Carrying on with the cricket theme, a favourite story of mine, often wrongly attributed to Fred Trueman, involved the lightning quick bowler Harold Larwood who terrorised the Aussie batsmen during the infamous 'Bodyline' test series held in 1932/3 in Australia. Bodyline, or leg theory, was specifically designed to combat the incredible prowess of Don Bradman regarded by many as the greatest sportsman of any sport in any era. Some accolade. World class batsmen finish their test careers with an average anywhere between 45 and 65. Bradman achieved
a test lifetime average of 99.94, streets ahead of the next best and, had he scored just 4 runs more in his final innings (he was bowled for a duck), would have achieved the magical 100. I can say with certainty that no one will even come close to that. EVER!!
Bradman possessed incredible hand/eye co-ordination with reflexes that defied description, all of which were honed from a young age by endless hours of practise with a golf ball and a cricket stump. It should also be remembered that Bradman compiled his almost unbelievable stats in an era of uncovered wickets, which caused the ball to behave inconsistently, unpredictably and erratically. Just ask anyone who knows anything about cricket what that means. In short, as an example, you could have two identical balls bowled in succession where the first might go through to keeper at waist height, while the second would rear wickedly and threaten to take the batsman's head off!! Not much fun in an age when no head and face guards were worn and the fastest bowlers were consistently chucking them down at over 90 mph with the ball also seaming.
A batsman would have LESS THAN HALF A SECOND to decide his stroke before playing it. Many good judges contend that, had Bradman been playing today with all the benefits of covered wickets, helmets and the scientifically designed heavy bats etc etc etc, he might well have doubled the average he achieved. Conversely, the best of today's batsmen might be lucky to achieve averages in the 30s had they been playing then.
Anyway, I have digressed (as usual, some mutter
), so back to Larwood. It is testament to him being regarded as the best fast bowler in the world that he was the chosen implement by his captain Douglas Jardine, to try and curtail Bradman in the test series. He was viciously quick but what made him so dangerous was that he was also incredibly accurate with it - not always the case with fast bowlers. I believe that England won the series 4-1 (Bradman still averaged in the 50s) and the Australian public were so incensed with the dangerous, life threatening tactics that Jardine used, their Government of the time actually sent a written protest to the British Government threatening to break off diplomatic relations!!
So here was Harold, from Nottinghamshire, taking a well earned break somewhere south like Kent or Sussex. He happened one Sunday to come across a village green where a game was taking place in a local league, so he stopped to watch. Anyway, one of the teams was a man short and the call went out for someone to make up the numbers. Harold volunteered. Of course, long before the days of telly coverage etc, no one recognised him. His team had batted first and were vainly trying to stop their opponents reaching their total. In desperation, after trying almost everyone else in the team, the Skipper asked Harold if he could bowl. Harold nodded and was thrown the ball. Now Harold was a gent of the old school and was well aware of the limited ability of the batsmen facing him, so he choked his run up to half its usual length and bowled gentle seamers and cutters. Even so, he was far too good for them and went through their lineup like a dose of salts until the final pair were in needing a few runs to win the match.
But Harold reckoned without the bias of one of the umpires who had been supplied by the opposing team as was often the case in such matches. He got the batsman twice plumb LBW but was greeted by a curt shake of the head and a muttered "not out". The third ball was held by the keeper after an audible snick but his appeal was greeted by yet another refusal. The mild mannered Harold became exasperated. He grabbed the ball and stalked off to far parts to begin his proper run up. He pounded up to the crease and launched an absolute jaffa that the batsman probably never even saw. The ball smashed into the stumps scattering them in all directions and the bails flew ten feet into the air. Harold walked back to the umpire from his follow through and said, " Nearly got him that time, didn't I?"
PS: Hope this hasn't bored you, guys, but as there's no footy to write about, I'm hoping to give some of you something interesting to read.
