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‘Sunny Jim’ Mackay: First to score twin hundreds in a Sheffield Shield match

The man who had evoked this effusive praise from so high a quarter was one James Rainey Munro Mackay, popularly known to one and all as ‘Sunny Jim’ Mackay.

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‘Sunny Jim’ Mackay. Courtesy: Wikimedia commons
‘Sunny Jim’ Mackay. Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

“Another quarter of a mile, and then I get a full sight of the whole. There are tents, booths, carriages, people — more people, in fact, than I thought could be found in the district — to use the orthodox description suitable for such occasion, all the elite, youth, and beauty of the district were there assembled, to witness the great match of Salisbury versus Walcha, that was then being contested.” In his book We Play It HardAround Here, a history of the cricket played in the district region of Walcha, New South Wales, Dac Croker quotes the above passage written in some local journal by a ‘Roving Reporter’.

Indeed, there is historical evidence of cricket being played in the Armidale and Walcha districts of New South Wales from as early as 1850, with an account of a cricket match played in the district of Armidale appearing in Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer on April 20. District and country cricket was very much alive and thriving towards the latter half of the 19th century in New South Wales, and was to produce a batsman of extraordinary talent around the dawn of the 20th century.

There was a flurry of activity in the summer of 1904-05 as Australia prepared to tackle the logistics of sending the 11th Test-playing Australian team on a tour of England for the 1905 season. Some of the players were automatic choices for the tour, given their established cricketing credentials. However, despite the all-round strength of the announced team, not everyone was overjoyed by the selection, and the cognoscenti in Australian cricket of the time felt that the name of one high quality batsman was missing from the squad.

In his magnum opus World Cricketers: A Biographical Dictionary, Christopher Martin-Jenkins quotes Clem Hill’s assessment of the batting capabilities of one of the Australian batsmen of the Golden Age of Cricket as follows: he “was undoubtedly the best player that Australia produced who never reached a Test match. He was a batsman after the Trumper type and it is just possible that if he had gone home with the Australian Eleven and toured England he might have proved in time as marvellous as the illustrious Victor.”

The man who had evoked this effusive praise from so high a quarter was one James Rainey Munro Mackay, popularly known to one and all as ‘Sunny Jim’ Mackay.

Mackay was of Scottish extraction and was born September 9, 1880 at Armidale, New South Wales (NSW) and grew to become a “strong sinewy cornstalk, close upon 6 ft.” The Sydney Referee described him as follows: “He had the mind of a man with whom it is impossible to quarrel, a charming disposition, and was as wide-visioned and tolerant as any man his years I ever met. ‘Sunny Jim’ was the admirable appellation given him by his mates of the club and field. And it fitted him perfectly.”

The Advertiser quotes MH Mackay, a Director of the Adelaide Steamship Company and ex-Manager of the Bank of NSW and brother of Sunny Jim Mackay: “He went to Sydney from Queensland … His full name was James Rainey Mackay. Because of his happy temperament in any circumstances of a game, the crowd used to say ‘why do they call him Rainey: it should be Sunny’; and it stuck.”

At the turn of the century, ‘Sunny Jim’ was often in the news in connection with cricket in the country. Reporting from Armidale in 1899-00, ‘Special Reporter’ mentions a single day match played between the NSW team on their way back from Queensland and a XV of New England District. The District team had batted first and had 71 on the board before the first wicket fell, the openers being Mackay (31) and Quinlan of Armidale. “Both men exhibited confident batting, but after their separation the wickets fell rapidly, and the innings closed for 133.” Interestingly, both were bowled by Victor Trumper, who took 9 for 27. NSW won by 6 wickets.

Mackay is seen to have turned out for XVIII of West Maitland against AC MacLaren’s XI at Albion Ground in 1901-02, the first mention of his name in a published scorecard. He had a modest beginning, scoring only 5. The game ended in a draw.

The rookie, who had come to the turf wickets of Sydney from the matting playing surfaces of Uralla, made his First-Class debut playing for NSW as a right-hand opening batsman against Queensland at Sydney in 1902-03. He scored 8 and 1 while NSW won by 2 wickets. He played only 20 First-Class matches from 1902-03 to 1906-07, scoring 1,556 runs with a highest of 203 and an average of 50.19. He had 6 centuries and 7 fifties and held 5 catches.

Impressive as his First-Class figures are, Mackay became a legendary name in country and Grade cricket. In his final season in the country before he shifted base to Sydney, the by now 6 ft 2 and powerfully built Mackay batted 5 times and scored 104*, 128*, 108*, 200* and 65* (in other words, 605 runs without being dismissed). In the final country game of 1900-01, Mackay was selected for the Combined Country team to play against a star-studded Paddington that consisted of Trumper and Monty Noble. Mackay marked the occasion with an innings of 106, an innings that had been highly acclaimed at the time.

