All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

226 Peter Allan Hall who had taken 76 Shield wickets in the previous two seasons, and Allan’s return to the side at Brisbane in October 1963 wasn’t that promising. Queensland took up most of the first two days scoring 613, Peter Burge contributing a State record 283 (since beaten only by Martin Love’s undefeated 300 against Victoria in 2003/04). Allan ended the day well, quickly trapping opener Grahame Thomas in front of the stumps for two, but that was as far as his success went. New South Wales amassed 661(Bobby Simpson 359) and he finished with one for 144 from 25 overs. Things looked up after that and with 23 wickets Allan finished the season as his side’s most successful bowler. Another 36 wickets the following season and Allan had booked himself a place on the Australian tour of the West Indies in the spring of 1965. Unfortunately illness restricted him to only four appearances, and five wickets. Back in Australia Allan was clearly still in the selectors’ thoughts and, having begun the season well, he was picked to share the new ball with Neil Hawke in the First Test against England at Brisbane in December 1965. Graham McKenzie had dropped out of the Australian 12 with back trouble, but then surprisingly appeared for Western Australia in the match being played at the same time in Adelaide. Allan took two wickets, including bowling the England captain Mike Smith for 16, but it was not enough to keep him in the side for the Second Test. Victoria and Queensland weren’t the strongest teams in the Shield when they met at the beginning of 1966. In fact at the end of the season they occupied the bottom two places in the table. (Victoria would win the Shield the following season but Queensland would once again finish last.) Victoria were missing Bill Lawry and Bob Cowper, both playing in the Third Test (which England would win by an innings and 93 runs). Having said that, they still had a decent batting line-up, including Ian Redpath, Keith Stackpole and Paul Sheahan, who would go on to score over 9,000 Test runs between them. Queensland were similarly missing captain Burge, wicketkeeper Wally Grout and allrounder Tom Veivers. The visitors batted first and were dismissed for just 180, Keith Stackpole taking a career-best five for 38 with his leg breaks. Only three batsmen reached double figures: Des Bull (78), Bill Buckle (44), and the splendidly- named wrist-spinner Dennis Lillie (13). Victoria were 76 for four by close of play, Allan having taken all four for 32. After having Graeme Watson caught by stand-in captain Sam Trimble and then picking up Redpath leg-before, he struck two further important blows just before the close. First he had Victoria’s captain Jack Potter, who had made 221 against New South Wales in his previous match, caught by wicketkeeper Lewis Cooper, and then bowled the powerful Stackpole. Next morning Queensland reached 100 without further loss but then a spectacular collapse, which began when Allan bowled wicketkeeper Ray Jordon, reduced them to 100 for eight. On his first-class debut slow left- armer John Swanson was the middle man in a trio of ducks. He would even things up a bit next day by making Allan the first of his 36 first- class victims. David Anderson, who had gone in first wicket down and top scored with 45, went at 123 after batting resolutely for more than two