PAGE 362
‘Test Match cricket to-day is no sort of game…’
Constantine [with James], Cricket and I (1933), p.172.
rotted ‘the heart out of our cricket’
Constantine, Cricket in the Sun (1946), p.62.
‘live to see a West Indian team, chosen on its merits …’
Constantine, Cricket in the Sun, p.65.
PAGE 363
‘This ain’t cricket any more. This is war!’
As previously quoted in Chapter 9.
‘There was perhaps a calm shaking of the head as if to say…’
Benaud, quoted in Pilgrim, Frank Worrell Pictorial, p.40.
‘the experience of the 1957 tour served us in good stead on future tours’
Eytle, Frank Worrell, p.135.
Compare Sobers (Cricket Crusader, p.46) on 1957: ‘The experience was salutary and invaluable. We have not made those same mistakes again.’
‘On previous tours Barbadians seemed to stick together…’
Eytle, Frank Worrell, p.152.
PAGE 364
Duckworth … to reprise the role of baggageman/scorer/guru
Tyson had used the term ‘guru’ for Duckworth in 1954/55 (In the Eye of the Typhoon, p.9).
‘a lesson in the art of cricket captaincy’ …
This and the following quotations from Sobers are taken from his account of the tour in Cricket Crusader, pp.74-77.
‘a remarkable sedatory sort of influence on the boys’
Alexander, interviewed in Calypso Summer, part 1, just before 33 minutes in.
the most ‘influential’ player … the ‘ton of motor’
Alan Davidson, interviewed in Calypso Summer, Part 2, about 22 minutes in.
See also Fingleton, Greatest Test of All, p.80
‘white players might be too self-conscious to do their best’
Constantine, Cricket in the Sun, p.62.
Several players remembered him ‘screaming’ with delight
Gerry Alexander, interviewed in Calypso Summer, Part 2.
– there is evidence both ways –
Worrell is quoted in Eytle’s biography as saying in Australia that ‘Gerry was the best thing that ever happened to me’ – in other words he now realised that Gomez’s role in the disciplinary action against him of 1947/48 had in retrospect been in a turning point in his career (p.57).
On the other hand, according to Andy Ganteaume, Worrell confided in him that he would not let Gomez ‘interfere’ on the Australian tour (My Story, p.24).
PAGE 365
‘but most cricketers feel Hutton was in it…’
Worrell, as reported by Crawford White in the Daily Mail, 16 February 1961.
Hutton would argue that he picked it up from Bradman
As Michael Down puts it, Hutton ‘had known the relentlessness of Bradman, who had in turn been toughened by his experience with Jardine, so the trend was in many ways inherited’ (p.110)
‘When you get in front, nail ’em into the ground…’
Miller, quoted in Knox, Bradman’s War, p.338.
‘playing for the flag’
Benaud, Tale of Two Tests, p.16.
‘caught everyone’s attention’
Benaud, interviewed in Calypso Summer, Part 1, just before 12 minutes.
Fingleton pointed out (Greatest Test of All, p.96) that Bradman was in his first year as Australian Board of Control chairman.
‘From something which seemed inexorably headed for the textbooks…’
Fingleton, Greatest Test of All, p.15.
PAGE 366
‘The field with them is always a battleground…’
As quoted by Fingleton in The Sunday Times, 5 February 1961, Sport Section, p.18.
‘an army of popular Press ready to scream…’
As quoted by Fingleton in The Sunday Times, 5 February 1961, Sport Section, p.18.
bowling bouncers at tailenders was ‘the wrong thing to do’
Hall, interviewed in Calypso Summer, Part 2.
‘Frank conveyed to us …gently and clearly…’
Sobers, Cricket Crusader, p.74.
‘a gentleman in every way’
Benaud, Tale of Two Tests, p.43.
PAGE 367
‘Occasionally we looked out when our chaps were batting…’
Benaud, Tale of Two Tests, p.22.
