New Zealand's first county cricketer
NZ cricketers of note, No 1 - An occasional series
At another time, P. Randall Johnson may have been a household name in New Zealand cricket.
However, during colonial times, his liaison with New Zealand was brief. Born in New Zealand, he can claim to be the first New Zealand-born player to play county cricket in England, setting a trend that would be significant in the rise of the New Zealand game in the 1970s.
He toured New Zealand with MCC sides twice and made his first tour with BJT Bosanquet, of googly fame, to the United States and Canada in 1901.
P. Randall Johnson (Somerset and MCC)
Johnson is not an illuminated name among the finest of the country's earliest players, but he was one of the longer-serving players in the county game for Somerset, retiring in 1927.
English scribe Col. Phillip Trevor said that Johnson, at his best, was the most attractive of all English amateur batsmen.[1]
It could hardly be claimed that New Zealand shaped his game at all. Born at Fitzherbert Terrace, Wellington, he left for Eton at the age of nine.
His father, lawyer George Randall Johnson, played for the MCC, the Gentlemen of England, and Eton and Cambridge before coming to New Zealand to work with his brother Woodbine Johnson on a large holding, the Maraetaha Station, on the East Coast.
George Johnson became involved in New Zealand politics and served on the now-defunct Legislative Council from 1872 to 1892.
Randall played in the Eton College 1st XI in 1897. He then went to Cambridge University, making his mark in the 1899 Freshman's match in which he took seven wickets and hit 95.
He was not selected for the university's first team until the following season, gaining his blue in his second season in 1901.
At that time he was principally regarded as a fast bowler, but he quickly developed into a high-class batsman of the classical school, his tall and graceful demeanour giving him an aristocratic style that was both fluent and effective.[2]
An arm injury forced him to concentrate more on his batting. He played for Devon in 1900, scoring a century, but made his first appearance for the county with which he would be associated, Somerset, in 1901.
His early impact saw him invited to tour the United States with B.J.T. Bosanquet's XI in 1901. In the first-class games, of which there were two, he scored only 24 runs.
So far as is known, the only times he returned to New Zealand were as a member of Lord Hawke's 1902-03 MCC team and the 1906-07 MCC side.
His father, who, in addition to his Legislative Council duties, also found time to serve on the boards of AMP Insurance and Government Life, was chairman of the Wellington Hospital Board and was a member of the Wellington Education Board. He retired from his Council role in 1892 and soon after moved to England, where he died in 1919. There was little reason for Randall to return to New Zealand to live.
In his book, Cricket Across the Seas, Pelham Warner, who led Lord Hawke's side to New Zealand, said in their first game against Auckland, 'Johnson played sound cricket and was immensely pleased with being told by some admirer that his style reminded him of Lionel Palairet's.'[3] Johnson made 43 of the tourists' 321.
In their 11th win, against the West Coast's XXII in Greymouth, the tourists were in trouble in their pursuit of a win, but Johnson, who was 25 not out, and Cuth Burnup, an England football representative who played 12 seasons for Kent, was 53 not out, to see them through from 55-5 to a target of 107.
Johnson, always a good man at a pinch, as his cricket for Somerset last season proved, played very attractively.[4]
Warner said there was some consolation for the home team that the man who played a big part in denying them a win, Johnson, was a New Zealander by birth.
A point of note about the game: the West Coast's leading wicket-taker Arthur Ongley, a lawyer, took 8-36 as Lord Hawke's side was dismissed for 69, including top scorer Johnson, who scored 27, later moved to Palmerston North and played a significant role in the formation of Central Districts. His son Joe Ongley was selected for New Zealand in 1939 and was later a Supreme Court Judge.
Johnson had only seven innings in 11-a-side games, and his best score among his 186 runs at 37.10 was his 88 when he opened in the second international against New Zealand. That helped the MCC achieve an innings victory.
He returned for the 1906-07 tour under captain J.W.H.T. Douglas. This time, he was the highest run scorer on tour, scoring 546 runs at 32.11, with a top score of 99. That was hit in the first 'international' against New Zealand, played at Lancaster Park, when the MCC replied to New Zealand's 207. Johnson was first out after an opening stand of 151 shared with Dunedin-born Ron Fox, who scored 47, as the MCC reached 257.
(Fox was called into the New Zealand team on its tour of England in 1927 to open the batting with Stewie Dempster against Civil Service, scoring four.)
