1884 saw the 8th Ashes series and again Lillywhite, Shaw and Shrewsbury (captain) organised another tour to Australia. However this time Lillywhite concentrated on umpiring and Shaw although playing in a few minor games was the tour manager. Like the home series earlier in the summer England assembled a very strong side, indeed it was the strongest to tour Australia at that time. Six players came from Notts, four from Yorkshire and one each from Lancashire and Surrey After playing a match in Suez the team arrived in Adelaide to hear the grim news that Fred Morley (broke his rib on the last tour) had died.

Adelaide saw it's first test Match and Australia' eighth as Shrewsbury captained the side. McDonnell continued his form for Australia, as he became the first player to score two centuries in successive innings with a knock of 124. However Australia were bowled out for a score of 243 and England had no trouble in passing the score and ended their innings on 369, Barnes scoring 134. Again McDonnell played well in the second innings scoring 83 runs before being run out, unfortunately no one else managed to display the same kind of form and Australia struggled to 191. England requiring only 65 runs to win reached their target with the loss of only two wickets.

In-between the first and second Test match trouble broke out regarding the amount the Australian players were to be paid. Lillywhite and Shaw were hoping to make a nice profit from the tour and were loathed to agree to pay the Australian's the same amount as the touring party. Murdoch (captain of Australia) however disagreed, even though the majority of Australia agreed that the touring side should be paid more. The result being that 9 players made their debut for Australia in the Second Test. England proved too strong for the Australians and scored 401 in their first innings, Briggs scoring 121. Australia were forced to follow on after scoring 279 and were totally out of the game after being bowled out for 126 in their second innings. England only required 6 runs for a second victory in the series and managed to score them without the loss of a wicket.

Four of the 'missing' Australians agreed to play at Sydney in the Third Test match of the series. Demon bowler Spofforth was one of the four and soon made up for lost time as he ended the match with figures of 10 - 134, Australia pulling a game back in the series, winning by 6 runs. Apart from the defeat, it wasn't a happy England dressing room as Barnes, by far England's best bowler (9 wickets in the previous test) had a row with Shrewsbury and refused to bowl.

On to the 4th Test match, again played in Sydney. Barnes made up with Shrewsbury, enough to bowl again! England scored 269 runs in the first innings and were looking good as Australia soon found themselves 6 - 119. Unfortunately things changed for England when George Bonner came to the wicket. He scored the fastest test century to date in only 100 minutes, and his score of 128 gave his team a first innings lead of 40 runs. England were caught on a drying pitch and Palmer and Spofforth (the two main thorns to English cricket at the time) bowled continuously to dismiss them for 77. Australia won by 8 wickets.

The series tied at 2 games all now entered new test Match ground. Not only was this the first 5 match series but it was also the first time both sides had won their own share of the first four matches. Melbourne ( a favourite ground of England's) hosted the 5th and final game. One other interesting fact about the Australian side, they had a different captain in each of the 5 game series, Horan coming back for the last game.

Australia were struggling and managed to gain a little respectability when Trumble and Spofforth put on 64 runs for the last wicket, taking Australias score to a mere 163 runs. England added to Horan's woes as they piled on the runs, Shrewsbury scoring a century (105) out of a final total of 386. Australia were bowled out for 125, England winning by an innings and 98 runs. Series won 3 - 2 (England). Some interesting fact surrounded this final Test match, Jarvis (WK) became the second player to take a catch and dismiss one of his team-mates while fielding as substitute. Hodges the umpire refused to stand after tea on the third day due to criticism flowing from the England quarters.