCG. The fixture had been slated for the Australia Day
weekend but it was postponed by a week when Queen Victoria died. By the time the match was under way, public interest had started to wane. Some three decades later, J. C. Davis reflected on the match, noting that it stirred many memories, "some fragrant and some rather unpleasant". The unsavoury incident that he alluded to was Crockett's continual no-balling of Marsh for throwing.
New South Wales batted first and were bowled out on the first afternoon for 170. When the Victorians began their response, Crockett called Marsh for throwing three times in his first over
, provoking rowdy responses from the spectators. The Sydney Mail said the crowd reaction was "a lot of abuse and unfair criticism" of Crockett. He was no-balled a further two times in his second over and five of Victoria's first nine runs were extras
. Despite this, Victoria started poorly, losing five wickets by the time it reached 50 runs. Of the five wickets to fall, Marsh bowled future Test captain Armstrong and McAlister. The crowd showed its sympathy for Marsh when he rattled Armstrong's stumps; they cheered him loudly and verbally attacked Crockett. Marsh was called a total of 17 times during the innings, the most in a single first-class innings in Australia. The calls produced angry reactions from the spectators on the hill of the Sydney Cricket Ground
, who jeered "Crock! Crock! Crock!", regarding the umpire—not the bowler's arm—as being crooked. Marsh went on to take 2/68. At one point Marsh lost his temper and deliberately threw three consecutive balls. Despite the repeated calls, the captain Syd Gregory
kept Marsh bowling from Crockett's end—who was suspected of being biased towards his own state—rather than allowing Marsh to be examined by Crockett's partner.
—a Victorian who went by the pen name Felix—felt that Marsh was a soft target for Crockett, whom he regarded as a suspicious character. Curran's previous calling of Marsh in the Sydney competition had strengthened Crockett's position away from his parochial state base. The Victorian umpire was regarded as a tough-minded umpire, much like Jim Phillips
, who had triggered the current round of throwing calls in Australian cricket. Crockett was commended for his willingness to call Marsh in the face of public anger and for doing what others would not. However, when Marsh bowled from the other end in the second innings of the match, his action was deemed by Crockett's umpiring partner Sammy Jones
to be fair. By this time, Marsh's confidence was low. He took his worst ever first-class figures of 1/105 as New South Wales lost by one wicket. His only wicket was Test player Charlie McLeod
, bowled for six.
Whimpress tabled various hypotheses for Crockett's actions. At the time, Crockett was 37 years old and was ready to emerge from the shadow of Phillips, the eminent Australian umpire of the time. When Crockett called Marsh, it was his 29th match as a first-class umpire and the no-balling was seen in some quarters as a signal that he felt ready to officiate in Test matches. A cynical view of Crockett's calls held that if throwing was to be eradicated then the umpire was going to choose a soft target. This theory ruled out the calling of a fellow Victorian, his state of origin. The same line of reasoning concluded that a New South Welshman would be called, and likely not a high profile Test player like Noble or Jack Saunders
. Those who adhered to this hypothesis believed that it would be easier for Crockett to target someone who had a previous stigma of throwing and that Marsh—an aborigine who led the bowling averages with 21 wickets at 17.38—was an ideal target.
At the time, the alteration to the no-ball law made by the Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC) in 1899 was yet to be implemented in Australian first-class cricket. This change allowed the umpire to call a throw from either end, whereas the law previously barred the umpire at square leg from doing so. The non-implementation of the law diluted the power of Australian umpires, since the bowler could be switched to the other end and made immune from being called by the first umpire. As a result, Gregory's unwillingness to switch Marsh to the opposite end surprised cricket observers. Australian administrators had been under pressure from England to crack down on dubious bowling actions. English captain Archie MacLaren had asserted that "If Australia expects an English team next September they will have to play according to the new reading of the law at home". It was speculated that because Crockett was a lifelong employee of the Melbourne Cricket Club
, which organised and sponsored English tours to Australia, he was under pressure to no-ball bowlers in order to curry favour with English administrators.
where Marsh was selected, but MacLaren refused to play against him. Noble, who selected the New South Wales teams, used the complaints about Marsh to ignore growing calls to have the bowler selected for New South Wales and Australia. Without state backing, the remainder of Australia's selectors were happy to rely on Noble's state-level veto to ignore Marsh. Marsh's only first-class match of the season was against Queensland
in Brisbane
. At the time, Queensland was not yet in the Sheffield Shield, so it was a one-off match. The match was the subject of much media attention because it was the first time that two aborigines had played in opposing teams at first-class level. Queensland's indigenous player was Alec Henry, another fast bowler who had been accused of throwing. The New South Wales team travelled north to the match by train, making a stop at Ipswich
. As part of the media promotion of the match-up between the pair, Henry was taken to Ipswich station to meet Marsh. Marsh was reported in the media as having said "Say old man, toss me up a soft one so I can get a smack at you". Marsh took 2/64 and 3/67 in a drawn match, and bowled three of his victims, who were unable to cope with his pace. Marsh and Henry dismissed one another, each being bowled for nine to create a symmetry in the scorecard.
