PAGE 177
His childhood consisted ‘mainly of cricket and reading’
Hoyos, Grantley Adams, p.10. I have taken most of the details of Adams’ cricket career, and borrowed the phrase ‘undiminished zest’, from this biography. See also Sandiford, Elite Schools and in Liberation Cricket, p.50.
one-intercolonial game against British Guiana
In his inter-colonial match, Adams effected a stumping off C.F. Brown and put up some resistance batting at number 11. He also appeared in a 15-man Barbados Colts side which played Calthorpe’s MCC tourists in 1925/26.
‘loyalty and stability’ … not to ‘interfere with the cricket’ … ‘happy augury’
Barbados Advocate, 2 February 1954, p.6.
Arundell … had played for Devon in the Minor Counties Championship
He was required to bat once, scoring 6.
Governor Arundell appears to have been a good all-round ball-player: early in 1954, he was selected to play against the visiting tennis team led by British Davis Cup player Tony Mottram (Barbados Advocate, 17 January 1954, p.5).
PAGE 178
‘The institution, like the game, depends as much for its efficient workings…’
Barbados Advocate, 2 February 1954, p.6.
Hailsham had made a similar observation at the 1932 Ottawa Conference on Empire Free Trade: ‘The British Commonwealth of Nations is a living organism, and living organisms never stand still.’
MCC president in the year of Bodyline
Admittedly, as was the custom, he took office only halfway though 1933 and did not have to deal directly with the immediate controversy – but there was quite enough for him to deal with later in the year.
Despite the slow transfer of political power…
In his history of decolonisation in the region, Spencer Mawby puts it pretty starkly: ‘Adams tolerated the continuation of racial discrimination on the island and the white Barbadians were compensated for their loss of political power by the retention of their social privileges.’
an ‘entrenched system of racialist prejudice’
Lewis, Growth of the Modern West Indies, p.226.
Weekes, in the memoir he wrote with Hilary Beckles, described Barbados as ‘the Caribbean heartland of racism’. The South African Peter Abrahams began his book on Barbados by acknowledging ‘the racialism that seems the besetting sin of so many English settlers in the tropics’ (p.4).
‘the prejudices of a Golf Club in Outer London’ … ‘those twin orbs of the empire…’
Leigh Fermor, Traveller’s Tree, p.134, p.153.
Compare Mittelholzer, writing in 1958: ‘Solicitors and barristers motoring into Bridgetown in the morning paint the same sartorial picture as their counterparts journeying from Sunningdale to Waterloo.’ He felt the white planter/merchant class ‘no matter if the heavens fall, will remain contained within their rigid snob-circle, considering everyone outside it, white or non-white, an inferior being’ (With a Carib Eye, p.184, p.82).
‘The Barbadian, the most moderate and mild-tempered of West Indians…’
Swanton, West Indies Revisited, p.280.
Warner … romanticised it as the cradle of imperial naval power…
A motif of Warner’s 1951 autobiography, Long Innings, is his fascination with military history and, in particular, ‘the incomparable history, tradition and glamour of the Royal Navy’ (p.170). That comment was inspired by memories of the Caribbean, as was this one: ‘I never go abroad a British warship without a thrill’ (p.151). One of Pelham’s brothers, Francis, was a naval cadet, although sadly he died of sunstroke after a cricket match (p.14).
Reflecting again on his own Caribbean background, Warner quotes from J.A. Froude’s Bow of Ulyssees (1888): ‘The Caribbean Sea was the cradle of the Naval Empire of Great Britain. There Drake and Hawkins intercepted the golden stream which flowed from Panama into the exchequer at Madrid, and furnished Philip with the means to carry on his war with the Reformation.’ This quotation may anticipate New Elizabethanism but perhaps Warner was oblivious of the fact that Froude’s frankly racist book, from a very early stage, had proved a lightening-rod for attacks by West Indian nationalists.
On the other side of the ledger, Warner was a lifelong proponent of integrated cricket teams, greatly encouraged West Indian cricketers and was responsible for offering the captaincy of a wartime Commonwealth team to Constantine when Hassett fell ill, a matter his autobiography describes as ‘delicate’ (p.163).
