In 1995 I wrote this chapter about Don Bradman for my book, "LEON, A backward glance at boyhood."
I wrote my book in the third person and found that I did not like writing, "Noel did this..." and "Noel did that..." so I changed it to Leon, which I thought was not too bad for a boy named Noel looking backwards at his boyhood.
1948 was a very big year for Leon. It was
the year he came face to face with Don Bradman.
Like any ten year old Australian
boy of that time, Leon
idolised the mighty Don. He was the world's best batsman, scoring one hundred runs off every 126 balls he faced over his illustrious twenty year career. He averaged making a century once in every three innings. He was the greatest living Australian. Leon read every
book, magazine and newspaper article about Don Bradman that he could find.
Leon’s love of cricket and his
interest in Don Bradman could be traced back to his father’s thrilling bedtime
stories. Jack Bourke would tell Leon
the story of the Australian’s 1930 tour of England when Bradman made over 300
runs in one day in a test match. This was an absolutely unbelievable feat. The
next day the newspaper posters on the street corners simply said, “He’s Out!”
Everyone knew who they meant.
Jack described in detail the
drama surrounding the Bodyline series in Australia in 1932. This involved a
tactic devised by the English captain, Douglas Jardine, of bowling fast short
pitched deliveries directly at the batsman’s body and head. As well as this,
the leg side field was packed with fieldsmen, so that the batsman could not
safely hit the ball away and was in danger of being caught by snicking the ball
as he tried to use the bat to protect his head from a cricket ball coming in at
90 miles an hour. It was considered to be a very unfair tactic. A lot of people
said that it definitely was not cricket! It had been designed for one purpose
only, to stop Don Bradman from scoring runs. It nearly stopped test cricket
between England
and Australia
and a lot of strong words were said about it.
Bodyline was successful in that
it made it much harder for Bradman, or any batsman, to score runs. Even so, the
Mighty Don scored more runs in four test matches than any other Australian batsmen
made in five. He made over fifty runs in at least one innings of each test
match and finished the series with an average of 56.57. For anybody else 56.57
would have been an outstanding average. However, such was Bradman’s greatness
that his average of 56 was considered to be a dismal failure. It was effectively banned when the laws of cricket were changed after the Bodyline Series, restricting the number of fieldsmen on the leg side.
In March 1948, Don Bradman,
approaching his 40th birthday, was about to embark on the greatest challenge of
his cricketing career. He had been quite ill in the late forties, having been
invalided out of the army, and it was not certain that he would play cricket
again when the war ended. However, in 1946 he made a stunning return to test
match cricket and led the Australians to victory over England. In 1947 he did
the same against the touring Indians, scoring his 100th First Class century in
the process. He is the only Australian batsman to have done so. He took about
270 innings to reach his one hundredth century. The next quickest batsman to do
was England’s
dashing Denis Compton who needed almost one hundred innings more to achieve the
feat. Nowadays cricketers play many more matches than Bradman ever did but
still no other Australian has scored 100 centuries in First Class cricket.
1948 required Australia to
tour England.
It would be the first Australian test tour since the end of World War Two. All
cricket lovers in England
were looking on the tour as a return to peace time after the terrors of war.
Bradman knew how much England
was looking forward to the Australia
versus England Test series. He also knew what an arduous task a test tour would
for a man approaching forty years of age. Especially as the captain. The tour
would stretch from when they left Australia in March until the return six
months later. On tour the team would play cricket six days a week. He also knew
that he was no longer a young man, that he was not as fast or as strong as he
used to be, that the English bowlers would be seeking revenge, that he could
fail and end his magnificent career on a disastrous note. Not only would he have the worry of scoring runs for his
side but, as captain, he would be required to plan tactics and strategies on
the field, make many, many speeches and attend a lot of functions that would
steal into his time and distract him from his major task...beating England for
the Ashes.
Weighing up all the pros and cons
and knowing that people in England
and Australia
wanted him to make this one last tour he agreed to go. In March the touring
Australian cricket team assembled in Perth
prior to their departure from Fremantle for the four week boat voyage to
Tilbury Docks in London.
As was usual, a cricket match had been arranged between the Australian Team and
the Western Australian state side. Western
Australia had been allowed to enter the Sheffield
Shield competition in 1947/48 and had surprised everyone by winning the shield
in their very first season under the astute leadership of Keith Carmody.
