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Home , Adam Lyth, Andrew Caddick, Angus Fraser, Archie MacLaren, Bob Willis, Brian Statham

No 29 January 26 2021. The Virtual Wisdener

The Newsletter of the Wisden Collectors’ Club

big apology for the delay in geng this edion out, A my plan was to send it in the first week in January Wisdenworld Website but things have been a smidgen hecc. www.wisdenworld.co.uk

As you can see on the right hand side there Is an updated Wisdenworld website going live tomorrow. I have also Back in 2019 I decided to have a new Wisdenworld decided that the ongoing frustraons with the Wisden website built - well aer 15 months, lots of delays Collectors’ Club website have become a real nuisance so a and a design company that want to discuss new site will be up and coming, hopefully by early March. everything from what brand of tea to have during our zoom meeng to what size font I want on my But there are far more interesng things going on. name…at last it is almost ready to go live. The v series. India aer being skiled out It is fundamentally the same, but just a lile brighter for 36 in the first Test bounce back to win the series, what and, hopefully, easier to use, along with some added a recovery and especially without Kohli. Sadly the match features reports in the newspapers of the last few days of the final Test have highlighted once again that Australian cricketers In fact, it should be up and running by tomorrow - sll have certain things that need addressing, like a lack of Wednesday, the 27th - the exisng site is very much manners, a disregard for fairness and a bully-boy atude sll acve and working fine and it will do so unl then. that seems so out-of-place in the modern world. The most important thing to point out is that I do find it a bit baffling that in the 21st , aesthecally it will be a lile different but it is sll me or whatever anyone wishes to call it, is sll a part of the and again, you DO NOT need to log in or have a game. Just ban it! With the technology available scrap the password to use it. That is the case with the current fines and just give the offending team a penalty. site, but I just wanted to make it clear. I believe it is called ‘geng under a players’ skin’ - is that the same as a footballer faking injury to get an opposion Some important points re the new website player booked or sent off? It all hides under the headings of ‘banter’ or ‘sportsmanship’ - personally I find it dull. A *As with the current site you DO NOT need to log in to wonderful, vang performance by India should be buy or view Wisdens. applauded and I cannot wait for to start the tour. *There will be a more comprehensive grading system for each and every Wisden, with an explanaon as to Talking of which, , and India how Wisdens are graded as they are. are all in the UK this summer and of course we have the *Photographs will be larger and if there are any final of the Test Match Championship - New Zealand specific issues or faults with a Wisden, these will be currently top the table, but here is a queson, does highlighted, for transparency. anyone know how it is all worked out? Does anyone care? *Anyone missing any edions of the Virtual Wisdener The answers to the Bumper Quiz are on Page 10 and if will be able to download it/them via the website. anyone who entered does not receive their £10 voucher by *The photographs will be sharper. the end of the week, please let me know. If you have any feedback on the site, likes and don't Libs went back to Nongham just before Boris made the likes, issues or the like, please, please let me know. big Lockdown 2.1 announcement and Abbey is home with us. We are fortunate that we are keeping busy and we can only hope that the vaccine connues apace and this year gets easier, as I have said previously, let’s hope for normal. Bill and the Furmedge girls

A teaser for you and one fortunate winner, drawn out of Bill’s Walking Bobble Hat will receive a 2021 Wisden in standard hardback or so back and if you have already ordered and paid for it, a full refund will be given. Two names are missing from this list of cricketers, who are they and ‘what is the link between them all?’ , , , , , , , , , Ben Ducke, Haseeb Hameed, and

