by Arthur Crabtree » Mon Oct 12, 2015 3:49 pm
One of my favourite series ever was the England Ashes tour of 1978-9. England won 5-1 against an Aussie team stripped of its Packer stars. It was an unusual tour, played on bowler friendly surfaces, prepared for the potent Australian fast bowlers, particularly the rapid Rodney Hogg. Hogg didn't do much with the ball, but the surfaces took care of that, and he was a fearsome proposition, taking 41 wickets in the six Tests at under thirteen. He was backed by Alan Hurst, who compiled 25 at 23.
It was a flawed plan, because England travelled with one of their best ever pace attacks: Willis, Hendrick and Botham. John Lever played at the WACA, took 5-48, and wasn't seen again. That was because Australia couldn't play off spin, not even the traditionally orthodox Geoff Miller and John Emburey, and they took 39 wickets in the series.
England won the first Test at the Gabba, largely thanks to their pacemen, and some brave batting from Derek Randall, who had his best series. At the WACA, the fourth Test ever played at the venue, Australia put England in, and Hogg soon had England 3-2, and then 34-3 with Brearley going after a hard fought, two hour 17. Most of the first innings batting was done by Geoff Boycott, who made 77 in seven and a half hours (SR 22.8!), and David Gower, whose 102 in extreme conditions was one of his best knocks. He batted for four and a quarter hours. Slow by today's standards, but his ability to get the ball away was highlighted against Geoffrey's cussedness at the other end.
England closed day one at 190-3. And that wasn't because of rain! It was a hot Perth day, and comfort probably not helped by the prototype helmets worn by the England batters (Gower had his own white model). It was a memorable partnership. Boycott was elderly looking for a sportsman, and at 38 was coming to the end of his career. He wasn't always popular in the England dressing room, and had little support when he had replaced Brearley as skipper in New Zealand the previous winter. But England liked his runs, and the bowlers appreciated his obstructiveness. There was something poignant about his knock. He often seemed to be bearing the weight of own surly contrariness, fiercely dedicated to scoring runs for their own sake. Balding, and a touch paunchy, taking on the scary pace of the young Hogg. It was slightly absurd to see this gentleman, still swaying and blocking, still resolutely serving the obligations of what remains only a game.
At the other end was the 21 year old David Gower, in his first year of international cricket. There was always something privileged about Gower's cricket. Perhaps exemplified by education at King's School, Canterbury (against Geoffrey's Hemsworth Grammar). Gower was lauded for hitting his first ball in Test cricket for four, and it was scarcely mentioned that it was off a looping long hop from the medium paced Pakistani bowler, Liaqat Ali. There was something decadent about his watercolour-blue eyes, with the slightly stoned look of Rubber Soul era The Beatles, and his insouciant strokeplay. What the meticulous Boycott would chip out in a day, Gower could achieve in a session.
And yet, in spite of everything that Boycott has done, it is he that I want to like more. It's his steadfastness and fallibility that I empathise with. Gower played a handful of knocks like this, and the 150 in Jamaica, which spoke of a sporting greatness that ultimately eluded him. Geoffrey was never as talented, but was unarguably the better player.
Geoff Miller hit forty valuable runs with the tail, and saw England to 309, really a huge total in the circumstances. Australia's 190 in reply was nearer par, and presumed golden boy Peter Toohey's 81 not out a fine knock. England's second innings 208, with no fifties, set Australia an impossible 328 to win, which they got nowhere near. The ball swung all game, and Lever's 4-28 snuffed out Australia's chase, with Geoff Miller and the Fremantle Doctor posting 3-21. The Australian innings was remarkable for neither of openers Geoff Wood and Rick Darling being run out. Rodney Hogg was Player of the Match for his ten wickets, which was really a testament to the value of Boycott and Gower's batting on day one.
I always say that everybody's right.