This week was the 162^nd anniversary of the greatest sporting event ever in the history of Ipswich, Queensland. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

The Brisbane cricket XI arrived in town and patronisingly allowed Ipswich to field sixteen players. Brisbane was the capital of the colony of Queensland, and Ipswich was the next biggest town and definitely suffered as a little brother.

The match was played at the Ipswich Grammar School oval on Saturday the 7^th of May 1864. Ipswich was dismissed for 56 runs, but then the whole of the Brisbane side was bundled out for just 4 runs. Even the byes for Ipswich outscored them.

The Ipswich team that day was the most amazing Ipswich representative team ever assembled in any sport.

The Ipswich captain was Thomas Foden. He was a gold miner, music hall entertainer, and the colony’s best all-round cricketer. He opened the batting, top-scored with 11 runs, and picked up four Brisbane wickets for just 2 runs. The next year he missed Queensland selection because of trumped-up criminal charges which forced him to leave the district.

The pick of the Ipswich bowlers was the railway navvy and underarm trundler Joe Meads who took four wickets for none in just 18 balls.

Other players included the farmer Patrick Flanagan who became the treasurer of the Ipswich Coursing Club.

There was one of the Harding boys from the family of Elias Harding a founding trustee of both the Ipswich Boys’ and Girls’ Grammar Schools.

There was the saddler and harness maker Chrisopher Thomas Quinn who founded the well-known business of Macdonald & Quinn in Toowoomba.

There was the 17-year-old Thomas James Eldridge. His father tended to name Brisbane suburbs, he built the house “Milton” after which the suburb of Milton was named, his farm “Eagle Farm” gave its name to both the suburb and airport, and he is credited with naming Breakfast Creek after he had billy tea there.

Last man in for Ipswich was Francis Augustus Forbes Junior. He was a bank manager and son of the Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly who was one of Ipswich’s earliest cricketers.

There was Horace Clendon Dixon. He was an auditor and another bank manager.

The second of the openers was George Jobbins who was inspector on the railways.

David Watterston was a noted journalist who worked for the Ipswich Herald at the time and later became editor and director of the Melbourne Argus.

There was Patrick Cleary who one of Ipswich’s original butchers. After the cricket, Cleary joined the Gympie gold rush when more than half the population of Ipswich rushed off to the diggings.

Mr Stuart Hawthorne got a game. He was the first headmaster of Ipswich Grammar School.

Charles Edward Chubb was a judge in the Supreme Court of Queensland and Attorney-General of Queensland. His father was an Ipswich mayor.

George Wilkie Gray was an accountant, managing director of Castlemaine Brewery, and a member of the Queensland Legislative Council.

Sir Horace Tozer. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, an alderman in Gympie’s first council, and Queensland’s Agent-General in London.

Finally, there was Alfred John Stephenson who was a member of both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council and was a mayor of Ipswich.

So all up, this remarkable Ipswich cricket team had a headmaster, butcher, journalist, saddler, music hall entertainer, two accountants, two railway workers, three farmers, and four members of parliament. Amongst those was another accountant, mayor, and supreme court judge.

Has there ever been a more amazing and diverse Ipswich representative team than this, and in 1864 they did their city proud by destroying Brisbane on the cricket pitch.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD LIVE ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Foden’s Men: The Day the Capital was Conquered – Harold Peacock with Copilot.
Ipswich Grammar School, 1864 – State Library of Queensland.
David Watterson – Herald, Melbourne, 23rd July 1931, page 1 – repaired with Copilot.
Patrick Cleary – Queensland Times, Ipswich, 9th October 1915 page 10 – repaired with Copilot.
Stuart Hawthorne first headmaster Ipswich Grammar School c1865 – State Library of Queensland.
Charles Edward Chubb, 1883 – State Library of Queensland.
George Wilkie Gray, May 1901 – State Library of Queensland.
Sir Horace Tozer, Brisbane, 1890 – State Library of Queensland.
Alfred John Stephenson, 1903 – Picture Ipswich.