The Invincibles: New Norcia's Aboriginal Cricketers 1879-1906 by Bob Reece

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Ex library copy with no external stickers. Stamps on inside page now covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Wear to book corners and edges with all corners now protected with book tape. Body text and binding are still very good.

It caused nothing short of a sensation in February 1879 when a fledgling team of Aboriginal cricketers from New Norcia Benedictine Mission appeared from nowhere to take on the Colony of Western Australia's leading cricket teams and subject them to some humiliating defeats. How was it that this tiny and isolated outpost of Catholic Spain, set in the heat of the Western Australian bush, could have given rise to such an extraordinary sporting phenomenon?

This book traces the history of The Invincibles and their spectacular contests during the 1879, 1881, 1881, 1882 and 1886 cricket seasons against Metropolitan Cricket Club, Fremantle, Guildford, York and teams from the Victorian Plains.

Dismissing the belief that Bishop Salvado intended cricket as a civilising device and that local pastoralist Henry Lefroy was responsible for its introduction at New Norcia, the book shows that the Mission's Aborigines themselves took the initiative.

The Invincibles excelled in batting, bowling, and fielding, challenging the notion that cricket was quintessentially an Englishman's game, requiring typically English skills and values. They were responsible for lifting the standard of cricket in the Colony during the years before the formation of the WACA in November 1885.

What was the reason for their outstanding success? Contemporaries attributed it to inherited skills adapted from hunting, but these were mission-educated Aborigines removed from traditional hunting and gathering practices. The Invincibles were a social, not a racial phenomenon. They practised hard and played as a tightly-knit group, their highly developed communication skills and co-operative efforts as a team reflecting close ties and a shared upbringing in a cohesive and supportive village community over two decades.