And would so many have turned out for the West Indies motorcade if they had won?
Gladstone Mills had another theory, suggesting that West Indies had been robbed by bad decisions involving Mackay and Grout in the final two Tests. The ticker-tape farewell was therefore not only a ‘sincere’ tribute to the tourists’ fresh approach to Test cricket but ‘attributable to a sense of guilt on the part of the public’ (Grist to the Mills, p.179).
which he picked up from Bradman
See Fifty Years, p.133, where Hutton refutes the accusation that slowing down the game was a ‘cold-blooded deliberation’:
Tyson and Statham deserved all the help I could give them in field placings. Now and again I had a chat with one of them, a ploy I copied from the master tactician himself, Bradman. I was not as deliberate as Stollmeyer over field placings, and the tempo of play in 1954/55 could not have been bad as the first four Tests all ended with more than a day to spare.’
Graveney thought Benaud also ‘learnt this knack from Len Hutton, Len was another who could make you think that his whole object in life was to cause you as much discomfort at the crease as possible, and he just knew how to do it’ (Tom Graveney on Cricket, p.51).
‘gracious persuasion’
Vaneisa Baksh, in a short piece first published in Wisden Asia Cricket magazine.
‘We had gone far beyond a game …’
Beyond a Boundary, p.250, then after my ellipsis, p.252.
‘one from ten leaves nought’
A famous phrase, dated as early as 1959 in some accounts. Marvin Hill, in an article entitled ‘A Nation Divided’, asserts Williams uttered them as late as March 1962:
Times had changed since 1959, when Eric Williams had offered to fund small-island development. He was now evincing the bitterness of the past four years in an increasingly nationalistic and personalistic tone. Williams especially abhorred the frequent battles with Grantley Adams of Barbados and the even more provincial leaders of the Leeward and Wind- ward Islands. Williams also deplored the lack of West Indian nationalism and the lack of coherence in the so-called Federal party. At this point, he felt that the best opportunity for positive change rested in his two-island state and his own Peoples’ National Movement.
(Latin American Research Review, 26. 2, [1991], p.11 (pp. 3–37).
PAGE 368
‘Cricket in 1963 was Frank Worrell!’
Barker, Summer Spectacular, p.117.
‘injected new life into Test cricket’ … ‘Thirty Years’ War of Negativity’
Barker, Summer Spectacular, p.59, p.13.
‘the world’s oldest living cricketer’
Barker, Summer Spectacular, p.7.
‘our aim is to go all out to win and enjoy ourselves doing so’
Hunte, quoted by Gordon Ross in his History of West Indies Cricket, p.93.
‘to give West Indian cricket equality with England and Australia’
Worrell, quoted at The Oval by J.L.Manning in the Daily Mail, 22 August 1963. Worrell went on to ask the rhetorical question: ‘Do you think I have succeeded?’
Alan Ross, at the time of the ICC meeting, asserted that West Indies ‘clearly rank as one of the three Great Powers of Cricket’ (Guardian, 29 June 1963).
Michael Down points out that the 1963 tour grossed a greater profit than the Australian tour of 1961 and that ‘the enormity of this was not lost on the counties’ when re-arranging the schedules (Is It Cricket?, p.43).
‘my aim was always to see the West Indies moulded…’
A famous quotation, cited for example in Greg Wood’s From Lilliput to Lord’s, but I must confess I have yet to find the primary source.
The BBC interrupted a news broadcast to bring viewers coverage of the final over…
Wooldridge, Cricket, Lovely Cricket, p.67.
