tiring of what he perceived as persecution, retired from first-class cricket. The tour did not include any Test matches, although a match was played against a representative New Zealand team. Australia won every game, save a draw against Canterbury. Armstrong, more diplomatic as captain than some commenters had been expecting, turned down a lucrative offer to coach the Auckland team. The Melbourne Cricket Club found Armstrong a job as "pavilion clerk". His duties were broadly defined in order to allow him to meet his representative cricket obligations. These included matches against the touring South Africans, scheduled to play five Tests in 1910–11. The first Test saw Australia win by an innings and 114 runs thanks mainly to an innings on 191 from Hill and eight wickets to Bill Whitty. Armstrong nearly missed the second Test in Melbourne with a case of mumps. He recovered, and although still unwell managed to score 75 and take 4–134 from 48 overs. In the fourth Test, Armstrong compiled another century, 132 including a partnership of 154 with Hill. Australia won the series comfortably, winning four of the five Test matches with their only loss at Adelaide by 38 runs. Returning to cricket after his self-imposed exile, Victor Trumper was the leading player for the Australians during the series scoring 661 runs at an average of 94. The English team returned to Australia the following season to compete for the Ashes with Pelham Warner once again captain of a very strong English team that included bowlers Sydney Barnes and Frank Foster. Warner suffered from an illness early in the tour and handed the captaincy to Johnny Douglas. After losing the first Test, England won the remaining four Tests comfortably. In the second Test at Melbourne, Armstrong played one of his best Test innings. Facing exceptional bowling from Foster and Barnes, he made a nerveless 90, including 14 boundaries, before being dismissed by Foster. While this series took place, the Board of Control made plans to usurp the commonly accepted rights of the players to appoint a manager when touring England. The hostility between the players and the board saw a fist fight break out between Clem Hill and Peter McAlister at a selection meeting. When the Board announced that George Crouch would be manager of the Australian team for the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England, rather than the player's choice, Frank Laver, outright rebellion ensued.