1912 saw a different format and not strictly a battle for the Ashes as South Africa toured England and joined the host and Australia in the first Triangular Test competition. Unfortunately the competition was hampered by rain and England won the tournament. For reasons of continuity I won't talk about the other matches and will concentrate on the three matches played between England and Australia.

At the time Australian cricket was going through a hard time as rows between players, selectors and the Australian board seemed to be a way of life at the time. Clem Hill, (left)captain and selector in 1911 - 1912 and Peter McAlister a selector came to blows and a fistfight ensued, all over whether players would be allowed their own manager, namely Frank Laver. The players were in favour of Laver but because he had according to McAlister crossed the board on the 1905 tour, members of the board were not in favour of Laver. Because of this situation, top players Hill, Trumper, Armstrong, Cotter and Carter declined to tour in protest. The result being a second eleven in effect was sent to England to compete for the Ashes.

In the first Test match between England and Australia at Lord's, Hobbs scored 107 and Rhodes 59 in a total of 310 for the loss of seven wickets and declared. But due to the great British summer, rain intervened and the Australian's were unable to complete their innings and were left high and well wet on 282 for seven, Macaretney having scored 99 and Kelleway 61. The match was drawn.

In the second match at Old Trafford, the rain was even worse and only 5 hours of play were possible. England again batted first and struggled on a sticky wicket to 203 all out, Rhodes top scoring with 92 and both Haazlitt and Whitty getting 4 wickets each. Australia were 14 without loss in reply when the match was called off. Once again the match was drawn.

The third and final match held at the Oval was very much a one sided affair as England dominated in a low scoring game. Hobbs and Rhodes had once again scored a century partnership for the opening wicket but as soon as they fell the team struggled to 245 all out. In reply Australia struggled with fine bowling from the English bowlers and both Barnes and Woolley ended with 5 wickets each as Australia collapsed for 111. England then scored 175 with Hazlitt taking 7 wickets for Australia which brought them back into the game. Unfortunately for the tourists the wicket was now so bad that getting 310 on it seemed an impossible task and when Woolley took 5 wickets it was all over for the Australian's as they fell for 65 runs, 244 runs short.

The tournament was such a failure that no authorities attempted anything like it again, well not until one day matches were invented and the World Cup was born in 1975! One other intersting point was that this was the last series contested between England Australia until after the First World War.