Please look at Page for how to send in your answers

1 The Batsmans Holding the Bowlers Willey

ustralian Prime Minister and renowned - number ... that is on fire, parked by the tree, please A lover Bob Hawke was ecstac at the success of move it before the fire spreads. ’ the resurrected Prime Minister's XI match on January 24. The matches, started by Sir in Whilst the problem of‘sledging’ appears to be rearing 1951, had lasted unl 1965 before lack of interest by its ugly head again, what do you do if it’s from one of successive Prime Ministers had caused them to lapse. your own team mates? Paul Jarvis, the former This year, a record 14,482 people packed into opening bowler, was heard to shout Canberra's ny Manuka Oval to see the side selected encouragement to his partner Mark Robinson during a by Mr Hawke and , the chairman of the county match, much to the amusement of the Australian selectors, overwhelm the touring West Headingley crowd: ‘Robbo, give the your Indians by 52 runs in a contest full of fun and good handbag and in.’ cricket. The was enough to cause Mr Hawke to suggest Estate agent John Baldry has tried to sue the that he and Ridings be given the task of picking Cricket Ground Trust for the six shillings he paid to see Australian teams in the future. It was the first me this the last day of the Fih England-Australia Test match. season that any Australian side had managed to defeat Mr Baldry, who also claimed 34s for expenses incurred the mighty West Indians, who admiedly operated on in seeing the day’s play, contended that the trust had low-octane fuel because of injuries to many players. failed to honour a promise to provide bright cricket. and super batsman But at Paddington Court in Sydney, his solicitor was both turned out at the PM's request, although carrying told the ground was outside the court’s jurisdicon. Mr injuries. Two days earlier. Smokin' Joe had turned in Baldry said a fresh claim would be filed. the of the season in the limited-overs Mr Baldry said ‘Neither side made any aempt to win.’ internaonal at the Cricket Ground, He added: ‘Mine will be a test case.’ smashing the Australian aack for 106 runs from only (The Age, April 1963). 96 deliveries, with 12 fours and a six. His effort set up a 26-run victory a gallant Australian team led by A set of the first fieen (1864-78) Wisden facsimiles, (71) and (60). (the Lowe and Brydon set) went for a hammer price of £892. Apart from Mr Hawke, who turned his hand to (The equivalent price today would be £2470) television commentary during the Canberra match, the star was the young Tasmanian , who hit 134 We wait with baited breath for the announcement of from 136 balls against an aack that included Michael last month’s For Women circulaon. The magazine that Holding, and Winston Davis. Boon, who covered, or uncovered, almost all of Chris Lewis’s most was considered in some quarters unlucky not to make prominent features has a circulaon of 148,000. Each the touring side to West Indies, at least staked a claim issues figures are not released unl 90 days aer for a place in the Australian side in the later limited- publicaon - but our mole at WH Smith;s, one of the overs WSC Internaonals. The Australians with Greg main distributors, tells me that Chris’s cheeky pose has Chappell, and Jeff Thomson playing had housewives rushing to the shops. together for the last me, scored 280-5. A brilliant (The Cricketer, September 1993) spell by Lillee (2-21 from 10 overs) helped retract the tourists to 228-8. Instead of holding up placards reading 4 or 6 when

boundaries are hit, a group of stascian spectators at Mike Garnham the former player recounts the the 2003 World Cup held up yellow cards embellished following story. Whilst imbibing in a hospitality with a black dot. They had worked out that in 90% of marquee at the close of a days play one day he was One-Day Internaonals the team which bowls the engaged in conversaon by an aracve young lady: most ‘dot-balls’ wins. ‘What do you do?’ Australia’s price of 2,000-1 on, to beat Holland at ‘I’m the Essex -keeper. ’ Potchefsstroom on February 20th 2003 during a World ‘Does that mean you take the stumps home with you Cup group match are believed to be the shortest odds at night?’ ever offered during a live cricket match. Needing 196 in Mr Garnham was speechless. 36 overs the Dutch were 118-9 in 30. In the same compeon a punter put £6,995 on A bizarre announcement once came over a public England to beat Namibia at odds of 300-1 on. The address system during a match at Basingstoke: successful bet won £23. ‘Would the owner of the Land-cruiser, registraon

