The Last Day of Botham's Last Test as England Captain

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63290.html

7th July 1981. A Tuesday.

It was the year of my A Levels, and I suppose I must have been in London staying with my grandmother after exams had finished. About 2 months previously, I had skipped a week of exam revision at school to attend the FA Cup Final Replay between Spurs and Man City, where Ricky Villa had sauntered around the City defence to score what is still one of the best goals at Wembley ever. So it was already a good year for me.

Anyway, I digress. On that Tuesday, I was a bit lost as to what to do. I made up my mind to go into the West End, wandering aimlessly from museum to gallery to museum. But then I thought about the crikkit being in St John's Wood, which wasn't that far away, so I caught a bus there instead. The match was heading to an inevitable bore-draw, but it was only a fiver to get in to see my first ever test match, so that's what I did.

I know I got there late - I'd guess it was about 12 noon. When I look at the scorecard now, I see that there were some gems playing that day, although I must admit that I wasn't that awed by them at the time. Gooch and the late Bob Woolmer had been out the evening before, but Boycott and Gower were at the crease. When Boycs went, Gatting replaced him, and it's amazing to think that that was a full 12 years before the infamous delivery from Warney.

Both Gower and Gatting went with the score on 217, leaving a new partnership of Beefy and Peter Willey. Although I hadn't noticed it at the time, Botham had been applauded on by MCC members despite a first innings 3-ball duck, but soon departed to a first ball golden duck with those same members turning their backs to him. I had no idea of what was going on behind the scenes at the time, obviously, but they're pretty much common knowledge now.

Anyway, England declared just before tea (I think), setting the Aussies a target of 232 to win, or slightly more likely, about 50 overs to survive for the draw.

I seem to recall that I was about the only person in the crowd who thought England might actually do it. 50 overs of a fifth day pitch? That's not a certainty to survive, IMHO.

As it turned out, four of the Aussies seemed inclined to donate the match to us. Dyson out for 1, Yallop out for 3, Kim Hughes out for 4, and Trevor (underarm) Chappell out for 5 (off 69 balls!!). Graeme Wood was the obstinate b'stard who disagreed, and he brought the innings to a conclusion alongside Allan Border when the captains agreed to shake hands.

A fair number of the 22 players on show that game were set to become legends (or at least, semi-legends) of the game. For England, we had Gooch, Boycott, Woolmer (deserves legendary status for later coaching exploits and rather public death), Gower, Gatting, Botham, Willis. On the Aussie side, we had Allan Border, Rod Marsh, Terry Alderman, and Dennis Lillee.

It was interesting, but not exactly an exciting day. The next match was to be at Headingley. I wish I had known then what we all know happened there!

Wow, you did the museums (British? At Russell Square), galleries (?) and more museums (Transport? Covent Garden; Natural History? Science? At South Ken), and got to NW8 by bus for 12-ish, impressive. True, Lord's is not far from the West End, used to walk from Baker Street, sometimes even Oxford Street, home (lived in two different parts of the Wood earlier this century).

filosofee wrote:Wow, you did the museums (British? At Russell Square), galleries (?) and more museums (Transport? Covent Garden; Natural History? Science? At South Ken), and got to NW8 by bus for 12-ish, impressive.

No. I can see now how what I wrote wasn't quite clear, but I was recounting how my first instinct was to do the usual wandering around museums and galleries, but then I followed my second instinct instead to go to Lord's.

[quote="Bertie Ball-Bender"]http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63290.html

I seem to recall that I was about the only person in the crowd who thought England might actually do it. 50 overs of a fifth day pitch? That's not a certainty to survive, IMHO.
quote]

Wow! It must be wonderful to have that kind of unique insight! Amazing to think that no one else in that crowd thought as you did. Must have taken a long time to ask them all though.

ever hopeful wrote:

Bertie Ball-Bender wrote:http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63290.html

I seem to recall that I was about the only person in the crowd who thought England might actually do it. 50 overs of a fifth day pitch? That's not a certainty to survive, IMHO.

Wow! It must be wonderful to have that kind of unique insight! Amazing to think that no one else in that crowd thought as you did. Must have taken a long time to ask them all though.

There weren't many spectators that day.