George Giffen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
George Giffen

Giffen in about 1895
Personal information
Full name	George Giffen
Born	(1859-03-27)27 March 1859 Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Died	29 November 1927(1927-11-29) (aged 68) Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off spin
Role	All-rounder
Relations	Walter Giffen (brother)
International information
National side	Australia
Test debut (cap 27)	31 December 1881 v England
Last Test	10 August 1896 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1877/78–1902/03	South Australia
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 31 251 Runs scored 1,238 11,758 Batting average 23.35 29.54 100s/50s 1/6 18/54 Top score 161 271 Balls bowled 6,391 46,610 Wickets 103 1,023 Bowling average 27.09 21.29 5 wickets in innings 7 95 10 wickets in match 1 30 Best bowling 7/117 10/66 Catches/stumpings 24/0 195/0
Source: CricketArchive, 7 March 2008

George Giffen (born March 27, 1859 – died November 29, 1927) was a famous Australian cricketer. He played for South Australia and the Australian national team. George was an amazing all-rounder, meaning he was great at both batting and bowling. He often batted in the middle of the team's lineup and bowled with medium-fast off spin (a type of bowling).

Giffen was the captain of Australia during the 1894–95 Ashes series. He was also the first Australian player to achieve two big milestones in first-class cricket: scoring 10,000 runs and taking 500 wickets. In 2008, he was honored by being added to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Early Life and Cricket Start

George Giffen was born in 1859 in Norwood, a part of Adelaide. His father, Richard Giffen, was a carpenter. George started playing cricket with the Norwood Cricket Club. Later, he joined the West Adelaide club.

In November 1877, Giffen played his first first-class cricket match. This game was against Tasmania at the Adelaide Oval. In this match, Giffen scored 47 runs, which were the first runs for South Australia in first-class cricket. He also took four wickets for only 16 runs in Tasmania's first turn at batting. Tasmania had to follow-on (bat twice in a row), and Giffen took two more wickets in their second turn.

Playing for Australia: Test Cricket

First Test Matches

George Giffen was only 22 years old when he played his first Test match. This was in Melbourne against England in 1881–82. He scored 30 runs before being bowled out. However, he didn't take any wickets in that game.

He didn't play in the Second Test, but he returned for the Third Test. Australia won that match, but Giffen only scored two runs and didn't get a chance to bowl. In the last Test of the series, Giffen took his first Test wicket. He got 2 wickets for 17 runs and scored 14 runs in a tied match. Australia won the series 2–0.

The Ashes Begin

In 1882, Giffen was chosen to travel to England with the Australian team. He did quite well, taking 32 wickets and scoring 699 runs. In a very famous match against England, Giffen scored 2 runs in the first innings but was out for a duck (zero runs) in the second.

Australia won this match by just seven runs, thanks to amazing bowling from Fred Spofforth and Harry Boyle. This game led to the creation of the term "The Ashes" for Test series between Australia and England. A newspaper jokingly wrote about "the death of English cricket" and said "The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."

Winning Back the Ashes

The English team, led by Ivo Bligh, came to Australia in 1882–83. They wanted to win back "the Ashes." In the First Test, Giffen scored 36 runs, his highest Test score at that time. He then took 4 wickets for 38 runs, helping Australia win by nine wickets.

In the Second Test, Giffen was out for a "golden duck" (out on the very first ball). But he took 4 wickets for 89 runs. England won that game. For the Third Test, Giffen was moved up to open the batting. He scored 41 and 7 runs. England won this Test and the first Ashes series 2–1.

Giffen in his later years

In February 1884, Giffen made history. He became the first Australian to take all ten wickets in a single innings of a first-class match. He took 10 wickets for 66 runs. Later that year, he toured England again with the Australian team. Australia lost the three-Test series 1–0.

In the Second Test, Giffen was the top scorer in the first innings with 63 runs. England won this Test. During the tour, Giffen took 81 wickets and scored 118 runs against Lancashire. In that match, he also took a "hat-trick" (three wickets in three balls).

Disputes and Returns

An English team toured Australia in 1884–85 to play for the Ashes. England won the First Test. However, there was a disagreement among the Australian players about how much money they would get from the match. Because of this, most of the Australian team, including Giffen, refused to play in the next two Tests.

This decision was not popular with the Australian public. Giffen and the other players returned for the Fourth Test. Australia won this game, with Giffen taking 7 wickets for 117 runs in England's first innings. England won the Fifth Test, keeping the Ashes with a 3–2 series victory.

Breaking Records

Giffen showed his amazing skills for South Australia in March 1886. He took 17 wickets in the match and scored over 100 runs. Five years later, in November 1891, he did even better against Victoria. He scored 271 runs and took 9 wickets for 96 runs and 7 wickets for 70 runs in Victoria's two turns at batting.

The Australian team that toured England in 1886 did not win any of the three Tests. However, Giffen was very successful in other matches. He scored 1424 runs and took 154 wickets during the tour. He took five wickets in an innings 13 times!

Giffen was clearly the star of the tour. The fact that he was the best at both batting and bowling shows how excellent he was. It would be impossible today to find a better all-round cricketer.

Giffen became the first player in Test cricket history to achieve the "double" of 1000 runs and 100 wickets.

Giffen's Cricket Style and Achievements

George Giffen's Test career batting graph.

George Giffen achieved many great things in first-class cricket:

• He scored a century (100 runs) and took 10 wickets in the same match nine times.
• Twice, he scored a century and took more than 12 wickets. No other cricketer has ever done this.
• He is the only bowler in the world to take 16 wickets in a match five times. He was also the first to take 17 wickets.
• When he was 24, he became the first bowler outside England to get all ten players out in an innings, taking 10 wickets for 66 runs.

He was the first Test cricketer to score 1000 runs and take 100 Test wickets. He was also the first Australian to take 1000 first-class wickets and score 10,000 runs.

Giffen's best performance was scoring 271 runs and taking 16 wickets in a match for South Australia against Victoria in 1891. Overall, he scored 18 first-class centuries, with four of them being double centuries (200 runs or more).

Giffen also played very well in England. On each of his five tours there, he was the top player in both batting and bowling averages. This is another unique achievement for Giffen. He led Australia as captain in four of the five Tests during the 1894 tour. His 34 Test wickets in that series was a record at the time, and he also scored the most runs.

Giffen played his last Test match in 1896. But he continued to be a strong player in first-class cricket for a while. At 41 years old, he took 13 wickets against the touring English team, helping South Australia win. Three years later, he finished his career with scores of 81 and 97 not out, and took 15 wickets (7 for 75 and 8 for 110) against Victoria.

Giffen was a strong batsman known for hitting the ball hard. He was also good at cutting and glancing the ball. As a bowler, he was slow to medium-paced. He was brilliant with his tricky off-spin and was a master at changing the speed and flight of the ball, which helped him take many wickets.

George Giffen has a grandstand at the Adelaide Oval named after him. He passed away in Parkside, South Australia. In 2008, he was honored by being inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Personal Life

Besides cricket, Giffen was also a talented Australian rules football player. He played for Woodville in 1877 and then for Norwood Football Club from 1878 to 1885. He is known for kicking Norwood's first ever goal from a running kick in the South Australian Football Association. An observer at the time said he would make "brilliant runs that stopped all opposition with superb kicks, instantly changing the whole game."

He also wrote a book about his life called With Bat and Ball.