A
rthur Gilligan put it best when he remarked
after the final Test of 1948 that England had
lost “not only the Ashes, but the sackcloth as
well.” From their arrival, Don Bradman’s
Australians proved worthy of comparison with their
most illustrious predecessors, and arguably ranked as
the best-balanced side of all. He was by then approaching
his 40th birthday, and after watching him bat in 1947 one
critic unkindly wrote, “I have seen the ghost of a once fine
batsman.” On the 1948 tour – in which he led his team
through the 31-match programme unbeaten – ‘the ghost’
scored 11 centuries, amassing 2,428 first-class runs at an
average fractionally under 90, which makes one wonder
what he might have done had he really put his mind to it.
The first Test began at Trent Bridge on June 10. It was
raining. England’s Norman Yardley won the toss and
perhaps rashly elected to bat. England made just 165,
with Jim Laker, at No.9, improbably top-scoring with- In reply the tourists ran up 509, with centuries from
Bradman and Lindsay Hassett. Laker took four wickets.
In their second innings, England were 39 for 2, 305
behind, when Denis Compton joined Len Hutton. The
artist and the artisan (though frequently they swapped
roles when it suited) put on 111, at one time threatening
to deny Australia victory. Miller greeted this development
by bowling five bouncers in an over, which had the
Nottingham crowd “vocally dissatisfied”, in the measured
words of the county secretary HA Brown, who broadcast
an appeal for calm. England made 441, with Compton
going on to 184 in 413 minutes, leaving Australia a target
of 98, which they reached for the loss of two wickets.
The second Test at Lord’s took broadly the same course.
Australia batted first for 350, with a 209-minute century
from Arthur Morris. Bradman was caught for the third
successive time by Hutton in the leg-trap off Alec Bedser.
Some 40 years later, both Doug Wright and Godfrey
Evans remained convinced that Morris, then on 52, had
snicked the former into the latter’s gloves but declined
to walk. “I was quite surprised,” Evans told me, adding
a choice intensifier or two, “particularly when back in
the pavilion Morris himself told me he’d hit it.” Sharp
words ensued, although for the most part the series was
played in a good spirit. “We enjoyed a few beers together,”
Evans confirmed, remembering a night during the Oval
Test when he and Denis Compton returned Keith Miller
to the Australians’ hotel in a wheelbarrow they had
requisitioned from a market porter at Covent Garden.
The final upshot of the Test was an England target of 596,
which they comprehensively failed to reach, Ernie Toshack
taking 5 for 40, frequently entertaining spectators with
his distinctive ‘Ow Wizz Ee’ appealing. Australia won the
150th Test between the sides by 409 runs.
A national sensation preceded the next one, at Old
Trafford: Hutton was dropped. The shock among his
England team-mates was matched only by the glee of the
Australians. Miller told me: “We thought we’d misheard
the announcer when he read out the names on the radio.”
In a calming editorial, The Times called it a “temporary
measure”, a result of Hutton’s alleged concern at being
hit on his badly damaged left arm – now two inches
shorter than the right one, thanks to a wartime gym
injury – by Miller and his partner-in-arms Ray Lindwall.
In the event, the Yorkshireman’s replacement, 35-year-
old George Emmett of Gloucestershire, made 10 and 0.
Hutton was restored to the side for the next Test; Emmett
did not play a Test again. The playing highlights were a
first-innings score of 145 not out by Compton, the last
140 of which he made with a half-dozen stitches in hisThe story of the Tests
Christopher Sandford recounts the drama of an amazing Headingley chase, and Bradman’s anticlimactic exit
Below
Spectators queue
outside Lord’s
ahead of play in
the second Test
Below right
Don Bradman cuts
in his final series;
Godfrey Evans
keeps wicket and
Bill Edrich waits
at slip
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