Marsh was again overlooked for selection during the 1902–03 Sheffield Shield season. He played his only first-class match of the season against Queensland, in another one-off match. In the last first-class fixture of his career, Marsh scored his highest first-class score of nine not out
as New South Wales were bowled out for 191. He then took 2/39 in the first innings as New South Wales took a 60-run first innings lead. He finished his career with 3/23 in the second innings, including a final burst of 3/0, to help his team to a victory. Later in the season, Marsh played in a match for New South Wales against Australia, which was not first-class. He took the wicket of Clem Hill as the match ended in a draw.
Marsh was never selected again, although he continued to dominate grade cricket. He was the leading wicket-taker for three consecutive seasons from 1901–02 to 1903–04, taking a total of 158 wickets at an average of 10.94.
Two years later against Plum Warner
's MCC team, there were further calls for Marsh to be selected for the Test team as Australia fell 1–2 behind in the Ashes
. Marsh had taken 5/55 against the Englishmen in a match at Bathurst
, delivering a mixture of fast bowling and off spin
. His victims included George Hirst and Warner himself. No formal complaint about Marsh's bowling was lodged by the English but his bowling did raise eyebrows. The general consensus among the English touring party was that Marsh's bowling was unfair, with Warner describing him as a "shier", a 19th century term for a thrower. Warner asserted that no English umpire would tolerate such a bowling action. Despite this, the English players described him as the best bowler that they had faced on the tour. Warner and Noble were confident that Crockett would no-ball Marsh out of the match if the Australian Test selectors picked the bowler. As a result, Marsh was effectively excluded from the Australian side and his first-class career was limited to just six matches in which he took 34 wickets at an average of 21.47. The Australian Test batsman and captain Warren Bardsley
rated Marsh alongside Fred Spofforth
and England's Sydney Barnes
. The comparison to Barnes was praise indeed; Barnes was the only bowler in Test history with over 120 wickets to have a bowling average under 20, with 189 wickets at an average of just 16.43. Bardsley said that the only reason that Marsh was "kept ... out of big cricket was his color". Jack Pollard
said that Marsh "was clearly the best Australian bowler of his time but unfortunately that was a period when the White Australia Policy
prevailed. Marsh's name was scratched from the list of players ... by an official who was simply carrying out the racist customs of the day."
Popular with teammates and known for his sportsmanship, Marsh was regarded as an average fielder
and had minimal batting skill, with a batting average of 5.00. He played out his days in the Sydney competition and topped the bowling aggregates from 1901 to 1904. Les Poidevin
described Marsh as "a well set-up, perfectly built ... man, with an ebony-black, smooth, clear shining skin and twinkling black eyes" who "is quite good looking". Marsh was short for a fast bowler standing 5 ft 7 ins (170 cm) tall. In later years, Marsh experimented with the googly
. Photographs of Marsh often show him fashionably dressed in a suit and sporting a moustache.
in Melbourne. The race was organised to give Postle, then Australia's fastest man, a chance to break the 100 yd world record. In front of 12,000 spectators on a wet track, Marsh took an early lead with his rapid acceleration but Postle caught him on the line. Postle was declared the winner in 10 s, but some observers claimed that it was a dead heat. He retired from competitive sport after the race.
Marsh joined Alexander's Hippodrome Company, traveling around Australia in a sideshow, where his cricketing fame brought much attention. His activities thereafter are unclear, but it is likely that he became an itinerant worker. In retirement, Marsh drank heavily and was jailed for 14 days for committing an assault
in Melbourne in 1909, something he blamed on alcohol. Marsh died after an assault caused by an argument outside the pool room of the Royal Hotel in Orange, New South Wales
. Two people were charged with manslaughter
, but they were acquitted. Marsh was buried in an un-marked grave. The Bulletin
wrote in Marsh's obituary that he was "a darky troubled with manners which white brothers found impossible to put up with".
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
er of Australian aboriginal descent who represented New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
in six matches from 1900–01 to 1902–03. A right-arm fast bowler of extreme pace, Marsh was blessed with high athletic qualities and was regarded as one of the outstanding talents of his era. However, his career was curtailed by continual controversy surrounding the legality of his bowling action; he was no-balled multiple times for throwing
Throwing (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, throwing, commonly referred to as chucking, is an illegal bowling action which occurs when a bowler straightens their arm when delivering the ball. The Laws of Cricket specify that a bowler's arm must be fully extended and rotated about the shoulder to impart velocity to...