Peter Hennessy (Having It So Good, p.315n.) provides an anecdote which places this series in the same Cold War atmosphere in which we began the book:
During the last fraught over of the June 1963 Lord’s Test against the West Indies when the outcome could have been a draw (which it was), a tie, or victory for either side, I am reliably informed that all the British early-warning screens were tuned to the BBC’s transmission from Lord’s. As my anonymous informant pointed out, the need for England’s Colin Cowdrey to return to the field, despite having earlier retired hurt with a broken arm, meant the whole thing took much longer than four minutes to complete (the warning to which RAF Fylingdales was geared) and ‘the Russians could have had us cost-free!’
more than six million calls were made to the UMP latest-score service…
Wooldridge, Cricket, Lovely Cricket, p.10.
and the revenue that could be channelled back into county cricket
Michael Down points out that the 1963 tour grossed a greater profit than the Australian tour of 1961 and that ‘the enormity of this was not lost on the counties’ when re-arranging the schedules (Is It Cricket?, p.43).
‘dual success…’ … ‘truly bipartisan crowds’ … ‘the colour prejudice…’
Arlott, p.166.
PAGE 369
‘subtle part’ in the triumph
Arlott, p.166.
Constantine made the same point more clearly: ‘It was to be expected that for the tour of England Worrell would be the logical captain, and when he was selected, and a black man ‘Skins’ Gaskin appointed manager, the clock had gone full circle’ (Changing Face of Cricket, p140).
John Figueroa concurred: ‘What made the difference in this tour, as far as morale and pulling together went, was the presence not only of Frank Worrell but also of Berkeley Gaskin (West Indies in England, p.71).
‘VE Night’
Wooldridge, Cricket, Lovely Cricket, p.151.
[I have taken a couple of small liberties here. First, Wooldridge was specifically describing the scenes when the ninth English wicket fell in the first innings: ‘Twenty thousand arms were flung up in somewhat superfluous appeal, cushions went with them and down along the boundaries it looked like VE-night’. Second, I thought ‘VE Night’ would be more familiar than ‘VE-night’.]
‘the game’s upper crust’ as well as the ‘man in the street’
Clarke, Cricket With a Swing, p.14.
‘laughed his way home from Leeds’ … ‘time and time again…’
Robins, as reported by Ian Wooldridge, Daily Mail, 29 June 1963.
‘We return to the Caribbean proud men…’
Letter to Robins, quoted in Rendell’s biography, p.126
‘a human game’, a truth long hidden ‘to the sort who say…’
Robertson-Glasgow, The Cricketer, 44.12 (16 August 1963), p.23.
Compare Trelford’s anecdote where Hutton enthused over a photograph of a perfect forward defensive by Ponsford: ‘A straight bat isn’t just a symbol of moral rectitude, you know, it’s as we say in Yorkshire, a more businesslike way to play’ (Len Hutton Remembered, p.43).
PAGE 370
J.L. Manning, the Daily Mail sports columnist…
Daily Mail, 22 August 1963.
‘Saturday-afternoon cricket’
Watson, quoted in Clarke, Cricket with a Swing, p.143.
At Edgbaston, apparently going for a target of 309 at over a run-a-minute, West Indies were all out for 91, a collapse which revived some of the calypso clichés. In the next Test, after Worrell had declined to enforce the follow on, they treated the Headingley crowd to a day of sparkling strokeplay. Otherwise, they tended to play at an orthodox Test-match tempo.
‘played the English at their own game’
Barker, Summer Spectacular, p.100.
‘Hutton, I imagine, would have done the same as Worrell did…’
Ross, The West Indies at Lord’s.
the way Tyson and Statham got ‘on top’ of the Australians under Hutton
Evans, in his People column ghosted by Clive Taylor.
Griffith broke a few bones in the county games…
The injury to Cowdrey at Lord’s (in fact caused by Hall) was presaged in the early county games when Jackie Bond’s wrist was broken, Doug Padgett’s cheekbone was fractured and John Hampshire was hit on the head.
‘frightening blitzes’ of bouncers
Wooldridge, Cricket, Lovely Cricket, p.141.
‘mutterings’ about Griffith’s action
Barker, Summer Spectacular, p.88.
considered a ‘hanging judge’ on the issue of throwing
Wooldridge, Cricket, Lovely Cricket, p.20.
