Posted by Bernard Whimpress on Cricket Remembered, 22 December 2020

In conversation with Sean Ehlers as we were tramping around cricketers’ graves in Adelaide’s West Terrace and North Road cemeteries on Sunday he raised a point about Clem Hill being phtographed by a German photographer. I couldn’t bring the name to mind but last night discovered a few pics in an old box which revealed Ernest Ziegler as the probable snapper. I don’t know the gentlemanly team here – one for Geoff Sando – but the Jack Crawford postcard came with a note from Ziegler to CE Pellew dated 13 December 1912. At first I thought the congratulations might relate to an SA win in a Sheffield Shield winning season but then discovered that Pellew did not debut until the next year. More likely it refers to a St Peter’s victory over Prince Alfred in the annual intercoll in which a 19-year-old Pellew captured a six wicket haul. Ziegler frequently photographed these games (including the teams) and the fact that he sent a Jack Crawford postcard was probably due to the fact that Crawford had coached a younger Pellew during his short-term employment at St Peter’s College after his arrival from England at the end of 1909. As a matter of incidental interest I completed a book on Crawford for my late friend Nigel Hart for the Famous Cricketer Series by ACS. I’d like to think the card was date stamped by none other than George Giffen in the Adelaide Post Office mail room.