. As a result of the debate over the legitimacy of his action, Marsh never established himself at first-class level and was overlooked for national selection. Marsh's lack of opportunities has often been attributed to racial discrimination.
Born into the Bundjalung
Bundjalung people
The Bundjalung people are those Australian Aborigines who are the original custodians of northern coastal areas of New South Wales , 554 km northeast of Sydney: an area that includes the Bundjalung National Park and Mount Warning Bundjalung people...
people at Yulgilbar on the Clarence River
Clarence River (New South Wales)
The Clarence River is situated in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. The river originates on the watershed that marks the Queensland border. After flowing south and northeast for 394 km it then empties into the Pacific Ocean at Iluka/Yamba. On its journey it passes through the towns of...
in northern New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Marsh first made an impression as a professional runner
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, traveling to Sydney and then competing interstate, winning races as a sprinter and a hurdler. While in Sydney, Marsh began competing in the local club cricket competition and his action quickly came under scrutiny. He was first no-balled for throwing in 1897, but it was not until 1900 that he came to prominence in a trial match against the New South Wales state team. Marsh dismissed leading Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
ers Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, 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...
and Monty Noble
Monty Noble
Montague Alfred Noble was an Australian cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-hand batsman, right-handed bowler who could deliver both medium pace and off-break bowling, capable fieldsman and tactically sound captain, Noble is considered as one of the great Australian...
, but was called for throwing. Marsh vowed to prove the legitimacy of his action by bowling with his arm encased in splints
Splint (medicine)
A splint is a device used for support or immobilization of limbs or of the spine.It can be used:* By the emergency medical services or by volunteer first responders, to immobilize a fractured limb before the transportation; it is then a temporary immobilization;* By allied health professionals such...
, which prompted the umpire to resign in humiliation. Having topped the bowling average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
s in the local competition, Marsh was selected to make his debut in the Sheffield Shield. He made an immediate impression and led the first-class bowling averages for the season after three matches. He was no-balled in his second match by Bob Crockett
Bob Crockett
Robert Maxwell Crockett , was an Australian Test match umpire.Crockett umpired a total of 32 Test matches, the highest number by an Australian umpire until passed by Tony Crafter in his last match in 1992...
, but things came to a head in his fourth match when the same umpire no-balled him seventeen times, leading to angry crowd demonstrations. The cricket community was divided on whether Marsh's action was fair and various theories were propounded, which sought to show a motive for foul play against Marsh. The most popular of these theories was that Marsh was scapegoated in a campaign against throwing and was a soft target because of his race.
Marsh only played in two more first-class matches, which came in the two seasons following his no-balling. In a later season, the touring English cricket team
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
objected to his selection in an opposition team. There were calls for Marsh to be selected for Australia, but Noble, the New South Wales selector, refused to select him, citing his controversial action. In later years, Marsh turned to alcohol and was briefly jailed for assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
. He was killed in a brawl outside a pub
Australian pubs
A public house in Australia is an establishment performing many functions, often serving alcoholic beverages, meals, and providing basic accommodation.-Origin:...
; two men, Henry Hewitt, a bookmaker
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
and Walter Stone a bookmaker's clerk were charged with feloniously killing
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
Marsh but were acquitted.
Early years
Marsh was born into the Bundjalung people at Yulgilbar, which sits on the Clarence RiverClarence River (New South Wales)
The Clarence River is situated in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. The river originates on the watershed that marks the Queensland border. After flowing south and northeast for 394 km it then empties into the Pacific Ocean at Iluka/Yamba. On its journey it passes through the towns of...
in northern New South Wales. His surname is believed to have possibly derived from that of Francis Henry Marsh, whose property Camira was separated from Yulgilbar by the Richmond Range. Details of Marsh's itinerant pre-cricket life are scarce, because aborigines were not on the electoral roll and Marsh had no written correspondence with others because he was illiterate.
Marsh made his first impression in the sporting arena as a professional runner
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, following his brother Larry to the Sydney athletics tracks in 1893. A sprinter and hurdler
Hurdling
Hurdling is a type of track and field race.- Distances :There are sprint hurdle races and long hurdle races. The standard sprint hurdle race is 110 meters for men and 100 meters for women. The standard long hurdle race is 400 meters for both men and women...
, Marsh had several wins in notable races. He was known for his rapid acceleration, which accounted for him being particular strong over 75 m. Aside from his victories in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, he traveled to race in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. As with some other indigenous runners, Marsh was exploited by his trainer and was suspended for "running stiff
Match fixing
In organised sports, match fixing, game fixing, race fixing, or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident is referred to as...
