The Life and Times of the Immortal Victor Trumper: A Correction

Peter Kettle | 7:32am GMT 27 March 2025

The amount of papers introduced on the Victor Trumper symposium in Sydney throughout 2015 has been reviewed by ”Archie Mac” on this web site again in September 2017. The e book not too long ago launched underneath the title of Younger Vic prompted me to look over Roger Web page’s contribution to this quantity once more, his piece being headed Trumper in Print. In an in any other case extremely informative and tremendous piece of writing (spanning 8 pages), the seven phrases that fashioned the ending to the next paragraph struck me as being moderately odd:

“Contemplating Trumper’s movie star standing – he was as well-known in his day as Don Bradman throughout Nineteen Thirties and Forties and Shane Warne in more moderen instances – it appears unbelievable, not less than seen right now, that no books by or about him had been written throughout his lifetime. However cricket books had been a uncommon commodity through the Golden Age, solely Griffin’s Bat and Ball, the East Melbourne historical past and the short-lived annuals and periodicals revealed on this period – and his {Trumper’s} lifetime was to be shortened.” 

(This paragraph showing on pages 165/6: italics added.)

I quickly realised that the impact of this addition has been to water down, and be at odds with, the primary sentence whereas concurrently making a blunder into the discount. Trumper died when having already performed 255 first-class matches by means of to the age of 36 and 4 months, with 15 full seasons in Australia plus 5 abroad excursions. And it’s affordable to count on that – even with good well being – Trumper would have had not more than some 4 to six extra years of efficient participation in first-class cricket left in him, by which era he would have been in his early-forties. 

Furthermore, Trumper may effectively have been reluctant to hold on past his late-thirties as I collect that – by this time – his household may now not assist him and he would have been in want of paid employment. He was categorised as an “novice” cricketer and didn’t obtain a wage or match charges for taking part in the sport (although he did profit monetarily from his testimonial match, held in February 1913, and obtained a share of the gate receipts to cowl bills and potential losses). Additional participation in cricket would due to this fact have eaten into time doubtlessly spent working and being remunerated for it. 

While it’s said on the entrance cowl of this quantity of papers that it’s “Edited by Ronald Cardwell”, following the title web page there’s a word itemizing a trio of editors, together with Julee Gould and Peter Lloyd apart from Mr Cardwell himself – although with out matching explicit papers to a number of of those people. Nonetheless, as Mr Cardwell was the de facto Editor-in-Chief he ought to take duty for this editorial gaff, even when he wasn’t the underlying perpetrator.

And it isn’t solely the creator – Roger Web page – who realises that his submitted manuscript has been altered. It transpires that Mr Cardwell now recognises that an editorial gaff has, certainly, been made. Personally, I believe its impact is equivalent to to forged a shadow over Roger Web page’s piece as an entire. 

Accordingly, the principle intention of this word of “Correction” is to alert those that have acquired a replica of this quantity to this explicit matter, and counsel they go to the highest of web page 166 and cross out the offending last seven phrases. They could then view Roger’s piece in a extra beneficial gentle. (And if a reprint is contemplated sooner or later, the error can then be corrected – by omission.)

Lastly to say this: it’s attainable that Mr Cardwell himself has no surviving word of the unlucky addition really being made. Sceptics may surprise if the addition got here to be made by the unobserved intervention of an unknown exterior celebration. These amongst them who consider within the existence of aliens, and suppose there’s credible proof for them often having visited this Earth, may suspect that this has been the actual supply of the seven extra phrases. I’ve to concede that maybe aliens have made such visitations. But it’s a lengthy bow to suppose that sure aliens have recognized about this explicit cricketer and the truth that his life was reduce quick. For one factor, they might have wanted a capability to learn the English language and now have managed to pay money for a related doc. So I really feel that we are able to low cost such a attainable reason behind the addition.