2

Andrew Caddick’s omission from the England party to The VW would like to thank Somerset (and Andrew tour Australia was not a complete surprise, for despite Caddick) supporter Mike Walsh for sending in this arcle performances which, effecve enough in the from 1998, wrien by David Green. Caddick’s omission first part of the season, became systemacally from the 1998-99 Ashes party was headline news. But it destrucve in the second, there was no point at which could be argued that he came back a beer Test match the selectors seemed likely to call on him for the Tests bowler once recalled to the England side in the summer of against . 1999. I spoke at length with Caddick before Somerset’s game bowled prey well. Selecon for the West Indies tour against Derbyshire at Taunton in August. He was was a formality and all seemed set fair. naturally very anxious as to whether he would get on the tour. ‘When I was omied from the First Test in Things, though, turned out very differently. Caddick early June,’ said Caddick, ‘Chairman of Selectors David bowled poorly at , failing to take a wicket Graveney said he would be coming to have a talk with on a helpful pitch in a game England might have won. me. He eventually came to see me three months later He responded with more effecve bowling, parcularly and I think that was because he had seen a piece I in the second Trinidad match which England won, but wrote for the Western Morning News in which I there were rumours that he was not easy to get along referred to the chat that hadn’t taken place. I felt really with and did not react well to cricism. More isolated but I just kept on bowling and taking importantly, his control of length and line had been and hoping for the best.’ suspect throughout the trip and he was not completely taken So effecvely did Caddick aback when he was not in the perform that his first-class party for the First Test against wicket tally of 105 was 44 more South Africa. than that of any other quick bowler selected for Australia Some of us who had watched ahead of him. Caddick playing for Somerset in Overs bowled can be a fair 1997, when he had taken plenty measure of a player’s value, for of wickets for them but had paid ineffecve bowlers are soon around 28 runs for each, had whipped out of the aack while noced that his upper body was those that lack heart can always unstable at mes at the find reasons for not bowling. moment of . We saw Caddick’s Championship total of this as being the sort of 687 overs was 43 more than any other England difficulty which very tall fast bowlers have frequently qualified fast bowler. encountered. This problem, of which he said he was unaware, grew more acute in the West Indies but went For all ’s magnificent efforts in the Test undiagnosed by anyone in the England party. matches, the English bowler of the season was Andrew Caddick, as far as virtually every cricket writer I have ‘I’d worked out that something was wrong but couldn’t spoken to on the county circuit is concerned. How did put my finger on it,’ Caddick told me, ‘but at pre- he come to find himself so far out in the cold? season nets at Taunton “Mushy” (Mushtaq Ahmed) spoed it straightaway and told me what was wrong. His problems began in earnest on last winter’s tour of Apparently, in my pre-delivery wind-up, I had started the West Indies. Prior to that his record in Tests had taking my bowling arm out sideways and when it came been patchy, but punctuated with enough bursts of back in, the movement caused my shoulders to pivot in success to hint that he might become a real asset at a horizontal plane, as when you turn to look at that level. someone.’