" in Sydney in 1895. A more recent study by Max Bonnell has come to the conclusion that Marsh was a world-class sprinter. He found that The Referee, the leading sports publication in Australia at the time, reported that Marsh has covered 100 yd in 9.8 s, which was equal to the world record set by American John Owen in 1890. Marsh had also posted a time of 9.9 s in the previous year. However, it was only eight years later that a publication briefly noted that Marsh's time was an Australian record.
Marsh also gained prominence in the inner-southern Sydney
South-eastern Sydney
South-Eastern Sydney is a term which is used to describe the metropolitan area directly to the south and east of the Sydney central business district in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.The area stretches from the inner city to the foreshores of Botany Bay...
suburb of La Perouse
La Perouse, New South Wales
Lapérouse is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The suburb of Lapérouse is located about 14 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Randwick....
, which had a large indigenous population, by demonstrating his boomerang
Boomerang
A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced...
skills. Marsh, while throwing boomerangs, was spotted by cricket officials and he was persuaded to take up the sport.
Club cricket
Marsh began playing cricket in a competition based around Moore ParkMoore Park, New South Wales
Moore Park is a large area of parkland in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of Centennial Parklands, a collective of three parks being Moore Park, Centennial Park and Queens Park. Centennial Parklands is administered by the Centennial Park &...
, near central Sydney, representing South Sydney. Marsh's career was surrounded by controversy from the outset. In November 1897, he was no-balled for throwing
Throwing (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, throwing, commonly referred to as chucking, is an illegal bowling action which occurs when a bowler straightens their arm when delivering the ball. The Laws of Cricket specify that a bowler's arm must be fully extended and rotated about the shoulder to impart velocity to...
by William Curran in a match against Paddington. Following its merger with South Sydney, Marsh played for Sydney Cricket Club
Sydney Cricket Club
Sydney Cricket Club play in the Sydney Grade Cricket Competition. In 2007 the UTS-Balmain club merged with the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust and are now known as Sydney CC or Sydney Cricket Club or just simply Sydney Tigers. The Tigers play out of Drummoyne Oval. With over 100 years of history and...
. Marsh's second no-ball incident at club level came when he played for a Colts
Youth system
Youth system is a sporting terminology used to refer to a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show enough promise, and to fill up squads numbers in some teams...
XV
First eleven
First eleven or first XI may refer to the eleven players in an organisation's leading team, particularly a cricket team or association football team....
against the New South Wales state team
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
in a trial match in November 1900, before the start of the 1900–01 Sheffield Shield season. Curran called him on the first day of the match. Marsh had an eventful day, bowling Test batsmen Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, 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...
, Frank Iredale
Frank Iredale
Francis Adams Iredale was an Australian Test cricketer who played 14 Tests between 1888 and 1902...
and future Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
player Bert Hopkins. Trumper was widely regarded as the finest batsman of his era, which was regarded as the "golden age"
Golden Age of cricket
The Golden Age of Cricket is a term that has often been applied in cricket literature to the period in English, Australian, and American cricket from the formation of the official County Championship in the 1890 season to the outbreak of World War I, which occurred just before the scheduled end of...
of cricket, and he was seen as one of the most stylish batsmen of all time. Marsh also collected the wickets of Test batsmen and future Australian captains Monty Noble
Monty Noble
Montague Alfred Noble was an Australian cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-hand batsman, right-handed bowler who could deliver both medium pace and off-break bowling, capable fieldsman and tactically sound captain, Noble is considered as one of the great Australian...
and Syd Gregory
Syd Gregory
Sydney Edward Gregory , sometimes known as Edward Sydney Gregory, was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. At the time of his retirement, he had played a world-record 58 Test matches during a career spanning 1890 to 1912...
.
The calls of throwing so infuriated Marsh that at the end of the day's play, he announced that he would wear splints
Splint (medicine)
A splint is a device used for support or immobilization of limbs or of the spine.It can be used:* By the emergency medical services or by volunteer first responders, to immobilize a fractured limb before the transportation; it is then a temporary immobilization;* By allied health professionals such...
when he was bowling the next day. Marsh took this action to ensure that his elbow was kept straight and to demonstrate that he could bowl fast without throwing. Marsh had previously performed such an exhibition to ground members and the requisite splints and bandages were acquired from the nearby St. Vincent's Hospital
St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney
St Vincent's Public Hospital, Sydney is located in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst. Though part of the New South Wales state public health system it remains under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity.-History:...
, in order to bind his bowling arm. The hospital provided a medical certificate stating that Marsh could not move his elbow while encased in the splints. Marsh was proactive in attempting to defend the legitimacy of his bowling action. Marsh's intentions were published in the Sydney Morning Herald and Curran was made away that Marsh would seek to challenge him.