Mackay scored 800 runs in Grade cricket in 1904-05 and topped that with 1,041 in 1905-06 with an average of 104 for Burwood District CC. He scored 5 centuries in 1905-06 and had an unbroken opening partnership of 309 with Austin Diamond against Middle Harbour at Manly Oval, scoring the runs in an hour and 27 minutes off 210 deliveries. It was reported at the time that the first hour had produced 167 runs, Mackay scoring 106 and Diamond 60. Mackay had hit 8 balls out of the ground, one of the hits being the longest ever seen on the ground (even then, these hits only counted for 5 runs at the time).

In all, ‘Sunny Jim’ Mackay had scored 16 centuries for the Burwood, though 2 of them were not in First-Grade games. In the same 1905-06 season he scored 902 First-Class runs with a highest of 203 (against Queensland) and an average of 112.75. However, his highlight of the season was his penultimate Sheffield Shield match.

Joe Darling won the toss for South Australia and batted first against NSW at Sydney. The innings came to an end at 257 about an hour before stumps on the first day. At stumps NSW were 55 for no loss, Trumper batting on 16 and Mackay on 39.

Trumper fell after the home team had added 1 run to their overnight total. Monty Noble, the NSW skipper then walked in and shared a second-wicket stand of 108 runs before Mackay was dismissed for 105, continuing his prolific form of the season. The innings faltered after that. NSW were all out for 269, a bare 12 runs ahead. South Australia were then dismissed for 188. That left the home team with a winning target of 177.

Trumper (35) was again the first man dismissed, the total reading 60 for 1 at his departure. Noble walked in to join Mackay at this point, with 117 more runs to get.

Charles Macartney used to express his gratitude for Mackay for putting in a good word for him in the early years of his cricket career. Macartney was convinced that it was mainly due to the goodwill and recommendation of Mackay that he had been selected for NSW for the Queensland leg of 1905-06, Macartney making his First-Class debut during the tour. Later in his life, the ‘Governor-General’ of Australian cricket had occasion to reminisce over this particular match.

In an article appearing in The Advertiser from Adelaide under the title Macartney’s Reminiscences, the great man was quoted as saying: “An incident occurred in the second innings with regard to his second hundred. New South Wales had only about 170 runs to obtain for the win, and when Mackay required two or three for his ‘double’ the side needed only four runs to win. Noble, who was batting at the other end, leg-glanced the ball but the batsmen did not run. Had the ball gone to the boundary the game would have been over, leaving Mackay a few short. However, ‘Sunny Jim’ got there, but Joe Darling was much incensed over the happening, declaring that it was not right to place the individual before the side and the game. There is no doubt that Darling’s expressions were merited, but it is difficult at times to escape from sentiment, all the same.”

The scorecard of the match shows Mackay remaining undefeated on 102 and Noble on 37 as NSW went on to win by 9 wickets. This was the first instance of a batsman scoring centuries in both innings of a Sheffield Shield match, and Mackay, with scores of 105 and 102*, became the first man to achieve the feat.

The archives show Mackay with the following scores in his annus mirabilis of 1905-06:

– 203 vs Queensland at Brisbane

– 90 vs South Australia at Adelaide

– 194 vs Victoria at Melbourne, sharing a second-wicket stand of 268 runs with Noble

– 105 and 102* vs South Australia at Sydney

– 4 and 136 vs an Australian XI at Sydney

– 18 and 50 vs Victoria at Sydney

In all official Association cricket played in the season, Mackay scored 2,064 runs, the highest on record at the time, at an average of 114. His 18 innings included 11 centuries in all: 204, 203, 294, 158*, 156*, 147*, 136, 121, 105, 102*, and 102.

In his feature on Mackay in 2013, David Mutton writes: “Most agreed that he did now possess the magic of Trumper, but then again nobody could match such beauty or genius. But — in another echo of Bradman — his orthodoxy and sound defence allowed him to reach big scores consistently. After such a golden season Mackay’s test debut appeared but a matter of time. Alas there were no international fixtures scheduled during the 1905-06 season, or the following English summer; ultimately the baggy greens was not worn again until the English played at the Sydney Cricket Ground in December 1907.”

This lack of cricket at the very highest level after such a prolific season proved to be a turning point in Mackay’s cricket career. An opportunity beckoned from an unlikely quarter. Sir Abe Bailey of Johannesburg, a mining millionaire, owner of Rand Daily Mail, and the prime mover of many ventures, including the formation of the Imperial Cricket Conference (the fore-runner of International Cricket Council), was a great benefactor of South African cricket. It was his financial support that had ensured tours of South Africa by England and Australia. Things fell into place for Mackay when he accepted the offer to become Sir Bailey’s secretary at Johannesburg for a salary of £500 in mid-1906.

