wickets and top scored in both innings (25* and 17*), but it was not enough to secure victory. The Melbourne media castigated Wills for allowing the game to resume, and Sydneysiders called him a turncoat for reneging on an earlier promise to play for New South Wales. He denied all accusations and wrote in an angry letter to The Sydney Herald: "I for one do not think that Victoria will ever send an Eleven up here again." Back in Victoria, he became engaged to Julie Anderson, a squatter's daughter. He seems to have done so to meet familial expectations. Even so, he was chided by his siblings for prioritising cricket over courtship. In May, as his mother grew concerned over his neglect of Cullin-la-ringo, Wills extended his sojourn south to play football in Geelong. Wills finally returned to Queensland in May and was sworn in as a Justice of the Peace upon arrival in Brisbane. Over the next few months at Cullin-la-ringo, he reported to the press at least three fatal Aboriginal attacks on local colonists, a shepherd of his numbering among the victims. He accosted government officials for failing to send a native police detachment to his station for protection, and scorned city-dwellers for sympathising with the plight of Aboriginal people in the Nogoa region. With the cricket season approaching, Wills agreed to captain Queensland against New South Wales, and then left the colony to lead a Victoria XXII at the MCG against George Parr's All-England Eleven. In awe of his 1,800 mile dash across the continent to play cricket, the English thought it a madman's journey. Wills arrived on the final day of the match to a rapturous reception, and went in as a substitute fielder. He then joined the visitors on their Victorian tour. The 1863–64 season saw Wills' engagement to Anderson collapse, possibly due to his womanising, and the trustees of Cullin-la-ringo accused him of mismanaging the property, in part by squandering family finances on alcohol while claiming it as station expenditure. They demanded that he stay in Victoria to answer for the property's runaway debt. In response, Wills left Australia to join Parr's XI on a month-long tour of New Zealand. Initially standing in as umpire, he went on to captain local teams against the English, and filled the same role for a Victoria XXII at the end of the tour in Melbourne. He faced