Marsh and his club sought a speedy resolution to the problem because Sheffield Shield matches were due to begin in a matter of weeks. They perceived a danger that other umpires in the Sydney competition would follow Curran's lead and call Marsh, effectively outlawing him, resulting in the loss of the club's leading strike bowler. By wearing the splints, Marsh showed his belief that Curran would call him on the second day. This never happened, because Curran withdrew from his position by the luncheon adjournment on the second day, believing that he had been humiliated. Curran's resignation was widely criticised by the media and he was reprimanded by the First Grade Committee for his action. Bowling "as fast as ever", Marsh went on to finish with 6/125 from 33 overs as New South Wales were bowled out for 320.
First-class debut
Marsh made his first-class debut when he was selected for the New South Wales team to play South AustraliaSouthern Redbacks
The South Australia cricket team, nicknamed the Southern Redbacks and known as the West End Redbacks due to their sponsorship agreement with local brewers West End, are an Australian first class cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia, and represent the state of South Australia...
at the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
in December 1900, just a month after he was no-balled for throwing. The selection indicated that the state selectors were prepared to overrule Curran's judgment. In a high scoring match, Marsh was the most successful of the New South Wales bowlers, taking five wickets
Dismissal (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a dismissal occurs when the batsman is out . Colloquially, the fielding team is also said to have snared, bagged or captured a wicket. At this point a batsman must discontinue batting and leave the field permanently for the innings...
for the loss of 181 runs
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
(5/181). Clem Hill
Clem Hill
Clement "Clem" Hill was an Australian cricketer who played 49 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1896 and 1912. He captained the Australian team in ten Tests, winning five and losing five...
scored 365 not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
, which remains the highest individual score compiled at the Adelaide Oval in a Sheffield Shield match. At the time, South Australia's total of 575 was the highest ever score against New South Wales in the competition. Marsh took two early wickets to have New South Wales 2/43 before Hill amassed his triple-century. He returned to take three of the last four wickets, displaying an ability to break through the defenses of batsmen—all of his wickets were bowled
Bowled
Bowled is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is covered by Law 30 of the Laws of cricket.A batsman is out bowled if his wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the bowler...
.
A week later, Marsh's action was again under scrutiny when he played his second shield match against Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. While Richard Callaway
Richard Callaway (umpire)
Richard Callaway was a cricket Test match umpire.He umpired 3 Test matches between Australia and England in the 1901/02 season....
—the New South Wales umpire officiating the match—was satisfied with Marsh's bowling action, his Victorian counterpart Bob Crockett
Bob Crockett
Robert Maxwell Crockett , was an Australian Test match umpire.Crockett umpired a total of 32 Test matches, the highest number by an Australian umpire until passed by Tony Crafter in his last match in 1992...
was concerned with the twisting of the bowler's wrist. Crockett no-balled Marsh three times in the match, but was reluctant to elucidate on the reasons for his call. Marsh took 3/39 and 3/51 respectively, dismissing Test batsmen Peter McAlister
Peter McAlister
Peter Alexander McAlister was an Australian cricketer who played in 8 Tests from 1904 to 1909....
, Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921 and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two...
, Jack Worrall
Jack Worrall
John "Jack" Worrall was an Australian rules footballer for Fitzroy in the VFA and a test cricketer, a coach of both sports and a sporting journalist....
and Frank Laver
Frank Laver
Frank Jonas Laver Frank Jonas Laver Frank Jonas Laver (7 December 1869, Castlemaine, Victoria 24 September 1919, East Melbourne, Victoria was an Australian cricketer who played in 15 Tests from 1899 to 1909....
. Marsh bowled three of his victims.
According to cricket historian Bernard Whimpress
Bernard Whimpress
Dr. Bernard Whimpress is an Australian historian, most active in the area of sports history. A former sports magazine journalist and photographer, he has written, co-written and edited 20 books, mainly on cricket....
, the early signs of a conspiracy against Marsh were raised by a journalist from The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
by the name of Old Boy. The journalist set a possible agenda by raising a question about Marsh to Crockett on the day before the bowler was called, possibly predisposing the umpire to take action. If Old Boy could be relied on, then observers suspected that Marsh's faster and slower ball were dubious. The reporter did not specify which ball he questioned, except to say that one ball per over was doubtful. The events in Australia occurred against a backdrop of a throwing frenzy in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. A fortnight earlier, the captains of the English county teams had drawn up a list of prohibited bowlers. In Australia, Jim Phillips
Jim Phillips
James Phillips was a Victorian First-class cricketer and Test match umpire....
had set the tone by no-balling Australian Test bowler Ernie Jones
Ernie Jones
Ernest Jones was an Australian sportsman, playing Test cricket and Australian rules football....