A tough bapsm against Australia in 1993, when five What was happening was that if he released the ball wickets in three Tests cost 97 apiece, was followed by early it fired off down the leg side while a later release useful work in the West Indies the following winter. His sent it wide of off stump. Only if the release was 5 for 63 in West Indies’ second innings at perfectly med could the ball be straight. contributed greatly to England’s win which was Caddick’s first taste of victory aer seven Tests. ‘I concentrated therefore on keeping everything in a vercal plane to ensure that I was lined up between Caddick then missed out on a couple of tours but was wicket and wicket. Straightaway my line improved and recalled to the England side in New Zealand in early ’97 so did my confidence.’ All has been well since but it is and played five Tests against Australia the following curious that, with all the experience available to summer. In those he took 24 wickets at 26 each and England bowlers abroad, a basic fault was not spoed. 3 Caddick told me that, following the adjustment to his Though Test trials have been played intermiently they acon, he bowled well from the start of this season have generally been seen to be of doubul value and but he felt that the luck did not run his way. ‘I kept the Championship has historically been the proving firing away at off stump, though,’ he told me, ‘and the ground for Test cricketers. wickets suddenly began to come.’ That is pung it There have been selecons which took no account of mildly. county form, as when A.C. MacLaren, captain of the Aer nine Championship matches Caddick had taken 1901/02 tour to Australia, plucked S.F. Barnes out of 38 wickets at 28 apiece, useful figures but not league cricket, but they have hitherto been few and far spectacular. In Somerset’s next four matches, played between. during the Fourth and Fih Tests against South Africa, Since 1980 Caddick took 33 wickets - he actually bowled in only there have seven innings - at 15 runs apiece but even so he could been not change the selectors’ minds. concerted Caddick’s disappointment was immense but that didn’t moves to prevent him from connuing to give his all for his side. make county Following the announcement of the touring party he cricket more completed match figures of 9 for 163 against like Test Derbyshire, 11 for 111 against Worcestershire and 10 cricket, so as for 101 against . to provide a beer grounding for potenal Test Reasons for Caddick’s omission, if not jusficaon for players. Since then covering of pitches has been it, may be advanced on account of temperament, for introduced, then came the paral introducon of four- he is not naturally gregarious and can appear brusque. day cricket and finally, since 1993 we have had four- ‘That may be part of it,’ he agreed. ‘I don’t show day cricket exclusively in the Championship. emoon much and emoon seems to be the fashion. With the domesc game now so closely mirroring Test But just because I don’t burst into tears when we lose cricket one would think that more noce would be it doesn’t mean that I don’t care.’ Caddick is oen taken of what happens in the Championship. In fact, described as grumpy but as his county captain Peter the reverse seems to be true. In the past two seasons Bowler says: ‘Okay, Andy can be grumpy but so can I two highly promising cricketers, Ben Hollioake and and so can most people. The main thing for me is that Andrew Flintoff, have been given Test debuts having he always wants to bowl and he always bothers the had only the briefest of careers in . opposion.’ Cricket, of course, was never a fair game but That the England selectors can ignore the consistent nevertheless one feels great sympathy for the outcast form of a quick bowler whose Test figures - 74 wickets Caddick and concern too that his absence will weaken at 32 runs each, including three five-wicket hauls England’s aack. Certainly (Pictured, against West Indies and two against Australia - are above) , whom Caddick dismissed five mes in the respectable to say the least, raises a worrying queson 1997 series in England, will not be too displeased at his about their atude to performances in the County omission. Championship.