As late as 1964, after the island became independent, the naval officer S.W.C. Pack published a book about Barbados which recited the imperial platitudes without any apparent embarrassment. Pack quoted approvingly the speech made by the Prince of Wales in 1920, which noted that the King, ‘as a naval officer’, particularly appreciated how Barbados ‘has never wavered in its staunch allegiance to the British Crown’ (p.32). Pack enjoyed the way the national anthem was still played at race meetings on the Savannah (p.129), reckoned ‘the island has much to thank the church for’ (p.143) and was undaunted by islanders ‘obviously begging’, who can ‘become a pest’ (p.100). Like Warner, Pack used the terms Kaiser War and Hitler War, harked back to Nelson and Britain’s great naval past, and was pleased to see ‘coloured’ servants ‘contented, loyal and courteous’ (p.67). While these attitudes cannot have been representative in the 1960s, they were still possible.
summed up in nicknames like ‘Bimshire’ and ‘Little England’
Leigh Fermor, Traveller’s Tree, p.133: ‘White Barbadians were known as the Bims: a syllable suggestive of solidity and security’.
Frank Collymore took the word Bim ironically as the title for his journal of progressive Barbadian writing.
PAGE 179
‘That’s Bimshire. One crop …’
Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones, 1981 reprint, p.70.
‘what was remarkable about Barbados’ … ‘the universality of agreement…’
Sandiford, in Liberation Cricket.
Jimmy Cozier agreed education was by way of being a religion in Barbados: ‘The plantocratic society, and the mercantilist after it, was not a particularly mobile operation’ – and so a good schooling offered the only hope of escape from the constraints of birth and class. The professions to which the educated aspired were in descending order doctor, lawyer, dentist, optician, parson or teacher’ (Caribbean Newspaperman, p.41).
Gordon Lewis provides a Marxisant critique of this position:
The Barbadian pride in that system was in reality the pride of a snobbery that graded the school pupil on the educational ladder in terms of his class position, based on the assumptions of the seminal Mitchinson report of 1875: that the purpose of primary education was to create an obedient and honest working class; of middle class education, via the first and second grade secondary schools (that peculiarly Barbadian distinction in itself being a reflection of the snob value that attached itself to ‘white’ foundations like Lodge and Harrison) … Educational culture, in this context of values, meant, as in England, the ornamental development of the privileged individual, not the general enlightenment of a community.
(Growth of Modern West Indies, p.230).
Swanton’s suggestion … was endorsed by C.L.R. James
Beyond a Boundary, p.49:
Read the books of Worrell and Walcott, middle-class boys of secondary education, and see how native to them is the code. In an article welcoming the West Indian team of 1957 E.W. Swanton has written in the Daily Telegraph that in the West Indies the cricket ethic has shaped not only the cricketers but social life as a whole. It is an understatement…
‘in the West Indies we have always looked upon the English as perfect gentlemen’
Worrell, Cricket Punch, p.88.
‘disgusted’ by racial prejudice
Walcott, Island Cricketers, p.30. He makes this comment when describing his first experience of the American ‘colour bar’ in Miami: ‘I don’t think there was much wrong with our table manners.’ Walcott was also conscious that he probably received better treatment as a sportsman than most black people in the southern states: ‘The plight of the millions of our race who have no special abilities to single them out is a terrible thing, about which I shall have more to say later.’ And he does have more to say – both in Island Cricketers and in his second memoir, Sixty Years.
– some in the West Indies said ‘conservative’ –
Tim Hector, admittedly at a much later date and for polemical purposes, interpreted Walcott’s appointment as ICC Chairman in the 1990s as ‘a tribute to his moderate conservatism or neo-conservatism’ (Area of Conquest, ed. Beckles, p.116).
‘England gave this great game to the world’
Walcott, Sixty Years, p.193.
‘colonial tutelage’ … ‘the old clubs and the school tie’
Weekes (with Beckles), Mastering the Craft, p.45, p.72.
‘the game of the people’ … ‘English methods …’ … ‘liberating rather than oppressive’
Weekes (with Beckles), Mastering the Craft, p.46, p.37
‘close and constant scrutiny’ … ‘Every West Indian is conscious…’
Swanton, Adventure, p.64.
PAGE 180
‘for, after all, we were really out there to encourage their cricket’
Evans, Action in Cricket, p.87.
…Palmer teaching the wife of the local Colonial Secretary to wolf-whistle
This detail was, characteristically, recorded by Bannister (Cauldron, p.56).