As far as Mackay was concerned, it was another wonderful opportunity for indulging in his love for cricket. It took him a little time to adjust himself to the matting wickets in South Africa, but he was soon in his stride. His debut match in South African First-Class cricket was for Transvaal against Border at Queenstown in 1906-07. Opening the innings with Jimmy Sinclair, Mackay had scores of 6 and 53. Border won by 35 runs.

He played 4 matches for Transvaal that season. The best performance of his South African sojourn came in his penultimate match for Transvaal, against Border at East London. In a drawn game, Mackay scored 90 out of a total of 279.

Meanwhile, back home in Australia, there were mixed reactions to Mackay’s South African cricket safari. Somehow, there was a perception that he had been lured to South Africa by the wealth of Sir Bailey and was being fast-tracked into representing South Africa during his adoptive country’s first ever Test-playing tour to England later in 1907.

There was some adverse comment in The Arrow under the bye-line Cricket Notes by ‘Gulliver’ as follows: “’Sunny Jim’ expects to return to Sydney some fine day. Let us hope that on that day his pockets will be lined with South African gold, and that he will not have passed into the sere and yellow as a cricketer.”

From the practical perspective, the idea seems a little far-fetched, Mackay not having stayed in South Africa long enough at that juncture to be eligible to represent them in Test cricket.

It was at this crucial stage of his cricket career that disaster struck Mackay. While walking on the street one night with a friend, he was struck from behind by a motorbike travelling at about 40 mile per hour. He was knocked down and remained unconscious for about 10 days, having suffered brain concussion. The recovery was slow and painful, and at the end of it all, Mackay’s right eye was found to have been knocked out of focus. Mackay was not yet 27 at the time, but the accident ended his First-Class cricket career.

Sydney Morning Herald reported a deal between Melbourne Cricket Club and Mackay (who was to be back in Australia in about six weeks) to the effect that Mackay was to be based in Victoria in the capacity of a consultant-cum-coach for the Victorian Country cricket scheme. While not being appointed on a professional basis, Mackay would be utilised as an experienced advisor and as a mentor for the promising country players.

The scheme allowed Mackay to ease gradually back into his familiar world of cricket, with the added incentive of interacting with the country players with whom he could identify very easily. The arrangement was short-lived however, Mackay’s damaged eye proving to be more of a hindrance that he had bargained for. He decided to return to his native NSW and took up sheep-farming in the New England district, there to be joined later by Aubrey Faulkner, no less.

‘Sunny Jim’ married Catherine Crawford in 1913. The couple set up a farm about 30 miles south-west of Cunnamulla, naming the 50,000 acre property Meta Vale. Somewhere deep down in the hearts of the cricket-loving people of Australia there was, perhaps, a faint hope that Mackay would be able to make a comeback to big cricket at some stage. Well, in 1917, Mackay did endeavour one to his beloved cricket.

A game had been arranged between Charleville and Cunnamulla, as reported by Charleville Times. “In days gone by,” the report says, “Jim was Trumper the second in Sydney’s eyes. But today, Mackay’s cricket is only a memory of the past. He fails to judge the length of a ball. We shall whisper it, reader, Jim made a pair. There was a deep pathos about it, but what was appreciated by the visitors was the silence with which a group of fearful barrackers watched the one-time champion walk out bowled first ball. In the second innings Sunny Jim faced Harry Phillips, and made a real walking carpet drive back to the bowler off the first delivery. He missed the second and spooned up the third. Obviously, he had not sighted it, and the most grieved man on the ground was Harry Phillips when he accepted an easy chance.  The stalwart showed no signs of disappointment. He just smiled — still Sunny Jim.”

One may wonder what it was about Mackay that had inspired experienced cricketers of the era to be so effusive about him. An assessment of Mackay’s style of batting and his ability is to be found in Referee from Sydney under the heading About A Hero Of The Bat: “As a batsman, Mackay was one of the best Australia has developed. It has always been, and still is, my conviction, that if he had had the advantage of a tour in England, he would have won a reputation with the bat greater even than that of Victor Trumper. He was taller than Trumper, possessed most of Trumper’s strokes, and while he did not equal Trumper in bewitching grace, he was one of the most charming and brilliant batsmen to behold. He was more orthodox than Trumper, and, therefore, less risky and less likely to fall in the early part of an innings. His strokes began at the back-cut and went hummingly round the field to fine leg.”

‘Sunny Jim’ passed away on June 13, 1953, aged about 73, at his native Walcha, New South Wales, and with him passed into cricketing folklore the story of the man who was almost the equal of Victor Trumper.

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