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4 Wisden’s Lost Cricketer

When Wisden Cricketers' Almanack editor Mahew Type to enter textAn interesng arcle from the original Engel decided to invite a group of the oldest surviving Wisden Cricket Monthly, back in 1994. Cricketers of the Year to the dinner to launch the 1994 edion it was felt that lile difficulty would be it seems probable that they were related to Captain experienced in tracing the relevant ex-players. Purely Robert Calder of Southwick, elected a member of the on age, R. E. S. Wya, born May 2,1901, seemed to top famous Hambledon Club in 1783. Henry Calder the list, and he was delighted to aend the dinner — subsequently emigrated to South Africa, captaining although there seemed lile doubt that Harold Western Province in the Currie Cup before seling in Larwood, Cricketer of the Year in 1927, was the longest and playing for Eastern Province. survivor. He was unable to travel from Sydney. In 1914 the Calder family moved back to the UK and It was pointed out to the Wisden authories, however, Harry was sent to Cranleigh School. He immediately that of all the Cricketers of the Years, one was won a place in the 1915 cricket XI and, bowling what unaccounted for. His name? H. L. Calder, of Cranleigh, he describes as a mixture of off-break, leg-break and chosen as one of the five Public Schools Bowlers of the topspin at medium-pace, he headed the school Year in the 1918 edion. averages with 30 wickets at 13.11. In 1916 he was again first, 48 wickets at 9.75, while his 36 wickets at It may be of interest to explain why schoolboys were 10.08 in 1917 earned him a photograph in Wisden. In chosen in the first place. It was simply that the absence 1918 he surrendered top place but sll took 33 wickets of first-class cricket during the Great War le a gap, at 9.30, and in 1919, his final year, he returned to the and social condions being as they were, few top with 26 wickets at 9.85, finishing his school career eyebrows would have been raised when the 1918 and with 173 wickets at 10.32, a fine return indeed. Asked 1919 edions each included a photograph and short about his bang, Harry Calder uses the word biography of five outstanding public-school cricketers 'haphazard', but he played some useful innings. of the previous season. In addion to Calder, the 1918 players were G. T. S. Stevens of UCS School, Aer leaving school he worked for the London Wall subsequently of Middlesex and England; J. E. D'E. Firth, branch of Bank, and played some club cricket Winchester, who was to play a few matches for for Richmond, but in 1921 the family returned to South and Nos; G. A. Rotherham, of Rugby, a future Africa, seling in , where Harry Cambridge and player; and C. H. Gibson, connued to work for Barclays. His father, a member of of Eton, who was to play with success for Cambridge the Wanderers Club, tried to persuade Harry to join, and Sussex, before becoming a stalwart of Argennian but all he saw was 'a sea of gravel', so decided instead cricket. to sck to tennis and golf. Barring occasional games for the Bank and later for the Vacuum Oil Company, he The lives and careers of these four have been well played no more serious cricket. During the war Harry documented, and all had been dead for some years. served with the South African 1st Division in Egypt and Calder, on the other hand, had last been heard of East Africa, and on demobilisaon stayed in the nearly 60 years previously, in Port Elizabeth, South Transvaal unl 1957, when he moved to Africa, so when it was decided to make a check on him and worked for D. Y. Gillespie in the metal and wire — more in hope than real expectaon — a plea for industry unl he was 74. anyone with informaon was placed in the Eastern Province Herald. Harry's father, who returned to in 1934, and died aged 80 in 1938, made him a member of MCC Astonishingly, a friend of Calder's read the arcle, in 1919, paying his £10 entrance fee for him. He does passed it to him, and in April this year a leer was not recall hearing again from MCC unl 1934, when he received by Wisden from none other than 93-year-old received an account for back dues of about £150. Harry Lawton Calder himself, sll with us an incredible Harry ignored the demand — an acon which he 76 years aer being chosen by Wisden, and expressing subsequently regreed. Harry Calder now lives in a his gratude that Wisden had taken so much trouble rest-home in Pinelands, Cape Town. In his 94th year, he to trace him. Calder's survival period beats even has been comparavely inacve since a stroke in 1992, 's: alive 74 years aer appearing. He is prior to which he was sll driving his car. He was given also the oldest current survivor, topping Bob Wya by a tremendous boost on learning of Wisden's search for a few months him and was delighted to supply details of his life since

Harry Lawton Calder was born on Jan 24, 1901, in Port cricket. Elizabeth, into a Hampshire cricket family. His father, And what were his feelings when as a 16-year-old he Henry Calder, was from Southampton and played first- was honoured with his portrait in Wisden? Unl class cricket as a batsman for Hampshire between informed of the fact in 1994, he never even knew! 1882 and 1885, while an uncle was a well-known Hampshire club player at the same me. What is more,

