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

Peter Kettle | 7:32am GMT 27 March 2025

The quantity of papers offered 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 lately launched beneath 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 positive piece of writing (spanning 8 pages), the seven phrases that fashioned the ending to the next paragraph struck me as being quite odd:

“Contemplating Trumper’s superstar standing – he was as well-known in his day as Don Bradman throughout Nineteen Thirties and Nineteen Forties and Shane Warne in more moderen occasions – it appears unbelievable, at the least considered at the moment, that no books by or about him have been written throughout his lifetime. However cricket books have been a uncommon commodity throughout the Golden Age, solely Griffin’s Bat and Ball, the East Melbourne historical past and the short-lived annuals and periodicals printed 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 cut price. Trumper died when having already performed 255 first-class matches by way of to the age of 36 and 4 months, with 15 full seasons in Australia plus 5 abroad excursions. And it’s affordable to anticipate 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 period he would have been in his early-forties. 

Furthermore, Trumper would possibly nicely have been reluctant to hold on past his late-thirties as I collect that – by this time – his household might not assist him and he would have been in want of paid employment. He was categorized as an “novice” cricketer and didn’t obtain a wage or match charges for enjoying 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 notice 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. Nevertheless, as Mr Cardwell was the de facto Editor-in-Chief he ought to take accountability for this editorial gaff, even when he wasn’t the underlying perpetrator.

And it’s not 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 feel its impact is equivalent to to solid a shadow over Roger Web page’s piece as an entire. 

Accordingly, the principle goal of this notice of “Correction” is to alert those that have acquired a duplicate of this quantity to this explicit matter, and recommend they go to the highest of web page 166 and cross out the offending remaining seven phrases. They may then view Roger’s piece in a extra beneficial mild. (And if a reprint is contemplated in the end, the error can then be corrected – by omission.)

Lastly to say this: it’s attainable that Mr Cardwell himself has no surviving notice of the unlucky addition really being made. Sceptics would possibly marvel if the addition got here to be made by the unobserved intervention of an unknown exterior social gathering. These amongst them who consider within the existence of aliens, and assume there may be credible proof for them sometimes having visited this Earth, would possibly suspect that this has been the true supply of the seven extra phrases. I’ve to concede that maybe aliens have made such visitations. But it’s a lengthy bow to assume that sure aliens have identified about this explicit cricketer and the truth that his life was lower quick. For one factor, they’d 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 will low cost such a attainable reason for the addition.