The post below had some fine comments that veered back in time to the immortal summer of '76, the summer - indeed the year - of King Viv, and also of Michael Holding and the emergence of the West Indies war machine. England found themselves up against this new and deadly force relatively soon after they returned, shellshocked, from Australia and the first onslaught of Lillee and Thomson. Their response, in retrospect, was remarkable.
In a pre-helmet, as much short stuff as you like era, and in the line of fire of perhaps the two most extreme pace attacks of all time, England turned not to youth but to age. Colin Cowdrey, 41, flew to Australia in 1974 wearing a pinstripe suit and when he got to the middle, famously introduced himself to Jeff Thomson with the words 'I'm Colin Cowdrey,' [to which Thomson replied, 'that's not gonna help you, fatso']. The following summer, 33-year-old David Steele became 'the bank clerk who went to war' - still wearing his specs. Brian Close, who'd made his Test match debut in 1949, four years after the war, joined Steele in facing up to Holding, Roberts, Holder and the brutal Wayne Daniel.
Close was Viv Richards' mentor, county captain and great friend. When he was felled at Old Trafford [against bowling that even the Almanack was moved to record 'was frequently too wild and hostile to be acceptable', and for which Holding was warned by the umpires], Richards was moved to ask him 'are you alright, skip?' 'FUCK OFF' Close roared in reply.
Come the last Test at the Oval, after what was essentially two years of this stuff, England took account of the fallen. Cowdrey and Close had been beaten by age, if not nerve. Boycott and Edrich had, for various reasons, withdrawn. Brearley and Woolmer were callow. Steele was still there, along with Chris Balderstone, who got a pair. With a vacancy for an opener, England went back to Dennis Amiss, 33, who responded to the bombardments he had endured in the past by reinventing his technique, and turning to face the West Indies guns square on. It was a bravura move, as much psychological as technical. He made 203 in a losing cause.
It was, in retrospect, a fascinating time. It's hard to imagine a similar thing happening now, because the game is so different. Batsmen went in knowing that there was a very real possibility of serious injury. It took a particular kind of character to do it.
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The title of the film 'No Country For Old Men' might have applied equally well to any documentaries made about the '74/5 Perth Test and the '76 Old Trafford Test. The courageous Cowdrey, age 41, plucked, from an English winter to face Lillee and Thomson bowling faster than anything seen in Australia since Tyson in '54/5. I remember anxiously tuning in to see if the old chap had turned common sense on its head by scoring a hundred in the devil's own back yard; he scored 41, but what class, what courage.
I attended the Old Trafford Test saturday in '76, and, if I remember right, it was after tea when Close, age 45, and Edrich, 39, opened England's 2nd innings. I had watched Statham, on many occasions bowling from the Stretford End, intimidate several top class batsmen, including Peter May, with pace and unerring accuracy, but nothing like the almost sinister intimidation shown by Holding, Roberts and Daniel. How serious injury was avoided was something bordering on the miraculous. Again, old English batsmen showing great skill and courage.
I'm sure Close, whose sanity was sometimes questioned, was, in a previous life, a Captain in the British Army, leading his men at the Battle of the Somme, charging towards enemy lines with a bat in his left hand, a revolver in his right, and a grin suggesting "This is hell, but it's fun".
more ancient history...Close made 60nmodd nin the first innings of the 2nd Test at Lords, he got out by smashing a high full toss from the WI spinner Jumadeen (they still had a spinner) against someone's ankle where it bounced up to be caught. Close still had the class but he never had the luck when he played for England.
More ancient history: Old Trafford, 1961, and with Benaud scenting blood, enter Close.............No, stop! The OB will think his blog is being turned into an internet version of 'Past Times'.
Vijay Hazare is the only batsman to score two separate centuries on two successive days.
lol at Mr Halliwell...now that is a test worthy of analysis by Down at Third Man. The Trueman/Flavell argument...just who made those marks that benaud exploited!
Maybe those were the days. I recall that Edrich finished top of the England batting averags in 1976, but the selectors felt that he and Close had done their work (Wisden said had it that the point had been made about excessive short-pitched bowling) and cleared the way for new blood. I don't think Edrich had gone off in a sulk, like Boycott. But perhaps there is more oral history to come.
a quote from Edrich in The Wisden Cricketer May 2009:
"At the end of that match (Old Trafford 1976), I said to Alec Bedser, who was chairman of selectors: 'Look, I don't really want to play this cricket any more. I've had a good run but I'm not enjoying it and I feel I'll have to call it a day.'"
Oral history has it! Thanks to Diogenes, and John Edrich, for total honesty.
hahaha I was reading it and yeah those are some fine comments indeed, I wish I could ever leave you a fine comment like one of those, but I try my hardest!
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