A Dominions cricket team, representing the

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

s of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, played nine cricket matches, all in England during wartime. The team was formed in June 1918 and played three matches against an England XI that summer, two at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

and one at

Kennington Oval Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between th ...

but these were not first-class. The team was revived in May 1943 and played six matches between then and August 1945. The team's sole first-class match was against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at Lord's in late August 1945.First-class matches played by Dominions
CricketArchive. Retrieved 31 December 2023. This was the seventh match of first-class status to be played in England since 1939.

Representative match

All but two of the England team either already had, or would later gain,

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

caps, and the other two ( Eddie Phillipson and Jack Davies) would play over 150 first-class matches each, but the Dominions side was far more uneven in this regard. Cricketers including Learie Constantine (captaining the team in his final first-class match) and

Keith Miller Keith Ross Miller (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent m ...

played with

Hartley Craig Hartley Samuel Craig (19 September 1917 – 26 August 2007) was an Australian cricketer, born in Prospect, Adelaide. Craig served with the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War as a flight sergeant. He played a number of mino ...

for whom this was his ''only'' first-class game. The Dominions won the toss and batted, and Donnelly's 133 helped them to 307 all out; Wright took 5–90. England's reply started badly as they fell to 96/6, but a stand of 177 between captain Hammond (121) and Edrich (78) saw them to 287. In their second innings, the Dominions' total of 336 was massively helped by

Miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

's 185;

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England and Scotland. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a ...

claimed 5–105. Chasing 357 to win, 102 from Hammond and 56 from Davies were not enough and they were dismissed for 311; the Dominions thus won by 45 runs.

England team

* Jack Robertson * Laurie Fishlock * James Langridge * Eddie Phillipson * Billy Griffith (

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

) *

Wally Hammond Walter Reginald Hammond (19 June 1903 – 1 July 1965) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed capt ...

(captain) * Harold Gimblett * Bill Edrich * Jack Davies * Doug Wright *

Eric Hollies William Eric Hollies (5 June 1912 – 16 April 1981) was an English cricketer, who is mainly remembered for dismissing Donald Bradman for a duck in Bradman's final Test match innings, in which he needed only four runs for a Test average of 100 ...

Dominions team

() *

Desmond Fell Desmond Robert Fell (16 December 1912 – 22 January 1992) was a South African cricketer who played first-class cricket in for Natal either side of the Second World War, later becoming an umpire. He was born in Pietermaritzburg, and died aged 7 ...

() * Jack Pettiford () *

() * Martin Donnelly () * Learie Constantine () (captain) * Cec Pepper () * Bob Cristofani () * Graham Williams () * Reginald Ellis () * Colin Bremner () (wicket-keeper)

References

{{Authority control First-class cricket teams English cricket in the 20th century