(in the last series played under the back-foot no-ball law)
See this 2017 Guardian article by for a useful summary of the change in the law.
‘Frank was very nice about it’ when he gave the first caution…
Clarke, Cricket with a Swing, p.159, p.161.
PAGE 371
‘popular and vital force’ … ‘romantic and glorious’
Wooldridge, Cricket Lovely Cricket, p.11; Ross, West Indians at Lord’s, p.73.
Compare Swanton: ‘I have not known a better series than this in an experience going back now, it is rather sad to think, a quarter of a century. Nor have I known, looking round all the Test-playing countries, a better captain’ (Last Over, p. 172).
Peter Wilson, such a critic of Hutton, rejoiced that the West Indies and their ‘vivid supporters’ had produced ‘the kind of cricket that everyone wants to watch…and hear’.
Cardus thought the 1963 tourists were ‘the most triumphant and magnetic team to play Test matches’ (Fourth Innings, p.104).
‘The first impression was of the gravitas of Frank Worrell …’
Simon Barnes, ‘The Making of the Man’, The Nightwatchman (Barbados special edition, 2016).
The BBC ran that programme for another 15 years…
Indeed, Trueman celebrated his 300 Test wickets by going out to see the Minstrels and, as late as 1997, seemed proud to assert that ‘The Black and White Minstrels could almost have been signed up as an integral part of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, so close did our association become’ (Fred Trueman Talking Cricket, p. 19).
At least programming was not quite as insensitive as in 1948, when a feature about the leg-spinner Eric Hollies appeared next in the schedule to a BBC Children’s Hour programme titled ‘The Coloured Coons: A Children’s Double Minstrel Show’ (as reported in Parkinson, Strange Death of Leg Spin). But the survival of the Minstrel Show into the late 1970s now seems extraordinary, as this article on the BBC’s own website by David Hendy suggests.
‘changed cricket’s possibilities and, for so many people who watched…’
Barnes, ‘The Making of the Man’. [I have silently, but only slightly, changed the punctuation of the sentence.]
‘It was the first time in my life…’ … ‘frightened’ … ‘so calm, honest, loving’
Geoff Cope, In Sunshine and in Shadow, pp.30-31.
‘a gale of change has blown through the hallowed halls of cricket’
As quoted by Ian McDonald in Bowling was Superfine, p.14.
the year Philip Larkin thought ‘sexual intercourse’ began
In ‘Annus Mirabilis’, which my generation of Hull schoolboys knew off by heart:
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the “Chatterley” ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
So did the Gillette Cup
The new 60-overs competition was in fact unsponsored in its first season in 1963 and usually called the Knockout Cup, but Gillette began their long association the next year.
Trueman had become a quintessential modern celebrity
Michael Henderson: ‘Conservative or bolshy, proletarian or classless, there can be no argument about his status. Trueman takes his place alongside Botham and Denis Compton in English cricket’s post-war trinity. They were not ‘characters’, as the modern idiom has it. They were stars, as in twinkle, twinkle’ (That Will Be England Gone, p.112).
PAGE 372
‘The part must not be greater than the whole.’
Worrell’s protest is quoted at length in Ivo Tennant’s biography (p.93): ‘The only possible reason for this match seems to be to permit the Barbadians to prove that the Barbados team is better than West Indies. This savours of bigotry, vanity and insularity.’
‘He was a Federalist, nearest whose heart was the unity…’
Swanton, Last Over, p.184-85. [I have taken the liberty of rearranging the order of the two passages quoted].
an ‘unrelenting and offensive’ home press…
Stollmeyer, Everything Under the Sun, p.178.
‘smiling, unruffled’ … ‘I knew that here was a worthy successor…’
Sobers, King Cricket, p.20, p.24
PAGE 373
‘I think the Caribbean as a whole has lost a great man.’
Worrell, quoted in The Gleaner, 12 September 1989, p.14.