THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKET TEAM GOODWILL TOUR OF NORTH AMERICA 1932

In 1932 Arthur Mailey of Australia organised a commercial Goodwill Tour of North America. On 30.4.1932 Don Bradman married Jessie Menzies in Sydney. Jessie then accompanied ‘The Don’ and was the only woman in the party. She attended all the functions. It became known very unofficially as the Bradman Honeymoon Tour.

Most of the matches were played in Canada, but they finished in California. The last matches were played in Hollywood. The Touring side contained seven players of Test standard (Bradman, Kippax, McCabe, Richardson, Carter, Fleetwood-Smith and Arthur Mailey), and the rest were cricketing enthusiasts.

Four matches were played and for interest I show one scorecard. It is for the game on 25^th August against the Hollywood Cricket Club, composed of motion picture actors, at the UCLA turf at Westwood.

The Australian Touring Team was listed as Don Bradman, Victor Richardson, Alan Kippax (Capt.), Stan McCabe, L O Fleetwood-Smith, Arthur Mailey, Hanson Carter, E F Rofe, W F (Bill) Ives, E Keith Tolhurst, R Nutt, and R A Pope. I have noted scores of Richardson 60, McCabe 93, Bradman 80no, Kippax 9no. But this does not square with the declared total of 181 for 2.

The Hollywood team scorecard reads:

Dixon b. Ives 9

Scobey c McCabe b. Ives 9

Yeoman b. Ives 2

Maynor c. Carter, b. Ives 0

Roberts st. Carter b. Ives 67

McKinnon b. Kippax 2

Karloff c & b McCabe 5

Thomas c. Nutt b. McCabe 3

Mills c. Rofe b. McCabe 3

Bolton 0no

Tye st Carter b. McCabe 2

Creasey C. Bradman b. McCabe 0

Wright c. Tolhurst b. McCabe 2

Turnbull c. Richardson b. Fleetwood

Hall c. Fleetwood b. McCabe 1

Harper c & b McCabe 0

Du Domaine c. Rofe 1

Harper c & b McCabe 2

Byes 14 leg byes 2 16

122 for 17.

 Desmond Roberts played for Surrey 2^nd XI from 1913-1921, and for Marylebone Cricket Club 1921-1936

Tom Whiteley did not play even though he had some proficiency at cricket, but he did acquire an autographed bat. It is an Alan Kippax Autograph bat made by Gradidge Australia from Best English Willow. The bat was Bill Ives’ property and was marked by him as ‘W. F. IVES AUSTRALIA PRIVATE’. Down the right hand side of the back of the bat it is signed ‘To Tom from members of Australian Team Hollywood Aug. 1932’.

On the left hand side in descending order are the signatures of: Arthur Mailey, V J Richardson, Don Bradman, looks like G L Emes, R ? Nutt, E K Tolhurst, Fleetwood-Smith, R A Pope, Edgar (unreadable across spine but presumably Rofe), Philip Carney, Alan Kippax, Stan McCabe, and lower down A? Parker. The bat is well used and the original rubber grip has perished but the twine binding is intact.

The leading light of the Hollywood team was Sir Charles Aubrey Smith, captain of England's 1889 team in their first Test against South Africa, now turned film star, but he did not play in this match. Boris Karloff did play.

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