New Zealand scored 187 in its second innings, leaving the MCC 138 to win. Johnson finished 76, not out, and Fox was out for 18, as the MCC won by nine wickets.
The second international, played in Wellington, was more of a contest with New Zealand batting first for 165 but then dismissing the MCC for 160, Johnson hitting four and Fox 13, both falling to Ernie Upham, who took 6-84.
New Zealand then scored 249, Douglas finishing the game with 12 wickets for 124 before MCC was dismissed for 198, Johnson four and Fox a duck, giving New Zealand a win by 56 runs with Arthur Fisher taking 5-61.
In an interview after the tour, Johnson said New Zealand's cricket had improved by 25 per cent since Lord Hawke's XI tour. The batting was 'a most decided improvement.'
In the field department, the New Zealanders had learned a very useful lesson, and that was the manner in which they now placed the fields so as to block the favourite strokes of the visiting batsmen. This change of policy on the parts of the captains of teams had resulted in the saving of many runs during the present tour. Fieldsman nowadays anticipated batsmen's strokes much more frequently and keenly than during the previous MCC tour.[5]
He also felt wicketkeeping throughout the country had improved, being equal to the standard in England. What was missing, however, was a fast bowler.
In 1908, Johnson became the first Somerset player to score a century in each innings of a game, with 164 and 131 against Middlesex at Taunton. In his next outing, he made it three consecutive centuries with 117 against Hampshire. He was denied another double two years later. Playing Sussex at Bath, he was chanceless in scoring 98 and 96, only denied his centuries when running out of partners.
Returning from war service with the rank of Major, he continued to play for Somerset from 1920-27.
He opened the batting for the MCC in their game against Warwick Armstrong's 1921 Australians, scoring 27 in the first innings but unable to bat in the second due to injury. And towards the end of their outstanding tour, he opened for Somerset against the tourists, falling to a catch behind to Bert Oldfield from Arthur Mailey's bowling for four in the first innings and being bowled by McDonald for 20 in the second in Somerset's innings and 58 run loss.
In the same year, during Somerset's game against Middlesex at Lord's, he played an innings typical of his application.
P.R. Johnson, who stayed when no one looked like staying, made runs delightfully after a slow start. He took as long as an hour and three-quarters to reach 37; but had it not been for his studied hitting Somerset must have lost badly. He stayed at the wickets three hours and 20 minutes; he scored 111. No one else on the side made more than 23.
There are times when figures may fairly be said to speak for themselves. Johnson triumphed where others failed. And for the most part he played charming cricket. He did the right thing and he did it perfectly. His cricket was of the kind rather vaguely known as the classical style. He showed the old Eton method at its best; he combined elegance with effectiveness.
But although he was so correct, always strictly orthodox, his game carried with it a sense of individuality.[6]
His final game for the MCC was against the touring West Indians in 1923, in which he scored 103, batting at No. 3 in the first innings of the rained-out game. In Somerset's game against the tourists, he batted one ahead of countryman and future New Zealand Test captain Tom Lowry, scoring one in the first innings and 36 in the second.
His last game for Somerset was against Glamorgan from July 27-29 in Bath, where he scored one run in his only innings of the drawn game. He missed playing for Somerset against the touring New Zealand side by 10 days.
Across his career, he hit 17 centuries for Somerset. His last, 117 not out, was against Surrey at the Oval in 1926. He shared a 10th wicket stand of 139 with future cricket writer R.C. Robertson-Glasgow, he of the 'Crusoe' nickname.
Always an amateur, Johnson qualified as a barrister but, after some years, moved to the Stock Exchange. He died, aged 78, in 1959 at Sidmouth, Devon.
During his 27-year career, he played 275 first-class games, scoring 11,931 runs at an average of 25.71, including 18 centuries.
[1] Col. Phillip Trevor, quoted in Evening Post, 8 October 1921
[2] P.R. Johnson, Obituary, The Cricketer, 22 August, 1959
[3] Pelham Warner, Cricket Across the Seas, Longman, Green and Co., Ltd, reproduced in The Cricketer, 9 May 1931, p.48
[4] Warner, ibid, 30 May 1931, p.136
[5] P Randall Johnson, Cricket in the Colony, Southland Times, 16 March 1907
[6] H.J. Henley, Daily Mail, quoted in Evening Post, 8 October 1921