Leon desperately wanted to go to
this cricket match. It was a three day game scheduled to start on a Friday
morning. In those days they did not play cricket on Sundays, so Leon’s only
chance to see the game was on the Saturday. He realised that if Australia
batted first then Don Bradman would bat on the Friday and may not be batting on
the Saturday.
Leon thought seriously about
playing truant from school on the Friday. However, he realised that he would
have to deceive his parents and that truancy was very serious offence. He new
his family would be absolutely mortified if they found out, so he decided
against the idea and just hoped that the great Don Bradman would be batting on
the Saturday when Leon would be at the game with his cousin, Raymond. So that
night it was a rather unhappy Leon who fell asleep clutching a Sporting Life
magazine and dreaming of the day he would see Don Bradman play.
Leon was awakened early the next
morning by his father who leaned over him and quietly said, “The Australians
are playing at the WACA today. If they bat first then Don Bradman will probably
be batting some time after lunch. I think you should leave school at lunchtime
and go down there. It will be the only chance you will ever have to see Don
Bradman bat.” With that Jack kissed Leon good bye, turned and left the
room.
Leon knew he wasn’t dreaming but he
could hardly believe what he had heard. His own father, who placed such value
on education, was giving him permission to play the wag. Leon didn’t
tell his mother what Jack had said and set off for school as usual. Except,
instead of riding his bike his ran down to Beaufort Street and caught a tram to
school.
At lunchtime Leon sat with his
friends but did not eat his lunch. He told them he was not feeling well and was
going to go home. He asked his friend Frank O’Callaghan to let Brother O’Brien
know.
“He’ll understand. He already
knows I’m sick,” said Leon.
When the boys were told by the duty teacher in the playground that they could
go and play, Leon
went and collected his bag and, out of sight of the duty teacher, walked out of
the school. He expected whistles to blow, sirens to wail, bells to clang and to
hear some Brothers shouting out over the P.A., “Stop that boy, he’s going to
play truant!” But nothing happened and he walked slowly along Stirling Street,
still maintaining his, “I’ve got a pain in the stomach” pose. When he turned
into Harold Street
and was no longer visible from the college building, Leon made a miraculous recovery. It
was as if he had drunk a whole bottle of Lourdes
holy water.
Early that afternoon, Leon’s
dream came true. One of the Australian openers was dismissed and out to take
his place came striding the greatest batsman in the world, Leon’s number one
hero, the incomparable Donald George Bradman, the century making, batting
machine from Bowral.
There was a very big crowd at the
ground, obviously Leon
was not the only one in Perth
who was playing truant that Friday. They greeted Bradman with a mighty roar. Bradman
was only a small man and he walked out swinging the bat around to loosen up his
muscles. He quickly took up his batting position, took guard and prepared to
face his first delivery from the West Australian medium pace bowler, Basil
Rigg.
Rigg, fairly pleased with himself
at dismissing an Australian opening batsman, came running in and let fly with a
fastish delivery. Bradman stepped down the wicket, his batting blade describing
a beautiful arc as he swung into the ball and sent it flashing past the bowler
to the longest boundary on the ground. Four runs off his first ball! Leon yelled and
the crowd cheered. This was what they had come to see. In his old age Leon still
carried the image of that first delivery he saw bowled to Don Bradman. Every
once in a while he would re-play it in his mind’s eye. It was a magic moment
that he always thanked his dad for letting him have. It was a precious,
priceless gift to be treasured forever.
It ranked with the time a few
months later when Leon and Jack, one wintry night, huddled close to the
wireless in front of the fire in the bedroom of their home in Aberdeen Street,
listening to the Fourth Test at Headingly in England. It was the last day’s
play and at stumps the day before England was four hundred runs
ahead. At 6-00 pm the voices of John Arlott and Alan McGilvray crackled across
the world to tell Leon and Jack that the England Captain, Norman Yardley, had
not declared the England innings closed but was batting on into the final day.
This meant that he could use a heavy roller before play started to further
break up the already crumbling pitch. It also meant the unbeaten Australian test team would have less
than a day to make over 400 runs. The commentators were sagely saying that
there was almost no hope of Australia
winning the game. After about fifteen minutes of play Yardley did declare and
sent Australia in to bat. They needed to make 404 runs in the day to win the match. No
team in history had ever scored 400 runs in the fourth innings to win a Test.
And the Australians had to do it in less than 345 minutes on worn wicket. A
very worn wicket!