‘looking forward to their stay’ … an ‘extension’ of the ‘mother country’
Hutton and Palmer, as reported in Barbados Advocate, 28 January 1954, p.10: ‘They had heard a lot about Barbados and its adherence to English customs and traditions, hence “Little England.”’
The evening ended with a chorus of ‘For they are jolly good fellows’
Barbados Advocate, 29 January 1954, p.1. Hutton noted again in his speech that the island ‘certainly reminded me a great deal of England’ and described Barbados as ‘the nursery of West Indian cricket’.
The ‘rollicking’ Evans reportedly ‘delighted the large audience’ at the Plaza Theatre by dancing on stage to ‘calypsoes played by Keith Campbell and his orchestra’. The event was broadcast over Rediffusion.
Suttle became something of a local hero…
This incident was widely reported in the Caribbean and in Britain: Suttle was playing beach football when he heard cries for help from the friend of Joyce Kent, a 21-year-old swimmer in distress. He managed to pull her to safety and she was revived after a reported ten minutes of resuscitation.
It may have been a slow news week in Worthing. The Worthing Gazette spoke to Suttle’s wife Sheila, who was reminded of a dicey moment in the King Alfred Baths at Hove that summer: she had been almost knocked out by someone diving from the high board and Ken managed to drag her out of the pool to safety (17 February 1954, p.6). When the Worthing Herald spoke to Suttle’s mother, she said ‘he must have improved his swimming and diving since he left England’ (19 February, p.17).
PAGE 181
‘quickly ran into more trouble in the colony match at Bridgetown’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.53
Weekes was struggling with a long-standing thigh problem…
The seriousness of the injury is indicated by the fact Weekes’s mother made a rare appearance at the ground.
Laker predicted that the policy of buying the umpire drinks…
Spinning Round the World, p.122.
Evans that ‘it was a waste of time appealing’ at Walcott’s end
Gloves are Off, p.129.
‘half way back to the pavilion’
Wardle, Happy Go Johnny, p.129. Compare Statham, Flying Bails, p.97.
‘body of opinion’
O.S. Coppin, Barbados Advocate, p.
In his biography of Lock, Alan Hill asserts, without providing his source, that Walcott later apologised to Hutton for a ‘late call’ (p.38).
PAGE 182
‘plainly put out by the incident’
Bannister, Cauldron, p.65.
On the other hand, Ditton thought the no-balling of Lock did ‘not seem to upset his equilibrium’ (Barbados Advocate, 30 January, p.1).
‘This made me so angry that I felt like giving the umpire…’
Lock, For Surrey and England, p.60.
… ‘certainly’ showed up Lock’s bent arm
Miller, Charles Palmer, p.91.
‘glaring at Barbados’
Laker, Spinning Round the World, p.125-26.
‘Just watch that bastard throwing it out there’
Hodgson, History of Yorkshire CCC, p.158.
In his own memoir, Wardle reports Lock being called in Jamaica and Barbados as if he were in agreement with the decisions (Happy Go Johnny, p.125, p.129).
‘correct’ … ‘What will be interesting will be to see how Ramadhin…’
Ditton in The Gleaner (this report was also carried by the Barbados Advocate).
‘drastic’ … ‘jerk’
Hutton, Just My Story, p.54.
PAGE 183
‘That’s why he had his sleeves rolled down’ … ‘He threw both of them’
Graveney, interviewed on England’s Finest, about 20 minutes in.
In his poem, ‘Sonny Ramadhin’, Cecil Gray gave a lyrical riposte to such complaints: ‘They said you kept a wily secret / up your rolled-down sleeve, the Englishmen / who fell before you like a crop of canes’ (anthologised in The Bowling was Superfine, p.83).
‘tantamount to cheating’
Graveney, Cricket Through the Covers, p.110.
The last pair of Trueman and Moss managed to scamper the leg-byes…
In my interview with Alan Moss (31 March 2015), he said he could not remember anything about the leg byes off him which won the match; he did not seem to know much about them at the time according to several reports.
‘quite unnecessary ill-feeling’
Walcott, Island Cricketers, p.87.
‘more pleasant…’ … ‘kept at boiling point’ … ‘local pressmen’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.135
PAGE 184
‘many heads of Government departments, their wives and prominent citizens….’
Barbados Advocate, ‘Carib Calling’ society column, 6 February, p.2
We can turn to the Guyanese novelist Edgar Mittelholzer for a translation of ‘prominent’ here, based on his knowledge of the venue: ‘very wealthy and very passably white, with strong Anglophile convictions’ (With a Carib Eye, p.92).
