Now some of our readers may be surprised to see a cricket card on instead of a Saturday Soccer Star, but actually the cricketer shown played football too, for Arsenal, for he was Denis Charles Scott Compton - or Denis Compton for short.
Middlesex County Cricket Club, or the M.C.C.C., is one of the eighteen teams in modern day cricket. They were founded in February 1864, but teams are known to have played as Middlesex for over a hundred and fifty years before that date. However their first match was not until June 1864, at the Cattle Market in Islington, against Sussex C.C.C. Player of the Day was one of the Walker Brothers, who had been so persistent in starting the club. Since 1877, their home base has been Lords, though they actually share it, with the Marylebone Cricket Club. And they were one of the first teams to join the County Championship as well, which began in 1890.
Hoadley`s Chocolates Ltd were based in Barrackville, Melbourne, and issued cards between 1912 and the late 1940s. They later became associated with Rowntree, at which point some of their cards were branded Rowntree, Hoadley Ltd.
This set is listed in our original Australian and New Zealand Index RB.30, published in 1983, a really valuable little book which includes both tobacco and trade issues.
Hoadley`s issued two versions of this set, a small sized version measuring 64 x 36 m/m which has forty cards and our medium sized one which measures 71 x 44 m/m and has only thirty-six cards.