A Dominions cricket team, representing the

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 192 ...

s of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

, played seven cricket matches, all in England during wartime. Only once did the team play at first-class level, when it played against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at Lord's in late August 1945. This was the seventh match of first-class status to be played in England since 1939. 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 Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine, (21 September 19011 July 1971) was a West Indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as Trinidad and Tobago's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and became the UK's first black pee ...

(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) is a former Australian cricketer, born in Prospect, Adelaide. Craig played a number of minor matches in 1945 for the Royal Australian Air Force cricket team, but his only first-cl ...

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 Edrich is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bill Edrich (1916–1986), English cricketer, Middlesex and England batsman * Brian Edrich (1922–2009), English cricketer, Kent and Glamorgan batsman * Eric Edrich (1914–1993), En ...

(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 equivalent ...

's 185;

Wright Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. 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 shipwright i ...

claimed 5–105. Chasing 357 to win, 102 from Hammond and 56 from

Davies Davies is a patronymic surname of English or Welsh origin. There are two main theories concerning its beginnings, neither of which has been definitively proven. The first theory contends that it may be a corruption of "Dyfed", the name of a medie ...

were not enough and they were dismissed for 311; the Dominions thus won by 45 runs.

Representative Match

England team

* Jack Robertson *

Laurie Fishlock Laurence Barnard Fishlock (2 January 1907 – 25 June 1986) was an English cricketer, who played in four Test cricket, Test matches from 1936 to 1947. A specialist batsman, he achieved little in those four matches, but might have had a much mor ...

* James Langridge * Eddie Phillipson *

Billy Griffith Stewart Cathie Griffith, (16 June 1914 – 7 April 1993), known as Billy Griffith, was an English cricketer and cricket administrator. He played in three Test matches for England in 1948 and 1949. He played first-class cricket for Cambridge ...

(

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. ...

) *

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 cap ...

(captain) *

Harold Gimblett Harold Gimblett (19 October 1914 – 30 March 1978) was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. He was known for his fast scoring as an opening batsman and for the much-repeated story of his debut. In a book first published in 1982 ...

* Bill Edrich * Jack Davies *

Doug Wright Douglas Wright (born December 20, 1962) is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play ''I Am My Own Wife''. Early years Wright was born in Dallas, Texas. He attended and ...

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

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 ...

() *

Jack Pettiford John Pettiford (29 November 1919 – 11 October 1964) was an Australian cricketer. He was educated at North Sydney Boys High School He played more than 200 first-class matches, mostly for New South Wales and Kent County Cricket Club. In the 194 ...

() *

() * Martin Donnelly () *

() (captain) *

Cec Pepper Cecil George Pepper (15 September 1916 – 22 March 1993) was an Australian first-class cricketer who became a professional in English league cricket and later a first-class umpire in England. An allrounder, he was the first to complete the dou ...

() *

Bob Cristofani Desmond Robert Cristofani (14 November 1920 – 21 August 2002) was an Australian cricketer who played 18 first-class matches in the 1940s. 14 of those games were for the Australian Services, three for New South Wales and one for the Dominion ...

() * Graham Williams () * Reginald Ellis () * Colin Bremner () (wicket-keeper)

References

England v Dominions in 1945
– scorecard from CricketArchive. Retrieved 24 November 2006. First-class cricket teams {{cricket-team-stub