Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia

To be held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
31st October, 1st & 2nd November 2025

William Lloyd ‘Billy’ Murdoch. New South Wales, Sussex, London County, Australia & England 1875-1904. Original and interesting two page ‘begging letter’ handwritten in black ink from Murdoch to ‘Dear Old Dick’, dated 3rd September 1909. Writing from Bayswater in London, Murdoch is asking for ‘a very great favour and lend me £25’. He has his wife are about to set off to Australia and ‘The large amount we have had to pay for our return tickets has left us very short indeed’, explaining that ‘Our Trustees commenced in June last to wind the estate up, and it is absolutely necessary for us to be out there for the final’. He continues with details of how he proposes to repay the loan ‘when our half yearly money is paid’. Very nicely signed by Murdoch. Signed letters from Murdoch are rare and a very similar letter from him to ‘Old Dick’ written five years earlier in 1904 was sold by Knights as lot 39 in the sale of March 2024. Horizontal fold, otherwise in very good condition.
Billy Murdoch is listed as player/cap number thirteen in the list of Australian Test players and he played his first Test match for Australia, in the second Test ever played, against England at Melbourne in March/April 1877. He captained Australia in sixteen Tests from 1880 to 1890, this included four tours to England one of which, in 1882, gave rise to The Ashes. A right hand batsman and occasional wicket-keeper, he played in eighteen Test matches overall for Australia. Murdoch scored both the first double century in Test cricket (211 against England in 1884) and the first triple century in Australian domestic cricket (321 against Victoria in 1882). In later years, he settled in England, playing county cricket for Sussex (1893 to 1899, as captain) and W.G. Grace’s London County team (1900 to 1904). In 1892 he toured South Africa with England and played in one Test match, making him one of the few cricketers to represent more than one international team. Murdoch’s final first-class match came at the age of 49, in August 1904. He died in Melbourne in 1911, aged only 56.

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