5 Australia v England 1958

ustralia, everybody knows, is an old enemy, A perhaps the Old Enemy. You menon West The Wisdener hopes you like this arcle — with Indies, you think: bowling. You menon South less than aymara way we might just include some other Africa, you think: fielding, and pieces over the months, to get us in the mood. This arcle England’s first win over the classic Test course in 12 comes from 1998 journalist Chris Sandford, who took a years. Australia? Hard men and harder crowds and look back at the 1958 Ashes series. an exhilarang feeling that somehow this is it. The Ashes wears its glory like a badge. almost a generaon, had grown up - Slater, Hitchcox, Tretheway. At , introduced In 1998, England may be shaping up. Forty years ago, himself as ‘the last of the straight-armers’. Over they were the best. Victorious in three successive Christmas, Graveney saw a boy bowling on the beach, rubbers against Australia, their last two home series no more than 10, elbow bent as if hurling a javelin. had been 3-0 and 4-0 routs of, respecvely, West ‘It’s easier,’ he said. Indies and New Zealand. No one had beaten them over the five-Test distance since 1950/51. England lost the First Test by eight wickets. Their bang slumped. Having trailed by 53 in the first England, in Wisden’s words, stood ‘at the top of the innings, the crical phase came on the fourth day, tree' in ’s, ‘no one, for sheer ability, when the tourists were undone for 198. So dire was could compete with May, Cowdrey, Graveney, Bailey, both sides’ tempo that E.W. Swanton felt moved to Lock, Laker, Trueman, Statham’ (and himself). The ask whether victory ‘ was worth the cost in terms of fall, when it came, would be traumac. the sterile play that makes one sick at heart to The 12th MCC party to set sail Down Under watch.' Its centrepiece was , who baed embarked in a fatal mood of over-confidence. Richie for over seven-and-a-half hours for his 68. ‘A classic,’ Benaud recalls: ‘At a me when some of his players, says Evans. 'The public were gravely disappointed,' ability-wise, were on the way down rather than the reported Swanton. way up, was ill-served by the pre-tour Even at this stage, there were signs that the stress of publicity which listed his team as the greatest ever. leadership was geng to May. Iron discipline in terms That kind of adulaon can be worse than cricism’. of curfews and drinking-clubs set up a mood of barely There were ominous and, as it happened, dire contained spleen. Evans and others fumed over the mishaps even before the cricket began. Laker, prior to see-no-evil policy on the chuckers and draggers. selecon, had made it known he wouldn’t go, then In fairness to May, who finished the series with an changed his mind. , having put his average of 40.50, the gloom was hardly lied by name to a tart column in the Daily Mail, was dis- gossip about the presence of his fiancee, invited. Gilligan. ‘Wives on tour’ suddenly became an issue, Sixteen players duly set off on the SS Iberia but and a photo of the two sunbathing by a pool was thanks to injuries to Willie Watson, who damaged a given in evidence that May was aloof from his team. knee on board, and Raman Subba Row, who broke his It led to a suspicion among certain elements of the wrist before the First Test, reinforcements, in Ted press that stuck to his death. Though Cowdrey insists Dexter and John Mormore, were flown out. As ‘no one ever took more care of his men’, the mere Evans says, ‘We were half-knackered before we fact of the slur was there. started.’ The run-up to the Brisbane Test confirmed One down in the series, a further crisis loomed when the early problems. Two state matches sounded the no fewer than four players - alarm that rang connually for the next half- Watson, Subba Row, Arthur decade. Ian Meckiff, a Victorian fast bowler, Milton and Bailey - reported unfit. threw. , , Frank A fih, Laker, nursed an injured Tyson, , Evans all knew it; the spinning finger. Gone, too, were a last approached his captain. ‘Don’t worry,’ number of the enjoyable up- said May, ‘we don’t want a fuss. Besides, he country matches, replaced by isn’t that good.’ Meckiff would take 17 wickets repeat fixtures against the states, in the series. which le the side physically and Against New South Wales MCC encountered mentally jaded in the run-up to Gordon Rorke (Pictured, Right), 6 4ins, Tests. The sight of the daily bowling from 18 yards. (I couldn't play inerary pinned to the dressing- forward to him,’ says Cowdrey, ‘without room wall smulated neither treading on his foot.’) Since 1954/55 a school, body nor brain.