In her history of Barbados, Mary Chamberlain provides evidence that, at least until the war and ‘at the highest level’, the British governors always preferred to appoint civil servants ‘of unmixed European descent’ (Empire and Nation-Building, p.103).
‘hiding in the bushes’
Alan Moss, interview with the author, 31 March 2015.
The press corps on the pre-war tour of South Africa was Bannister, Bray, Hayter, Rostron, Swanton and White, all of whom were in the West Indies. Palmer praised their attitude on that expedition: ‘They were out there doing their job of reporting cricket back to England. They weren’t bothered with finding out who was in bed with whom. They were first-class; they didn’t betray us, and they didn’t betray themselves’ (Miller, Charles Palmer, p.48).
‘many of the English and white residents of each colony are to blame…’
Bannister, Cauldron, p.67.
‘The Navy were in at the time, and we had a bit of a party…’
Graveney, interviewed for The Independent by Brian Viner in 2011.
‘an occasional choking feeling’ … ‘enlarged upon the theme’ … ‘an influential person’
Graveney, Cricket Through the Covers, p.122.
‘the Governor-Generals were like gods in their own worlds’
Miller, Charles Palmer, p.94.
PAGE 185
‘to be extremely careful about everything they did and said’
‘In the past we expected playboy MCC teams….’
Mr J.G. Frobisher, quoted by Ross Hall, Daily Mirror, 11 February 1954, p.15
‘strange men’ at parties … ‘some pompous idiot’
Graveney, Cricket Through the Covers, p.122.
‘There were quite a few scoundrels on that tour – Godfrey, Denis and all that lot’
Quoted by Waters, Fred Trueman, p.123. I think he has taken this line from Graveney’s interview with Martin-Jenkins for England’s Finest.
When Worrell defended Trueman in 1959, he did not name any names but asserted repeatedly that Trueman was ‘not the arch trouble-maker’ (Cricket Punch, p.77).
Wilf Wooller once described Compton and Edrich as ‘blighters’ (Marshall, p.193).
‘there is much I could tell you of our social activities in Barbados’
Evans, Behind the Stumps, p.151.
‘records of unparalleled social endurance’ … ‘consumption of rum punch…’
Michael Marshall attributes these observations to both Stollmeyer and Rae (Gentlemen and Players).
‘came down the steps all dressed up’ … ‘Len said…’
Appleyard, interviewed in Len Hutton Remembered, p.155.
Compare Cowdrey’s interview in the same book: ‘He wasn’t too keen on the good-time lads and he could, well, cold-shoulder them a bit’ (p.88). And Vic Wilson’s: ‘He was never one of the boys. He wasn’t a Compton or anything like that’ (p.142).
Palmer may also have been thinking of Compton and Evans when he observed Hutton ‘was not a party-goer in any great way and there were one or two people that were’ (Len Hutton Remembered, p.52).
PAGE 186
‘our waking hours did not often coincide’
May, A Game Enjoyed, p.57.
…shock at being ‘sent to bed early one night’
Graveney, Heart of Cricket, p.84.
‘I feel that you know all there is to know about him’
Hutton, Captain’s Report, as quoted in Howat, Len Hutton, p.144 (and Sandford, Godfrey Evans, pp.120-21).
‘on the old toot with a gin and tonic’
Evans, interviewed in Len Hutton Remembered, p.68.
Spooner, ‘always a grand reserve and tourist’ …
Bannister, Cauldron, p.117.
‘The resulting chaos was to me one of the outstanding features…’
Trevor Bailey’s Cricket Book, p.58.
‘As everyone knows, we were lamentably bad ambassadors…’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.115.
the Evening Standard conducted a survey of readers…
The Barbados Advocate (5 February 1954) provided copious coverage of the debate being conducted in the Evening Standard back in England.
Perhaps the most vehement attack on Compton was from a correspondent who asserted that ‘every cricket enthusiast who is not a sentimentalist and lives outside Middlesex is heartily sick of the Test selectors’ obsession for Compton’. Meanwhile, a Cambridge undergraduate made the point that it might be hard for Compton’s obvious successors in the middle order, May and Graveney, to ‘come to full fruition under a decaying tree’. On the other hand, Compton’s supporters argued that he was a ‘natural genius’ who was still the best attacking batsman in the country.