. The events in England were seen as a catalyst for a clean-up campaign against dubious bowling actions. Historians regarded Marsh as a prime target due to his indigenous heritage and his supple wrist action.
Marsh's third Sheffield Shield match was the return fixture against South Australia in January 1901 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
(SCG); New South Wales reversed the result of the corresponding match three weeks earlier. South Australia batted first and were bowled out for 157, with Marsh taking the leading figures of 5/34. These included the prize wickets of Hill and George Giffen
George Giffen
George Giffen was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order and often opened the bowling with medium-paced off-spin, Giffen captained Australia during the 1894–95 Ashes series and was the first Australian to score 10,000 runs and...
, Test players who went on to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
The Australian Cricket Hall of Fame is a part of the Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum in the National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This Hall of Fame commemorates the greatest Australian cricketers of all time....
. New South Wales then piled on 918 before completing an innings victory by bowling the visitors out for 156 in the second innings. The margin of an innings and 605 runs set a new record for the largest victory in first-class history. Marsh took 5/59 and did the bulk of the damage, removing five of South Australia's top six specialist batsmen, at one stage reducing the visitors to 6/114. Marsh bowled six of his opponents and was not questioned by either umpire. At this point, Marsh led the first-class averages in bowling, with 21 wickets at a bowling average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 17.38 in three matches. The match was Marsh's career high point; it was to be the only ten-wicket match of his brief career.
The controversy over Marsh's bowling action came to a head in the return match against Victoria at the SCG. The fixture had been slated for the Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
weekend but it was postponed by a week when Queen Victoria died. By the time the match was under way, public interest had started to wane. Some three decades later, J. C. Davis reflected on the match, noting that it stirred many memories, "some fragrant and some rather unpleasant". The unsavoury incident that he alluded to was Crockett's continual no-balling of Marsh for throwing.
New South Wales batted first and were bowled out on the first afternoon for 170. When the Victorians began their response, Crockett called Marsh for throwing three times in his first over
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
, provoking rowdy responses from the spectators. The Sydney Mail said the crowd reaction was "a lot of abuse and unfair criticism" of Crockett. He was no-balled a further two times in his second over and five of Victoria's first nine runs were extras
Extra (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an extra is a run scored by a means other than a batsman hitting the ball.Other than runs scored off the bat from a no ball, a batsman is not given credit for extras and the extras are tallied separately on the scorecard and count only towards the team's score...
. Despite this, Victoria started poorly, losing five wickets by the time it reached 50 runs. Of the five wickets to fall, Marsh bowled future Test captain Armstrong and McAlister. The crowd showed its sympathy for Marsh when he rattled Armstrong's stumps; they cheered him loudly and verbally attacked Crockett. Marsh was called a total of 17 times during the innings, the most in a single first-class innings in Australia. The calls produced angry reactions from the spectators on the hill of the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
, who jeered "Crock! Crock! Crock!", regarding the umpire—not the bowler's arm—as being crooked. Marsh went on to take 2/68. At one point Marsh lost his temper and deliberately threw three consecutive balls. Despite the repeated calls, the captain Syd Gregory
Syd Gregory
Sydney Edward Gregory , sometimes known as Edward Sydney Gregory, was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. At the time of his retirement, he had played a world-record 58 Test matches during a career spanning 1890 to 1912...
kept Marsh bowling from Crockett's end—who was suspected of being biased towards his own state—rather than allowing Marsh to be examined by Crockett's partner.
Reaction to Crockett
Crockett's calls provoked a varied response from the media, which often ran counter to their state allegiances. The New South Wales journalist Davis felt that Marsh's deliberate throws raised "uncertainty", while the Australasian's cricket writer Tom HoranTom Horan
Thomas Patrick Horan was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia, and later became an esteemed cricket journalist under the pen name "Felix". The first of only two Irish-born players to play Test cricket for Australia, Horan was the leading batsman in the colony of Victoria...
—a Victorian who went by the pen name Felix—felt that Marsh was a soft target for Crockett, whom he regarded as a suspicious character. Curran's previous calling of Marsh in the Sydney competition had strengthened Crockett's position away from his parochial state base. The Victorian umpire was regarded as a tough-minded umpire, much like Jim Phillips
Jim Phillips
James Phillips was a Victorian First-class cricketer and Test match umpire....