6 For the first me ever, says Evans, ‘some of the charm . Both were promptly ruined when, minutes of touring had gone’, and that from the world’s best before the off, (Below, Central) declared tourist. himself unfit. Over the past fortnight, Evans had had The Second Test began at Melbourne on December 31, treatment for a chip in his finger. But Laker had no such 1958, From 7 for 3, England were remedy for the same afflicon on his shoulder. redeemed by May, who made 113. While the bowler himself According to Wisden, the captain fell always said, ‘Had I played I to a ball which moved in quickly’. would have been leng In Dexter’s more explicit view, down England’, Evans and ‘Meckiff ran, or rather ambled up, others believe it to be a case and Peter, halfway through his back- of ‘Jim losing heart at the key li, lost his middle stump. He looked moment'. Mindful of the astonished, as did those of us injusce of his omission from watching’. the two previous tours of For the record, it was the first century by an England Australia - and of a simmering row with May - Laker, captain in Australia since Archie MacLaren’s at Sydney Evans says, ‘decided to make his point in the most in 1908. For the home side, made 167. dramac way possible’. As the team took the field on Thanks to superior if suspect firepower, Australia won the first day, they aempted to put this ‘shaering by eight wickets and 230,000 spectators aended. blow’ behind them. Aer Melbourne the balloon went up. No tour since The first ball from Statham seamed and shaved the top 1946/47 (when travelled Australia by of Colin McDonald’s (Pictured. Below, Right) middle private Jaguar) knew such dissent between captain and stump. He went on to make 170. Had it been a fracon side. According to Graveney, ‘charming as Peter was, lower and umpire Mclnnes agreed with Evans’s we hardly saw him’. raucous appeals, anything would have been possible. Press relaons, for one, were le exclusively to the As it was, by the end of the first day the series was manager Freddie Brown, a man who Swanton notes effecvely over. with restraint, ‘wasn’t well cast for this parcular Having won the . May had inserted Australia aspect of the job'. (Benaud, himself a journalist on the ‘feeling’, says Graveney, ‘ might do them Sydney Sun, adopted an open-door policy to the for 250’. He did them for 476. England eked out their Australian media. The contrast was obvious.) Facons first-innings 240. formed. The team arrived in Sydney like a man In the follow-on, weighed down by shopping, fumbling for his door-key, they showed hampered by the cat; problems everywhere. more spirit, More followed with the chaos of injuries and though too late. replacements. Two reserves were summoned: Dexter On February 5 from Paris, and on Graveney’s advice, Mormore from Australia won by Bristol. Too late; the former remembers ‘wandering 10 wickets and round, not knowing how to win friends and influence May paid public people’, at least unl his 141 in New Zealand, tribute to the The Third Test began on January 9. It was drawn. Two beer side. crical factors swung the course of the game aer Despite technical England faced a deficit of 138. Meckiff broke down flaws, internal with tendon trouble, and Cowdrey showed his best rucons and form of the tour. other lapses of ‘Colin, like Len Huon before him, could let bowlers English nerve, one get to him,’ says Graveney. ‘But on his day, there was point bears the muscle and flair of greatness.’ In the right vein, repeon: the Cowdrey’s bang was both stylish and stout; endowed umpiring was appalling at Adelaide. with a hawk-like eye and a brute frame, he could lapse The trend had been set in Brisbane. At 75 for 3, into anonymous defence or launch into murderous Cowdrey had pushed forward to Meckiff and Lindsay aack. His unbeaten century at Sydney was Kline pouched the ball at short leg. While the umpires fundamentally sound, even correct, yet savagely tough. consulted and Harvey at cover advised him to stay, Alas for England, it only delayed the inevitable. Cowdrey walked, despite adming later ‘it was the On the morning of January 30, the tour commiee met pad’. At Sydney, Graveney was lbw to a ball he believes to fix the team and taccs for the crucial Fourth Test at ‘would have missed a second set’.