‘I loved playing cricket in the West Indies…’ … a ‘shell of reserve and aloofness’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.115.
Compare Trevor Bailey’s Cricket Book, p.29 on Hutton: ‘The cares of captaincy made him retreat even further into himself, so that he became even more difficult to understand.’
If Trueman thought they were ‘getting away with murder’ off the pitch…
Ball of Fire, p.52.
‘needed a firm hand’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.135 – ‘and he didn’t get it from Len, for understandable but for the wrong reasons’.
‘We were to leave him to Len, Yorkshireman to Yorkshireman.’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.116.
Crawford White concluded after the tour match that ‘for some reason the Yorkshire fast bowler seems to have a chip on his shoulder and is developing a lone wolf attitude to his colleagues. He shuns help and seems determined to work out his own problems (News Chronicle, 1 February 1954, p.7).
‘giving perhaps an indication that there was a regular service…’
End of an Innings, p.117.
Trueman hated being dressed down in front of teammates
See, for example, The Freddie Trueman Story, pp.33-34: ‘If someone asked me to hand out advice to captains, I would put this at the top of the list: never criticise a player in front of his mates. This is one weakness that several of my captains have had in common…’
The only captain he names in this passage is Vic Wilson, but Hutton – and Compton as acting captain – would both have qualified in Trueman’s book.
‘Not all the senior members pulled their weight in helping the younger ones…’
Lock, For Surrey and England, p.57.
Judging from the captain-manager report on the 1950/51 series in Australia, Compton had previous history in this regard: ‘In spite of so many warnings, Compton never realised his responsibilities, and was of very little help off the field, when he could have helped the younger players with advice, and seen that non-players rested and relaxed properly’ (cited by Peel in Ambassadors, p.65).
…the ‘little cliques’ which Laker thought had been allowed to develop
Spinning Round the World, p.126.
‘established stars’ from the ‘southern counties’…
It should be registered that, by the time of his last serious memoir, Trueman was counting Evans as one of the figures who ‘wanted everyone united’ (As It Was, p.160).
‘devoted hours and hours talking to him, both on and off the field’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.71.
In his first autobiography, Trueman described Hutton ‘a bit of a hero of mine at that time’ and described his paternal influence in his debut Test at Headingley – a first series for both bowler and captain – although he then notes more ironically that in the next Test Hutton bowled him in much longer spells ‘and certainly never missed a chance to give me his advice’ (pp.58-61).
PAGE 188
and over the snooker table – both men had a passion for the game…
See Len Hutton Remembered, pp.163-64.
‘in sarcasm towards younger players’
Graveney, Heart of Cricket, p.87.
One is also reminded of one of Swanton’s comments on Hammond’s style of leadership: ‘Nor did he seem to appreciate the value of the personal word of cheer and advice’ (quoted in Foot, Hammond, p.137).
a consignment of sponsored cigarettes intended for the whole team
Len Hutton Remembered, pp.167.
I have hammed this anecdote up slightly in that I think Trueman’s allegation is that Hutton kept the cigarette allocations of the non-smokers in the party, which it had been agreed would be shared out among the smokers.
Hutton was renowned for rarely offering others his cigarettes – the two Lancastrian bowlers Statham and Tattersall also noted his habit of swapping his filter-tips (which he received gratis on a sponsorship deal) for their unfiltered Players and Senior Service, brands he preferred.
In As It Was (p.159), Trueman also tells the story that ‘a senior and prominent member of the team’ had negotiated a promotional deal with Coca-Cola. £500 was shared among the side only for Trueman to learn from a Coke rep that he had paid the player £1,000. I will hazard a guess that Bailey is the unnamed player Trueman is accusing of feathering his own nest.
‘the new white bowling hope’ …
Trueman, Ball of Fire, p.46.
‘had knocked the bottom out of that theory’
Laker, Spinning Round the World, p.127.
David Runciman observes that narcissism is ‘a personality trait that the structure of cricket seems to exacerbate’ (LRB, 6 November 2014).
‘sharing’ with Trueman the ‘new experiences’…
Lock, For Surrey and England, p.57.
‘We all get homesick sooner or later; we get hangovers…’
As quoted in Ward’s Put Lock On, p.19.
‘Freddie and I were allowed to go our own way…’
Lock, For Surrey and England, p.57.
