Thomas Kingston Kendall (24 August 1851 – 17 August 1924) was an Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er, who played in two Test matches in 1877, including the inaugural Test which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877. Kendall was a lower-order left-handed batsman and a slow-to-medium pace left-arm bowler. His 14 wickets in the first two Tests show his ability and indeed Kendall's 7/55 in the last innings of the first-ever Test was an important part of the 45-run victory over the England side led by James Lillywhite. It was Kendall's bowling that induced the first Test match stumping, when he dismissed

Alfred Shaw Alfred Shaw (29 August 1842 – 16 January 1907) was an eminent Victorian cricketer and rugby footballer, who bowled the first ball in Test cricket and was the first to take five wickets in a Test innings (5/35). He made two trips to North Ameri ...

, via

Jack Blackham John McCarthy Blackham (11 May 1854 – 28 December 1932) was a Test cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. A specialist wicket-keeper, Blackham played in the first Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877 and the fa ...

's wicketkeeping. Both he and Shaw took eight wickets in the inaugural Test, but as Australia batted first Shaw took his first, but Kendall overtook this in the Second Test and his 14 Test wickets remained a (retrospective) record until passed by

Fred Spofforth Frederick Robert Spofforth (9 September 1853 – 4 June 1926), also known as "The Demon Bowler", was arguably the Australian cricket team's finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century. He was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets, and the fi ...

. It is not clear why he was omitted from the subsequent Australian team to tour

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 ...

in 1878, a tour he was available for: he took part in some preliminary matches before the team was selected, although, according to Spofforth, Kendall gained a considerable amount of weight, which may have worked against him. Kendall played in Melbourne club cricket for Richmond, and represented

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

once. In 1881, he moved to Hobart where he was employed as a compositor by '' The Mercury'' newspaper.

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

did not have regular

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

at that point and his subsequent cricket career was limited to four matches on a tour to New Zealand in 1884 and one against Victoria in 1889. He later stood as an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

in Tasmanian cricket.

References

Sources

* Mahony, P. (1984) ''Sundry Extras'', The Hambledon Press: London. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Tom 1851 births 1924 deaths Australia Test cricketers Victoria cricketers Tasmania cricketers Richmond cricketers Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers Australian cricketers Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut English emigrants to Australia