Ironmonger Genealogy - Information for Herbert Ironmonger 1882

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Sarah Matilda IRONMONGER 1861 -

Frederick IRONMONGER 1863 - 1924

Frank Eli IRONMONGER 1865 - 1866

Mary Emily IRONMONGER 1867 - 1868

Rachel IRONMONGER 1869 -

Alfred IRONMONGER 1872 -

Francis Henry IRONMONGER 1874 -

Edward Eli IRONMONGER 1878 -

Caroline IRONMONGER 1880 -

Herbert IRONMONGER 1882 - 1971

John IRONMONGER 1886 -

Family with

Bess TIERNEY 1890 -

Tommy IRONMONGER c. 1912 -

Herbert IRONMONGER

Marriage: to Bess TIERNEY

Birth: 7 April 1882 - Pine Mountain, Queensland, Australia

Death: 31 May 1971 - St Kilda, Victoria, Australia

Notes

Bert Ironmonger was a cricketer of some repute and played in 14 Test matches for Australia in the 1930s.

A left arm spin bowler with very economical figures is a fairy brief test career, "Dainty" enjoyed great success particularly against the 1912 South African tourists, On a vicious sticky wicket in Melbourne in the final test of that series, he had a match bag of 11 for 24.

The following from "A MISCELLANY OF LEFT-HANDERS" by Marc Fiddian (c) Marc Fiddian 1998.

BERT IRONMONGER

Spin bowler Bert Ironmonger made his Test debut in the same match as Don Bradman. The two players were as unalike as chalk and cheese, Bradman being a 20-year-old batting prodigy and Ironmonger a 46-year-old veteran whose value was his ability to turn the ball considerably. For some years Ironmonger had been on the short list of commentators' Test prospects and one presumes his name had cropped up with the Test selectors. That he wasn't called on for Test duty until so late was largely due to his lack of opportunity while living in Queensland - he moved to Melbourne when he was 31 - and the hiatus in Test cricket caused by World War I.

Ironmonger's Test career was confined to 14 games and he never toured England, much to his everlasting disappointment. While he was never called for throwing, it was believed in Australia that English umpires might have had their doubts. In addition his use of coarse language within the hearing of the Victorian Cricket Association president Canon Hughes is understood to have weighed against him. As a batsman Ironmonger was devoid of skill and as the years rolled on he could contribute nothing as a fieldsman. But it was as a bowler that he made his mark at club level, in particular, he harvested wickets in a great number at highly economical cost. "His unique bowling method came from a boyhood injury which caused him to 'fire' the ball, somewhat like a schoolboy shooting marbles, rather than wrap his forefinger around it to impart spin. His stamina and accuracy were legendary. It was claimed that he could "land the ball on a three penny piece and keep bowling all afternoon," wrote Bob Coleman in Seasons in the Sun.

Herbert Ironmonger was born at Pine Mountain, near Ipswich, Queensland on April 7, 1882. His boyhood accident with a chaff-cutter left him without the top joint of his left index finger and one shudders to think that the sole treatment he was given was his sister thrusting his hand into a bag of flour to stop the bleeding. The Ironmongers lived on a farm and were a long way from the doctor. Despite this setback, Ironmonger was able to play cricket and he first appeared at first-class level for Queensland against Victoria in February, 1910. He took three wickets for the game and repeated the performance against NSW early the next season, but then faded form the scene until December, 1913 when Queensland sent a team to Melbourne and Sydney. Although he managed only one wicket for 99 runs, Ironmonger impressed Warwick Armstrong with his 25 overs. Armstrong, who finished with 202 not out, was in an excellent position to judge. Former Test player Hugh Trumble, who had become the Melbourne Cricket Club secretary, agreed with Armstrong and the pair offered him a job as the MCC ground bowler. In addition Ironmonger played club cricket with Melbourne.

Late in the 1913-14 season Victoria included Ironmonger in its team to play two games against Tasmania in Hobart and Launceston. In both games he grossed 10 wickets and carried that form into 1914-15 when he captured 36 wickets at 17.52 apiece. Against South Australia he sent down 75.4 overs to capture 13 wickets, including the wicket of 10 different batsmen in the two innings. Obviously Ironmonger would have been selected in the Australian team had there been a Test series at the time, but there wasn't and the opportunity went begging.

