Charles Macartney

Charlie Macartney

Personal information
Full name	Charles George Macartney
Born	(1886-06-27)27 June 1886 Maitland, New South Wales, Australia
Died	9 September 1958(1958-09-09) (aged 72) Little Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Nickname	"The Governor-General"
Height	5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling style	Left-arm orthodox spin
International information
National side	Australia
Test debut	13 December 1907 v England
Last Test	14 August 1926 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1905/6–1926/27	New South Wales
1909/10	Otago
Career statistics
Competition Tests FC Matches 35 249 Runs scored 2131 15019 Batting average 41.78 45.78 100s/50s 7/9 49/53 Top score 170 345 Balls bowled 3561 25021 Wickets 45 419 Bowling average 27.55 20.95 5 wickets in innings 2 17 10 wickets in match 1 1 Best bowling 7-58 7-58 Catches/stumpings 17/– 102/–
Source: cricketarchive, 24 October 2007

Charles George "Charlie" Macartney (27 June 1886  – 9 September 1958) was an Australian cricketer who played in 35 Tests between 1907 and 1926. He was known as "The Governor-General" in reference to his authoritative batting style and his flamboyant strokeplay, which drew comparisons with his close friend and role model Victor Trumper, regarded as one of the most elegant batsmen in cricketing history. Sir Donald Bradman—generally regarded as the greatest batsman in history—cited Macartney's dynamic batting as an inspiration in his cricket career.

He started his career as a bowling all-rounder. He made his Test debut in 1907, primarily as a left arm orthodox spinner who was considered to be a useful lower-middle order right-hand batsman. As Macartney was initially selected for his flexibility, his position in the batting order was frequently shuffled and he was largely ineffective. His most noteworthy Test contribution in his early career was a match-winning ten wicket haul at Headingley in 1909, before being dropped in the 1910–11 Australian season. It was around this time that Macartney befriended Trumper and began to transform himself from a bowler who batted in a defensive and technically correct manner, into an audacious attacking batsman. He reclaimed his Test position and made his maiden Test century in the same season, before establishing himself as the leading batsman in the team.

The First World War stopped all first-class cricket and Macartney enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. Upon the resumption of cricket, Macartney stamped himself as one of the leading batsmen in the world with his performances during the 1921 Ashes tour. Macartney produced an Australian record score in England of 345 against Nottinghamshire. The innings was the fastest triple century in first-class cricket and the highest score made by a batsman in a single day of play. He reached 300 in 205 minutes and the innings took less than four hours. Macartney topped the batting averages and run-scoring aggregates, which saw him named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1922. Wisden said that he was, "by many degrees the most brilliant and individual Australian batsman of the present day". After missing the 1924–25 series due to mental illness or a recurrence of war injuries, Macartney departed international cricket at the peak of his powers on the 1926 tour of England. He became the second Australian to score a century in the first session of a Test match, and did so on a sticky wicket conducive to bowling. This was part of a sequence of three consecutive Test centuries as he led the batting charts. Macartney was posthumously inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2007.