By lunchtime in the match Bradman
and Morris were batting well but Australia was facing a very stiff
task. In Perth
it was eight o’clock on a
cold winter’s night. Jack put some cushions, a pillow and some blankets down on
the floor in front of the wireless and made it into a bed for Leon. During
the night Leon and Jack listened and cheered as Bradman and Morris began to get
on top. Leon
stayed awake as long as possible but finally sleep overtook him.
At 6-30 a.m. the next morning
Jack woke him and said, “We won!” He gave Leon a quick summary, telling how
Morris made 182 and Bradman was 173 not out. Morris was dismissed just before
the magic 404 was reached, but Bradman and young Neil Harvey got there with fifteen minutes to spare. A famous victory which kept intact the undefeated record of Bradman’s
“Invincibles”.
Meanwhile back at the WACA on
that warm Friday afternoon in March, 1948, Bradman was batting just the way he
did in Jack’s stories. He hit the ball wherever there was a gap in the field.
Keith Carmody would move a man to fill the gap and Bradman would hit the next
ball to the spot that had just been vacated. It was uncanny. It was beautiful
to watch and Leon
took it all in. By tea time Bradman was already close to his century. During
the afternoon tea break Leon
went off in search of more cool drink bottles to finance the purchase to
another hot dog.
The players came back on the
field after tea. Leon
made his way back to his vantage point. The WACA ground was now very crowded.
The word that Bradman was batting had spread and a lot of office workers had
come into the ground.
Shortly after tea Bradman brought
up his century to a tumultuous ovation. Leon almost cheered himself hoarse.
Bradman finally gave his wicket away to let some of the other Australians have
a hit. He was out for 115 to a catch at mid wicket, caught Tom Outridge bowled
Tommy O’Dwyer. Leon’s cousin, Maurie, had gone to Aquinas with Tom Outridge and
Basil Rigg and they and Tommy O’Dwyer had all been coached by Brother Dave
Dwyer who now taught at Highgate Christian Brothers. Leon felt this gave him a
very close connection to all that had
been happening that memorable day at the WACA.
That night, Leon described in detail the great
innings he had seen from the Master batsman. Jack was tickled pink to know that
forever afterwards Leon
could say that he had seen Don Bradman make a century at the WACA.
The following day Raymond and Leon
were at the WACA bright and early to see the end of the Australian innings.
Very late in the afternoon the Western Australian left handed batsman, Wally
Langdon, was in the nineties and there was a great deal of excitement as to
whether or not he could reach his century before play ended for the day. With
only an over or two to go he had reached 96. He drove a ball firmly into the
offside field but Bradman, at Mid Off, raced around to cut it off. No run. The
crowd groaned.
Someone yelled,” C’mon, Don. Let
him get his century.” Langdon hit the next ball to the offside and once more
Bradman raced around and cut it off. No run. Again the crowd yelled out good
naturedly for Bradman to ease up. The next delivery was hit just a little
straighter into the offside field. Bradman gave chase to cut it off and was
running very fast when it flashed past him, he eased up and grinned as the ball
sped to the boundary. The crowd all cheered.
The man next to Leon said to
nobody in particular, “Bradman let that go on purpose.” Leon thought so
too, although he could have been puffed out after the previous chasing he had
done. Anyhow Wally Langdon scored his hundred and everyone had had a bit of fun
with Don Bradman.
That was the only game that Don Bradman’s
“Invincibles” ever played on Australian soil. Wally Langdon’s innings must have
impressed The Don for he was invited to play in Bradman’s very last official
game, his Testimonial Match in Sydney
in December 1948. Wally was the only Western Australian to be invited.
When Leon was in his mid thirties
he worked in the same office as Wally Langdon in the Teacher Education Branch
of the Education Department. They often enjoyed long and nostalgic talks about
cricket and especially that memorable match, Don Bradman’s century and the
battle Wally had with the great man to get a century for himself. His first for
Western Australia.
When play ended on the Saturday,
Leon and a whole crowd of people jumped the fence. Leon made a bee line for his idol
who was trotting off to the player’s gate. Leon got right up alongside Bradman
and patted him on the back.
“Good on you, Don,” he said as the great man
smiled at all of the well wishers crowding around. Leon then sped off to tell Raymond
that he had actually touched the mighty Don Bradman. That night Leon went
around the family saying, “O.K. who wants to shake the hand that patted Don
Bradman on the back?” The family all humoured him and Leon thought it
was the greatest day of his life.
