trip to Australia, the touring team stopped in South Africa to play three Tests, the first between the two nations. In the second Test at Johannesburg, Armstrong scored 159, just over half the Australian score of 309 and carried his bat through the innings as Australia won the Test by 159 runs. Australia won the Test series two–nil. On return to Australia for the 1902–03 season, he made 580 runs at an average of 58 and 23 wickets at an average of just over 19. The highlights of his season included 145 against Queensland and a hat-trick against New South Wales. Plum Warner's English team toured Australia in 1903–04, the first to do so under the auspices of the Marylebone Cricket Club. The strong English team defeated Australia three–two, retrieving the Ashes. Armstrong did not have a good series. He was tormented by Rhodes, who dismissed him eight times in ten meetings for Victoria and Australia that summer. As a result, he was dropped from the Australian XI after the Third Test. Returning to club cricket, Armstrong found form, scoring 438 in only 455 minutes for Melbourne against University, from a total score of 699 for eight. In the 1904–05 season, Armstrong scored 460 runs at 57.5 for Victoria to secure selection for the 1905 tour of England. Consolidation and conflict The 1905 Australians left for England, leaving behind the beginnings of a conflict between players and administrators over control of cricket that would poison the sport in Australia for the next ten years. While previous tours of England had been underwritten by the Melbourne Cricket Club and organised by the players, the new Australian Board of Control was asserting its right to control Australian cricket. Armstrong, finding himself promoted to number five in the batting order, started the tour well with 112 against Nottinghamshire and 248 against Gentlemen of England at Lord's. In the first Test at Trent Bridge, Australia's lack of effective bowling options had Armstrong forced to bowl wide outside the leg stump in an early form of leg theory bowling to prevent the England batsmen from scoring quickly. Bumbling and taciturn, Armstrong maintained an accurate line and length, and put a strangle on both England's run-scoring and the crowd's entertainment. It was a recurrent pattern for the rest of the series, and lead to what was seen by spectators and the press as dull cricket. Batsmen