Victor Trumper (1877-1915), is one of Australia's all-time great cricket batsmen. Thought to have been born in Sydney, he attended Crown Street School and worked as a clerk before resigning in 1904, five years after making his Test debut at Nottingham. Trumper played in four separate seasons in England, demonstrating his unorthodox yet graceful excellence under all conditions of weather and ground. On his first visit, in 1899, he established a reputation as a batsman of the first rank with a superb 135 not out against England at Lord's and 300 not out against Sussex at Brighton. On his second, in 1902, he defied 'wretched' weather to score 2 570 runs in thirty-five matches for the Australian team, with the extraordinary average, in the circumstances, of 48; of eleven innings of over a hundred, the biggest was 128. On his third in 1905 he was again at his best against England at The Oval, playing DW Carr's googlies comfortably, and in the second match against MCC at Lord's. His career culminated in 1910-1911 against South Africa in Australia, where in five Test matches he scored 662 runs, with an average of 94. In 1908, having established a sports store, he was involved with Dally Messenger and JJ Giltinan in the foundation of Rugby League football. He was the most popular Australian cricketer of his time; a match played for his benefit between New South Wales and the Rest of Australia at Sydney in February 1913 yielded nearly £3000 in gate-money and donations. He played his last great innings in 1914, against New Zealand in Christchurch. He ended his first-class career with 255 matches and 16 939 runs; with an average of 44.58, he made 42 centuries and 87 half-centuries; he took 172 catches, and 64 wickets at 31.73. However, as Neville Cardus wrote, 'We can no more get an idea of Trumper's . . . batmanship by looking at the averages and statistics than we can find the essential quality of a composition by Mozart by adding up the notes'. His biographer, Bede Nairn, wrote that Trumper 'looked on life as one shining summer in which a man should score a quick century, then get out and give his mates a turn.' Indeed, he died of Bright's disease in Darlinghurst before his thirty-eighth birthday. Twenty thousand people lined Sydney's streets to farewell him; he left an estate valued at 5 pounds. The Victor Trumper Stand at the Sydney Cricket Ground was opened by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13 Decmber 2008.
