2nd Ashes Test , Lords, June 1961

On Foxsports at the moment...

Lawry, Harvey, O'Neill, Davidson, MacKay, Grout, McKenzie for the Aussies, and Dexter, Cowdrey, Illingworth, Lock, and Trueman for the Poms...

Great stuff...

scorecard

Very underrated series. First Oz series win in England since the Invincibles. Both Garth & Phantom's debuts in a Lord's Test which made their performances even more remarkable. FST went on to level the series on what many (especially Ozzies) thought was a pre-cooked surface at Headingley before Benaud produced his own brand of magic bowling into FST's footholds at OT to snatch victory from what should have been an England win.

Was great. Watched it last night meself. Great innings by Bull. The lack of post wicket celebrations in matches back then is amusing and perhaps refreshing.

Yes, Test cricket was another country in those days, Skulls, especially in England where umpires ruled the roost with a rod of iron. No Syd Buller, the most formidable umpire of them all who, after Lawry complained that his bat had never touched the ball when given out caught behind at The Oval in 1968, replied:

well, you're out lbw then

and who had no-balled Geoff Griffin out of the South African tour and virtually out of fc cricket on the same ground the year before but there was his opposite number, the former Derbyshire player, Charlie Elliott, who, oddly, became an England selector from 1975-80. No bias there, then. He died on New Year's Day 2004 at the age of 91.

If you missed it, the good news is it's on again early Sat morning, with the even more dramatic fourth Test from that series straight afterwards.

Watching the young Bull, tall, left-handed, in those days full of shots especially straight-bat down the wicket, proboscally enhanced, you get some idea how Matty Elliott got compared to him early days.

The hand-written on screen scorecard showed just how long ago 1961 was. So too did Brian Close's incredibly clumsy attempt to hit Benaud out of the attack at OT - then it was just boof-headed, bone-headed batting. Today it would raise more questions.

Allan D wrote:Very underrated series. First Oz series win in England since the Invincibles. Both Garth & Phantom's debuts in a Lord's Test which made their performances even more remarkable. FST went on to level the series on what many (especially Ozzies) thought was a pre-cooked surface at Headingley before Benaud produced his own brand of magic bowling into FST's footholds at OT to snatch victory from what should have been an England win.

AD (or anyone)

I once heard FST say that the footmarks that Benaud bowled into werent FST's (as he had mainly bowled at the same end as Richie)...and that the Australians had said they were Fred's as a way of panicking the pom selectors into dropping Trueman for the last Test (which they did) ...any idea if this was some Freddie not letting the facts ruin a good story or a well thought out trick by the Ozzies ???

I think the truth was somewhere in the middle. Certainly that Test was not one of Freddie's finest performances as he returned match figures of 1-147 and, on that performance alone, deserved to be dropped, despite having taken 11 wickets in the Test before on a much friendlier surface (the selectors evidently picked players on a Test-by-Test basis in those days).

Like Old Trafford, The Oval became more amenable to spin as the game wore on and England had gone into the Old Trafford Test a spinner light, picking only the 'offie' David Allen and three quicks in Trueman, Statham and the Worcestershire opener, Jack Flavell, for his first Test. It made sense to drop one of the fast bowlers for the Oval game and bring in Tony Lock, who still played for Surrey, to partner Allen.

Sadly rain on the 3rd & 4th days as well as 117 from Norman O'Neill and,especially, 181 from Peter Burge were to ruin England's hopes of levelling the series. 3 years later Burge was to win the series, ironically at Headingley, when Dexter made the mistake of taking Titmus, against whom Burge was noticeably struggling, off in Oz' 1st innings and bringing Trueman back on. Burge made 160, giving Oz a precious 121-run lead which proved decisive.

The notorious footholds into which Benaud bowled at OT '61 were just as likely to have been Flavell's, who bowled 29.4 overs in Oz' 2nd innings as FST's. Indeed they could have equally been Allen's, as he bowled close to the stumps and bowled 38 overs, an amazing 25 of which were maidens. Oz ground out the runs on the 4th day making 268 for the loss of 6 wickets and opened the 5th day only 154 ahead of England's 1st innings. They managed to put on another 101 vital runs, as it turned out, largely thanks to an entertaining last wicket stand of 98 between Davidson and McKenzie.

Whatever the truth about the footholds, and the roughened wicket, a common phenomenon after all in county cricket, there was no real excuse for a collapse from 150-1 to 201 all out. Sadly that has been the besetting sin of English cricket ever since, including the last but one ODI against India.

Cheers, AD. An interesting read. That 98 stand between Davo and Garth to give Benaud something to bowl at was one of my old man's favourite memories of cricket. He listened to it in the wee small hours on his neighbour's crackly wireless (well before my folks got their first TV).

And cheers, Nerky. I will tape those old classics on Sat morning.

skully wrote:Cheers, AD. An interesting read. That 98 stand between Davo and Garth to give Benaud something to bowl at was one of my old man's favourite memories of cricket. He listened to it in the wee small hours on his neighbour's crackly wireless (well before my folks got their first TV).

And cheers, Nerky. I will tape those old classics on Sat morning.

I think I listened during the night on my 'crystal set'....they were much tougher in the nursing homes of 50 years ago and I got caught and was in trouble for listening and cheering

Were you given a soapy enema and put on a diet of gripe water and salty porridge? Ah, I remember it well. Sadly, despite many requests I am not allowed to return.

Allan D wrote:Were you given a soapy enema and put on a diet of gripe water and salty porridge? Ah, I remember it well. Sadly, despite many requests I am not allowed to return.

You wanted another soapy enema?

One is never enough.