‘one or two’ experienced players … ‘needless remarks’ … ‘sarcastic asides’
Lock, For Surrey and England, p.57.
‘not many people on tour have got on well with Johnny’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.134.
PAGE 189
‘Not a typical Yorkie, very smooth’ … ‘I think Brian discovered lager…’
Alan Moss, interview with the author, 31 March 2015.
Palmer also described Watson as a ‘smooth performer in every way’ (Miller, p.94).
‘taking people as I find them and trying to understand…’
Watson, Double International, p.62.
Hutton praised Watson in his end-of-term report as an ‘ideal tourist’…
Hutton, Captain’s Tour Report, as reproduced in The Cricketer, May 1996, p.29.
… ‘too easily’ to Watson
I have taken a slight liberty here by making an adverb out of Hutton’s complaint about Watson recorded by Bailey: ‘It’s too easy. It’s too easy for him. He doesn’t take it seriously enough’. Interestingly, Hutton later made almost exactly the same observation of another left-hander: ‘David Gower’s so talented he makes the game look easy, too easy. For me it was always very hard…’ (Len Hutton Remembered, p.81, p.33).
‘was inclined to think that Jim had no real heart as a bowler’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.134.
‘in a hot climate beer doesn’t do any harm’
Tom Graveney on Cricket, p.49.
‘was an excellent chap to have’
Hutton, Captain’s Tour Report, as reproduced in The Cricketer, May 1996, p.29.
‘a most likeable and popular man’ … ‘highly respected by all members of the team’
Hutton, Captain’s Tour Report, as reproduced in The Cricketer, May 1996, p.29.
In Trevor Bailey’s Cricket Book, May came to his mind ‘automatically’ as someone who was ‘adept at dealing with the “ear basher”’ (p.62).
But Graveney, conceding that May had social ‘charm’ …
‘He was a shy man, never a social lion. I had noticed on other tours that you never found him in the centre of parties or group meetings…He spent most of his free time away from the party’ (Cricket over Forty, p.95-96).
Graveney had previously observed that May as captain, and Cowdrey as vice-captain, were not ‘socially minded’ on the unhappy tour of Australia in 1958/59 and did not have the ‘personality’ to keep the party together off the field (Tom Graveney on Cricket, p.49).
May’s first biographer, Robert Rodrigo, reports that when he did his national service as a Writer in the Navy, his peers observed ‘no signs of temperament but no signs of personality either’ (p.28).
…Bailey, nicknamed ‘Old Fag-Ash’ by Moss…
Alan Moss, interview with the author, 31 March 2015.
PAGE 190
‘He is the type of man with whom I get on extremely well…’
Hutton, Captain’s Tour Report, as reproduced in The Cricketer, May 1996, p.29.
Compare Trueman on Bailey: ‘That man was such a fighter he should have been a Yorkshireman’ (cited in Dellor, Lost Voices).
Bailey formed a bridge club with characters as diverse as Wardle, Graveney and Watson
Trevor Bailey’s Cricket Book, p.61
Even if he tried to avoid cocktail-party bores…
Trevor Bailey’s Cricket Book, p.61-62: ‘The one person you meet in every country is the professional bore…The experienced tourist can normally scent him as soon as he walks into a room, and will proceed to take immediate evasive action…’
According to his son Justyn, Bailey maintained close friendships…
Justyn Bailey, interview with the author, 11 March 2019.
…‘Ideal Tour Companions’ Bailey compiled in 1959
Trevor Bailey’s Cricket Book, Chapter 5.
For the record, his full party is (p.53): A.V. Bedser, Compton, Cowdrey, Evans, Graveney, Insole, May, P.E. Richardson, Statham, Trueman, Tyson, Warr, Watson. Contract Manager: E. Bedser. Tour Manager: Duckworth.
Conversely, the coltish Trueman had already demonstrated …
For the incident where Trueman says he told Palmer it was a ‘man’s game’, after the Leicestershire captain had told him to ‘steady on’ against a New Zealand ‘boy’ who was favouring the front foot, see As It Was, p.163.
For the incident when Leicestershire beat Yorkshire in 1953, see Miller, Charles Palmer, p.80: Trueman is supposed to have said of his stumping decision: ‘if that effer was out, my prick’s a kipper!’ His mood became even worse when he discovered he was the victim of a dressing-room burglary.