, who had triggered the current round of throwing calls in Australian cricket. Crockett was commended for his willingness to call Marsh in the face of public anger and for doing what others would not. However, when Marsh bowled from the other end in the second innings of the match, his action was deemed by Crockett's umpiring partner Sammy Jones
Sammy Jones
Samuel Percy "Sammy" Jones was an Australian cricketer who played twelve Tests between 1882 and 1888....
to be fair. By this time, Marsh's confidence was low. He took his worst ever first-class figures of 1/105 as New South Wales lost by one wicket. His only wicket was Test player Charlie McLeod
Charlie McLeod
Charles Edward McLeod was an Australian cricketer who played in 17 Tests from 1894 to 1902. His brother, Bob, also played cricket for Australia....
, bowled for six.
Whimpress tabled various hypotheses for Crockett's actions. At the time, Crockett was 37 years old and was ready to emerge from the shadow of Phillips, the eminent Australian umpire of the time. When Crockett called Marsh, it was his 29th match as a first-class umpire and the no-balling was seen in some quarters as a signal that he felt ready to officiate in Test matches. A cynical view of Crockett's calls held that if throwing was to be eradicated then the umpire was going to choose a soft target. This theory ruled out the calling of a fellow Victorian, his state of origin. The same line of reasoning concluded that a New South Welshman would be called, and likely not a high profile Test player like Noble or Jack Saunders
Jack Saunders
John Victor Saunders was an Australian cricketer who played in 14 Tests from 1902 to 1908....
. Those who adhered to this hypothesis believed that it would be easier for Crockett to target someone who had a previous stigma of throwing and that Marsh—an aborigine who led the bowling averages with 21 wickets at 17.38—was an ideal target.
At the time, the alteration to the no-ball law made by the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
(MCC) in 1899 was yet to be implemented in Australian first-class cricket. This change allowed the umpire to call a throw from either end, whereas the law previously barred the umpire at square leg from doing so. The non-implementation of the law diluted the power of Australian umpires, since the bowler could be switched to the other end and made immune from being called by the first umpire. As a result, Gregory's unwillingness to switch Marsh to the opposite end surprised cricket observers. Australian administrators had been under pressure from England to crack down on dubious bowling actions. English captain Archie MacLaren had asserted that "If Australia expects an English team next September they will have to play according to the new reading of the law at home". It was speculated that because Crockett was a lifelong employee of the Melbourne Cricket Club
Melbourne Cricket Club
The Melbourne Cricket Club is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia....
, which organised and sponsored English tours to Australia, he was under pressure to no-ball bowlers in order to curry favour with English administrators.
Incidents against England
The controversy over Marsh's bowling action again reared its head during the 1901–02 season, when MacLaren led his English tourists to Australia. The English played in a match at BathurstBathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
where Marsh was selected, but MacLaren refused to play against him. Noble, who selected the New South Wales teams, used the complaints about Marsh to ignore growing calls to have the bowler selected for New South Wales and Australia. Without state backing, the remainder of Australia's selectors were happy to rely on Noble's state-level veto to ignore Marsh. Marsh's only first-class match of the season was against Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
. At the time, Queensland was not yet in the Sheffield Shield, so it was a one-off match. The match was the subject of much media attention because it was the first time that two aborigines had played in opposing teams at first-class level. Queensland's indigenous player was Alec Henry, another fast bowler who had been accused of throwing. The New South Wales team travelled north to the match by train, making a stop at Ipswich
Ipswich, Queensland
Ipswich is a city in South-East Queensland, Australia. Situated along the Bremer River Valley approximately 40 kilometres away from the state's capital Brisbane. The suburb by the same name forms the city's Central Business District and administrative centre...
. As part of the media promotion of the match-up between the pair, Henry was taken to Ipswich station to meet Marsh. Marsh was reported in the media as having said "Say old man, toss me up a soft one so I can get a smack at you". Marsh took 2/64 and 3/67 in a drawn match, and bowled three of his victims, who were unable to cope with his pace. Marsh and Henry dismissed one another, each being bowled for nine to create a symmetry in the scorecard.
Marsh was again overlooked for selection during the 1902–03 Sheffield Shield season. He played his only first-class match of the season against Queensland, in another one-off match. In the last first-class fixture of his career, Marsh scored his highest first-class score of nine not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
as New South Wales were bowled out for 191. He then took 2/39 in the first innings as New South Wales took a 60-run first innings lead. He finished his career with 3/23 in the second innings, including a final burst of 3/0, to help his team to a victory. Later in the season, Marsh played in a match for New South Wales against Australia, which was not first-class. He took the wicket of Clem Hill as the match ended in a draw.
Marsh was never selected again, although he continued to dominate grade cricket. He was the leading wicket-taker for three consecutive seasons from 1901–02 to 1903–04, taking a total of 158 wickets at an average of 10.94.
Plum Warner
Sir Pelham Francis Warner MBE , affectionately and better known as Plum Warner, or even "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket was a Test cricketer....