After leaving his job with the MCC, Ironmonger worked as a barman and then bought the license of the Royal Derby Hotel at North Fitzroy. Subsequently he and his bride, Bess Tierney, bought a hotel in Sydney at Balmain where Ironmonger played Grade cricket with Balmain in 1921-22 and took 51 wickets.

Meanwhile the Balmain wharves closed and the hotel trade went with them, sending the Ironmongers broke. So they moved back to Melbourne and acquired a tobacconist-barber shop at St Kilda and Bert, known as "Dainty" because he was rather the opposite, joined the St Kilda Cricket Club with whom he played for more than a decade. A burglary at the tobacconist shop finished the business as it wasn't insured, forcing Ironmonger to take work with the St Kilda council mowing lawns.

The left-arm spinner had toured New Zealand with a second Australian team in 1920-21, picking up 45 wickets at 13.17 runs apiece, but didn't play another first-class game until the latter half of the 1924-25 season. Against the touring Englishmen he claimed a hat-trick, taking the last three wickets of the innings with the score on 500. Sound form during the 1927-28 season put Ironmonger in line for a Test place when England paid another visit in 1928-29. Suddenly he was seen as valuable. Australia was forced to rebuild as a number of the stars from the early 1920's were retiring and Ironmonger's experience was vital against the formidable batting line-up England had at the time. After taking six wickets - two in each innings - in the first two matches of the series, Ironmonger was dropped. Two years later the West Indies visited Australia for the first time and struggled against Ironmonger when they first played against him. After taking five wickets for Victoria in the tourists' first innings, 'Dainty' returned his career best figures of 8/31 in the second. The selectors did not include him for the first Test, but called on him for the second and subsequent Tests. His aggregate of 11/79 in the fourth Test at the MCG remained the best figures for an Australian against the West Indies until 1988-89. For the series he captured 22 wickets at 14.68 runs apiece and in all first-class games that season he took 68 wickets at an average of 14.29.

Ironmonger claimed a further 63 wickets when the South Africans toured Australia in 1931-32. His best performances were 10 wickets for Victoria against the tourists and 11/24, comprising 5/6 and 6/18, in the Fifth Test. Damp conditions played into Ironmonger's hands on the latter occasion, but even so the analysis underlined just what he could do when the opportunity arose. Omitted from the side for the first Test of the 1932-33 series against England, he was recalled for the second in Melbourne when his batting in Australia's second innings created some much-remembered publicity. Bradman was still two runs short of his century when Ironmonger, the last man in, joined him and 'Dainty' was the last player who could be expected to hold up an end for such an important occasion. The veteran assured 'The Don' that he would get his century and kept his word. Ironmonger was run out without scoring and Bradman finished with 103 not out, his sole century in that series. While not as potent as he had been against the West Indies and South Africa, Ironmonger justified his Test place with 15 wickets at 27 runs each in the 'Bodyline' series. This gave him 74 wickets at an average of 17.97 in Tests and made him one of the rare individuals to take more wickets than the total runs he scored. In that area Ironmonger hit 42 runs at an average of 2.62.

Much of Ironmonger's career had been spent in partnership with Don Blackie, also born in 1882 and a Test debutant at 46, in club and interstate games. The VCA acknowledged the worth of the pair by staging a testimonial game at the MCG in 1933-34 between Richardson's XI and Woodfull's XI. Both players received $1816 as a result although the match was a let-down for Ironmonger who hurt a leg after failing to take a wicket - 0/88 from 26 overs - and had to retire from the game. He played his final game for Victoria against NSW in Sydney later that season, taking 1/86 - the wicket of Jack Fingleton - in the home side's sole innings of 8/672 (dec). Ironmonger played one more season with St Kilda and in 1935-36 was part of the first Australian team to tour India. By this stage he was 53 and illness confined him to only three first-class games. On returning home he joined the Brunswick Club in Melbourne's Sub-District Association where he took 62 wickets at 9.53 each in 1936-37. Later he became an umpire. A grandstand built at the St Kilda Cricket Ground in 1934 was named the Blackie-Ironmonger Stand in honour of the two outstanding bowlers. Blackie lived until he was 73, but Ironmonger survived until May 31, 1971when he died at St Kilda aged 89.

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