7 That was as nothing compared to Adelaide. On the first can be apporoned to - in no parcular order - day Evans ‘’ and ‘Slasher’ Mackay off extravagant forecasts on the team’s departure; Wardle; deflecons he thought were out; not so Mel Mclnnes. umpiring; injuries; May’s shortcomings; Meckiff; Laker. He, too, confused by the presence of a runner, gave In addion, as Evans says, ‘some of us for whatever Colin McDonald out, realised the batsman had been reason didn’t get going’. Bailey notes: ‘The main behind him, then reversed his decision. Dexter’s reason for our failure was that we never played to our verdict — ‘a great umpire when the tour began, who potenal or as a team’. finished up a moderate one’ — is mild compared to Of the bowlers, Laker took 15 wickets, Statham 12; Graveney’s. ‘It was bad enough for us to have May scored 405 runs, Cowdrey 391, Graveney 280. In protested (as, in 1953, had Australia about Frank parcular England’s first-wicket pairs failed dismally, so Chester) but that wasn’t Peter’s way. He grinned and there was a sense of struggle from the start. With the bore it,’ parcularly when Meckiff took 6 for 38 at ball, Trueman rarely fired on all cylinders. As to wicket- Melbourne with Mclnnes mute at square-leg. keeping, ’s 20 dismissals equalled Don Between the Fourth and final Tests morale touched Tallon’s Australian record for five Ashes Tests; Evans, boom. To have surrendered the Ashes was bad sadly, had lost his boxer’s reflexes and old agility. enough; to have acquiesced in cheang was worse. The party returned with a profit of £16,500. It was Even that, though, paled against events at Melbourne. among the few assets of a series aer which, says England virtually lost before play began, when a car Cowdrey, ‘there seemed to emerge a line of thought wreck involving and Statham ruled them which was to have a profound effect on English cricket out of contenon. for the next decade... It was held to be high me that Later in the match, Bailey and Laker became unfit to certain players were brought down to size’. bowl. It was a sorry and even farcical rout, with pantomime stalking the field as May desperately In the aermath of Australia, Bailey, Laker, Tyson and shuffled his pack. Australia, by contrast, played four Watson would never play for their country again. At fast bowlers (then considered eccentric), who did for the end of 1959 Evans, omied from the winter tour of the tourists for 205 and 214. England lost by nine the West Indies, announced his rerement. Even May wickets. would last only two years. In the next seven years Graveney appeared in exactly seven Tests. As the tour In its report Wisden concluded that 'English wound down there was a definite sense that an era, enthusiasts were le wondering’. Aer 40 years blame too, had ended.

Former player Harry Pilling (Pictured, alongside Clive Lloyd)speaking about his team-mate, Jack Simmons. 'Jack Simmons is the world's worst trainer. He detests it. Trainer Freddie Griffiths had a long run and a short run round the streets to lick us into shape and one pre-season, when I was a bit late back from contract in Tasmania, he told Jack to take me on the short course unl I got into the swing of things. We set off, a packet of fags in Jack’s tracksuit pocket. Jack said “Now I'll show you the short short run.” We cut down a side street, over the railway bridge towards Old Trafford and hid in a corner unl the rest of the lads had gone past. We couldn’t have done more than three quarters of a mile. Jack always had a bad back so he couldn't do sit-ups, a bad knee so he couldn't do squats and a bad shoulder so he couldn't do press-ups. He had no opon one year when an ex-SAS bloke put us through some murderous rounes at RAF Sealand. Aer a morning of that Jack went for a kip in the aernoon and sffened up so much that he couldn't even get off the bed. He just lay there, stricken, like a stranded whale.’ ’Simmons also has an unbelievable appete. He took me to a fish and chip shop in London, like Harry Ramsden's only not as big. We each ordered fish, chips, peas and bread and buer. The fish was huge and I didn't finish it. Jack scoffed all his and then mine. Blow me, he was driving us back down the Edgware Road to our hotel when he suddenly pulled into the kerb. “They sell belng pies there,” he said. Jack leaped into this shop, came back with two steak-and-kidneys and promptly woofed them both. Funny thing though, look at the end of the season and he’s usually played more than anybody.’

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9 BUMPER QUIZ 2020 - Answers

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