's MCC team, there were further calls for Marsh to be selected for the Test team as Australia fell 1–2 behind in the Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
. Marsh had taken 5/55 against the Englishmen in a match at Bathurst
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
, delivering a mixture of fast bowling and off spin
Off spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
. His victims included George Hirst and Warner himself. No formal complaint about Marsh's bowling was lodged by the English but his bowling did raise eyebrows. The general consensus among the English touring party was that Marsh's bowling was unfair, with Warner describing him as a "shier", a 19th century term for a thrower. Warner asserted that no English umpire would tolerate such a bowling action. Despite this, the English players described him as the best bowler that they had faced on the tour. Warner and Noble were confident that Crockett would no-ball Marsh out of the match if the Australian Test selectors picked the bowler. As a result, Marsh was effectively excluded from the Australian side and his first-class career was limited to just six matches in which he took 34 wickets at an average of 21.47. The Australian Test batsman and captain Warren Bardsley
Warren Bardsley
Warren "Curly" Bardsley was an Australian Test cricketer. An opening batsman, Bardsley played 41 Tests between 1909 and 1926 and over 200 first-class games for New South Wales...
rated Marsh alongside Fred Spofforth
Fred Spofforth
Frederick Robert "Fred" Spofforth , also known as "The Demon Bowler", was arguably the Australian cricket team's finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century and was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets, and the first to take a test hat-trick in 1879...
and England's Sydney Barnes
Sydney Barnes
Sydney Francis Barnes was an English professional cricketer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the sport's history...
. The comparison to Barnes was praise indeed; Barnes was the only bowler in Test history with over 120 wickets to have a bowling average under 20, with 189 wickets at an average of just 16.43. Bardsley said that the only reason that Marsh was "kept ... out of big cricket was his color". Jack Pollard
Jack Pollard
Jack Ernest Pollard OAM was an Australian sports journalist, writer and cricket historian.-Early life:Born in Sydney, New South Wales on 31 July 1926, Pollard began his journalism career in 1943 as a copy boy at Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper...
said that Marsh "was clearly the best Australian bowler of his time but unfortunately that was a period when the White Australia Policy
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia. From origins at Federation in 1901, the polices were progressively dismantled between 1949-1973....
prevailed. Marsh's name was scratched from the list of players ... by an official who was simply carrying out the racist customs of the day."
Popular with teammates and known for his sportsmanship, Marsh was regarded as an average fielder
Fielding (cricket)
Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the batsman, in such a way as to either limit the number of runs that the batsman scores or get the batsman out by catching the ball in flight or running the batsman out.Cricket fielding position...
and had minimal batting skill, with a batting average of 5.00. He played out his days in the Sydney competition and topped the bowling aggregates from 1901 to 1904. Les Poidevin
Les Poidevin
Leslie Oswald Sheridan Poidevin was an Australian first class cricketer who played for New South Wales and Lancashire....
described Marsh as "a well set-up, perfectly built ... man, with an ebony-black, smooth, clear shining skin and twinkling black eyes" who "is quite good looking". Marsh was short for a fast bowler standing 5 ft 7 ins (170 cm) tall. In later years, Marsh experimented with the googly
Googly
In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie , an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet.- Explanation :...
. Photographs of Marsh often show him fashionably dressed in a suit and sporting a moustache.
Later years
Marsh's cricket career ended in 1905. He returned to his athletic career and in 1906, he ran against Arthur Postle at a meeting organised by John WrenJohn Wren
John Wren was an Australian businessman. He has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, which was also made into a television series...
in Melbourne. The race was organised to give Postle, then Australia's fastest man, a chance to break the 100 yd world record. In front of 12,000 spectators on a wet track, Marsh took an early lead with his rapid acceleration but Postle caught him on the line. Postle was declared the winner in 10 s, but some observers claimed that it was a dead heat. He retired from competitive sport after the race.
Marsh joined Alexander's Hippodrome Company, traveling around Australia in a sideshow, where his cricketing fame brought much attention. His activities thereafter are unclear, but it is likely that he became an itinerant worker. In retirement, Marsh drank heavily and was jailed for 14 days for committing an assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
in Melbourne in 1909, something he blamed on alcohol. Marsh died after an assault caused by an argument outside the pool room of the Royal Hotel in Orange, New South Wales
Orange, New South Wales
Orange is a city in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is west of the state capital, Sydney, at an altitude of . Orange has an estimated population of 39,329 and the city is a major provincial centre....
. Two people were charged with manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
, but they were acquitted. Marsh was buried in an un-marked grave. The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
wrote in Marsh's obituary that he was "a darky troubled with manners which white brothers found impossible to put up with".