Cricket memories—bitter and sweet

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 22

Cricket memories—bitter and sweet

Bodyline: The Novel. By Pau! Wheeler. Faber and Faber, 1983. 211 pp. $21.95.

(Reviewed by R. T. Brittenden)

■ Trevor Chappell’s infamous underarm delivery to Brian McKechnie at the Melbourne Cricket Ground caused an uproar throughout the cricket world. But if sensations could be measured, it was no more than a November 5 cracker to the high explosive shell of England’s tour of Australia in 1932-33.

The tactical policy adopted by the England captain, D. R. Jardine — setting an almost entirely leg field for a battery of fast bowlers who pitched the ball short about the leg stump — has been attacked, defended, and recalled time and again in the last 50 years. It is a wonder, perhaps, that Paul Wheeler is the first to seize the situation and produce a novel based on it. But “Bodyline: The Novel” may cause almost as much unhappiness as the bodyline tour. Some of those who played in this grim series are still alive. Some are not at all happy that

the author has, they say, distorted the facts, but has drawn his own characters and presented them as the players of the time. A successful screen writer (for “Tenko,” “Minder” and “Poldark”) Wheeler is working with David Puttnam (“Chariots of Fire”) on a film based on the most controversial cricket tour of all time.

In his book, Wheeler is highly successful in recapturing the emotive situations which arose, and his descriptions of the play seem very real and reasonable. If he has distorted his characters (and has he?) he has turned out a very lively, very readable novel. There is one unresolved mystery about this publication. According to the London “Daily Mail,” the book has outraged no-one more than G. 0. “Gubby” Allen, a member of Jardine’s team, later an England selector, and president of the M.C.C. Yet the dust jacket says that the photograph on the front (the Australian captain Bill Woodfull being hit under the heart) is by Gubby Allen. Coincidence? Mistake? Mischief?

Summer Days. Edited by Michael Meyer. Oxford, 1983. 255 pp. $8.50. This is a sort of Claytons for cricket enthusiasts — a collection of the works of writers on cricket when you do not want a collection of the works of cricket writers.

Mr Meyer has put together an impressive list of authors and their views on or memories of the game. Among them are Kingsley Amis, Michael Holroyd, Hammond Innes, Bernard Lovell, Harold Pinter, Simon Raven and Alec Waugh. It is a diverting book, with as many changes of mood and colour as there are authors. There are some delightful essays. To be recommended, particularly, are Bernard Lovell’s “The Moon Match” played on a ground near Jodrell Bank as the Russians’ first rocket was on its way to the moon; Laurie Lee’s “Hill Cricket” is a delight. And there are many others, making this exceptionally good value for money.

Lord Harris. By James D. Coldham. Allen and Unwin, 1983. 171 pp. $37.50.

W. G. Grace has long been identified with the swift rise in cricket’s popularity in the late Victorian years. Larger than life size, the bearded doctor set the records, brought the crowds. But on a garden wall at Lord’s, there is a plaque to recognise the service to cricket of George Robert Canning, Lord Harris.

Lord Harris was Grace’s equal in his contribution to cricket. He was a fine player himself, and led England’s second team to Australia in 1878-79. “But his unique impact has been as a Statesman, administrator, reformer, welfare officer and writer par excellence, whose influence in the council chamber and the press ran parallel for many years to that of WG on the field,” the author says. “Lord Harris” is high-priced, but it is a fascinating look into the life and times of a great Victorian. It is a thoroughly researched, well written story of a wellborn Englishman, a former Governor of Bombay, a tireless worker for the summer game, and England’s victorious captain over Australia in the first test match ever played at Lord’s.