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The ‘English Victor Trumper’ and the Australian original

In his final article for the Sporting Memories website in 2025, volunteer Peter Bloor looks back to the M.C.C.’s Ashes tour of 1907-08, when Kent’s Kenneth Hutchings couldn’t live up to being named as ‘The English Victor Trumper’ despite producing a fine century in their only Test win of the tour.

Victor Trumper - “Once the world’s finest batsman”

Reporting in 1915 on the premature death of the Australian batsman Victor Trumper, The Times recalled that “In 1902, when he visited England for the second time, he was unquestionably the greatest batsman in the world.” “Fearless to a degree” the Manchester Guardian added, “…at the height of his powers” he batted “almost independent of the condition of the ground” in that rain-soaked summer and scored 2,570 runs - including eleven centuries, two in the same match against Essex - with ‘nothing finer in the history of batting on slow wickets seen than Mr. Trumper’s during that season.’

“I don’t know that we have ever seen so fine a batsman…”

One of those centuries came in the Fourth Test at Old Trafford where, opening on a soft, wet pitch on a dull morning Victor and Reggie Duff scored quickly, Victor reaching his 50 in 55 minutes and Duff his just before the hour. Having put on a hundred they accelerated further, Victor’s powerful pulling, cutting and driving - stroke-making so certain that he was perfectly content to lift the ball off the wet turf - taking him to his 100 at a run a minute and to 103 not out at lunch, when the sun began to dry the pitch.

Taking full advantage Wilfred Rhodes took 3 for 6 in his first four overs of the afternoon, one of whom was Victor, caught behind for 104 scored in an hour and 55 minutes. He walked off to unstinting applause for “a century worth twice as many on a hard wicket”, leaving the pitch and the weather to play their tricks over the course of the match. They reserved their cruellest tricks for Fred Tate who, playing his only Test, had his bowling treated severely by Trumper, dropped a vital skied catch and was last man out for 4 with just 4 needed to win after a rainstorm had delayed the start of his innings for a nerve-shredding 45 minutes.

‘Young Hutchings should prove extremely useful’

Almost a month after Trumper’s innings Kenneth Hutchings made his Kent debut against Worcestershire and scored 10 and 1. In 1903 he scored a magnificent 63 against a Lancashire side that included the brilliant and intimidating Sydney Barnes, a run a minute 84 not out against Hampshire and his first county century, a forceful, error-free 106 against Somerset.

Four more fast, hard-hitting centuries followed in 1906 - 125 in two hours 10 minutes against Middlesex, a somewhat fortunate 131 in two and three-quarter hours against Yorkshire, a chanceless 176 in just over three hours against Lancashire and 124 in an hour and a half against Hampshire as Kent won their first County Championship.

“England’s Trumper, a champion of the Champions”

Such was the style with which Kenneth had scored 1,358 Championship runs in 1906 that when “Balin” wrote in The Referee that Kent had deserved the title for the brilliance of their batting he added that “In this connection K.L. Hutchings has given the key-note” and compared him to the very best, noting that “While utterly unlike Trumper in style and method he is not far below the Australian on hard wickets in his power of scoring at great pace from the best bowling...”

Despite injury, over-confidence and patchy form in 1907 Kenneth was selected for M.C.C.’s winter tour to face an Australia side that still included Victor Trumper. He was not a success, mustering just 273 Test runs from 10 innings as M.C.C. lost The Ashes 4-1, their - and Kenneth’s - one Test success coming in the Second at Melbourne where the validity of “Balin’s” caveat that “…I do not think he [Kenneth] could approach Trumper on a pitch ruined by rain...” was not tested after the previous week’s downpours had given way to glorious sunshine.

‘Nothing finer has been done by a batsman from England since Ranjitsinhji…’

Despite his legendary status in Australian cricket, by the time of M.C.C.’s visit Trumper was no longer the batsman he had been, but he nonetheless scored an attractive and cleanly-hit, if slow, 49 in the first innings and a faultless 63, beautifully compiled with shots all around the wicket, in the second.

Kenneth’s responses were a hard-hitting 126 in two and three-quarter hours - an innings in which the power of his wrists and forearms when flicking the ball away on the leg side amazed the watching former Test players – and an uncharacteristically restrained 39 as M.C.C. chased 282 to win.

Arthur Fielder, Sydney Barnes and the bright spot of a gloomy tour

They still needed 39 when the last man, Arthur Fielder, joined Sydney Barnes at the wicket. Conscientious and hard-working, Fielder had bowled 896 overs for Kent in 1907 and taken 151 wickets but, the Kentish Express noted, “Neither [Colin] Blythe nor Fielder have done enough in the batting line to call for special mention.” He was however no Fred Tate and unlike that poor man was able to see his side to victory with a confident 18 not out, scoring the run that tied the match before Barnes won it with a single.

Sadly for Hutchings, he would not prove to be England’s Trumper in the remaining Tests and just four years later his whole career would peter out when he lost form irrevocably. However, in one glorious innings, with the original - albeit already declining in health - Trumper on the field, he had shown why some had thought it possible.

References and credits

The quotes and other information in this article are taken from The Times, Cricket A Weekly Record, the Kentish Express, The Referee and other national newspapers 1902-1915, and the Cricinfo site.

Images - Victor Trumper Ogdens 1902, Wilfred Rhodes Boys Realm 1922, Kenneth Hutchings, Arthur Fielder and Sydney Barnes all Wills 1908. Banner image Wills 1929

Kenneth Lotherington Hutchings (‘Men of the Day. No. 1079. “A Century Maker.”’) by Sir Leslie Ward, published in Vanity Fair 14 August 1907. © National Portrait Gallery, London, Reference Collection NPG D45393