Hutton always sought to avoid confrontational situations
One senses that discipline was something Hutton preferred to keep to himself. Mike Brearley suggested that he ‘never relished the job’ of captaincy for this sort of reason: ‘He once said that he wished he played golf, since then he would not have to travel with eleven others who couldn’t stand the sight of him’ (Art of Captaincy, p.38).
‘But the more I knew him and the more we had to go through adversity together…’
Miller, Charles Palmer, p.88.
‘Both Charles and I were in a no-win position, and as I shared his burden…’
Hutton, Fifty Years, p.94.
PAGE 191
– he was usually described in the West Indian press as the ‘manager-player’…
See, for example, Port of Spain Gazette, 6 March 1954.
When the manager’s appointment was announced, Aird stated on behalf of MCC that ‘Palmer will play on the tour if required’ (Times, 28 August 1953, p.4).
Palmer complained that events off the field gave him less time…
Narrating his MCC Tour of West Indies video, which he compiled from his cine film in 2004.
the ‘double responsibility’ of being captain and premier batsman …
Fifty Years, p.82.
Here Hutton says he was ‘always very conscious of my double responsibility as No. 1 batsman and captain’, while still taking umbrage at the ‘absurd’ generalisations about his being defensive. Compare the reference in Just My Story to his ‘dual burden’: there Hutton claims he was more worried about whether his batting would stand the strain of captaincy than ‘the fact that I was a professional occupying position previously held by amateurs’ (p.126).
‘desirability of defensive careful play’
Compton, End of an Innings, p.121.
‘Len’s policy’ … ‘You mustn’t get out’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.135.
‘the most astonishing stream of beautiful strokes’
Palmer, interviewed in Len Hutton Remembered, p.51. See also Miller, Charles Palmer, p.91.
PAGE 192
he had taken a long net in the morning
Bannister, Cauldron, pp.61-62.
‘make the pitch as long as possible’
Richard Hutton, interviewed by Chalke in A Tribute to Len Hutton, as he talks about his father’s policy of not advancing to the spinners (between about 39:15 – 40:20).
Swanton, who thought Hutton ‘finds it difficult not to see other men’s batsmanship in terms of his own’, concluded that it was ‘hardly insignificant’ only one English batsman was stumped in the ten Tests played under Hutton’s captaincy in 1953 and 1953/54 (Adventure, p.19).
‘madness’ … ‘He didn’t throw his wicket away …’
Evans, interviewed in Len Hutton Remembered, p.72.
Compare an observation by Kilburn on Hutton in the same book (p.124):
With his batting, bowling and captaincy, he always tried to ensure that the situation never got out of his control. He had a lot of disappointments in that way, because some of his players were a bit irresponsible, in the sense of saying: ‘Well, all right, if I’ve got out I’ve got out.’ Leonard couldn’t bear that, the thought of getting out when you didn’t have to get out, or when you shouldn’t get out. He was very disappointed by that attitude and he carried his England responsibility to a point of excess, I would say. He nearly broke his own health carrying the responsibility.
‘disastrously inhibiting’
Evans, Gloves are Off, p.135.
‘Yorkies have a different approach to cricket than most of us’
Graveney, Heart of Cricket, p.78.
‘I do not think it ever occurred to him…’
Graveney, Cricket Through the Covers, p.116.
In a later autobiography, Heart of Cricket, Graveney reflected that he and Compton both believed it was better to bat naturally and not ‘gird the loins, so to speak’ on a big occasion (p.107).
‘chatting to hotel porters and doormen’ … ‘caught unawares, as professionals…’
Scyld Berry, Cricket: The Game of Life, p.334.
Peter Loader told an anecdote about an incident in Sydney on the 1954/55 tour:
Statham and I went out and came back late to the Hotel Australia, and thought, we won’t go in through the front door, we’ll go in the back. Somebody, the team manager I think, saw us. Next day was hot, very hot, and I bowled a very long spell. Finally Hutton came up and said: ‘Did you have a good night last night? Have a couple more, lad.’
We shall see in Chapter 18 that not much got past the tour manager, Geoffrey Howard, but I would not be surprised if Hutton was acting upon intelligence of his own.
PAGE 193
‘Not in very good form at the moment, go and get some practice’
Evans, interviewed in Len Hutton Remembered, p.72.
who normally got along well…
Statham believed that the fissure between the two friends in 1953/54 ‘was not an on-the-field situation, it was more an off-the-field situation’ (Len Hutton Remembered, p.96).