Victor Trumper Print Page

The Plaque commemorates one of Australia`s finest cricketers Victor Trumper (1877-1915) who was instrumental in the birth of Rugby League in Sydney.

Trumper learnt to play cricket on the streets of Surry Hills and at 15 he played with the Carlton Club followed by the South Sydney Club at 16. He scored 67 runs for the New South Wales Juniors eighteen against Andrew Stoddart`s eleven on 22 December 1894, leading to his selection for New South Wales side against South Australia in January 1895. Touring as the fourteenth man in 1899 he became the first Australian to score 300 in England and was admitted as a full team member. During the 1902 tour he scored 11 centuries and was described by Wisden as `the best batsman in the world`. He became the first batsman to record a century before lunch in a Test at Old Trafford.

On 8 August 1907 at Bateman's Crystal Hotel, George Street, Sydney independent politician Henry Hoyle chaired a meeting of fifty, comprising several leading rugby players and officials. The New South Wales Rugby Football League, the body that would go on to conduct the major national rugby league premiership of Australia, was founded and Trumper was elected its first treasurer.

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