All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

231 Ian Brayshaw Eastwood in his first two overs. At the close Victoria were 35 for two, of which Lawry had made just two. Next morning, in front of a crowd of over 4,000, Brayshaw soon added to his haul, quickly bowling Cowper and Potter, and then having Stackpole caught by Jock Irvine, all within the space of five balls. Lawry and Watson took the score to 104 before Brayshaw induced Watson to give a catch to Inverarity at slip. Having batted 203 minutes for 47, the obdurate Lawry was finally prised out at 138, brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Gordon Becker. The tail didn’t hang about, the last three wickets falling for one run with Brayshaw completing the full house by dismissing Alan Connolly for a duck courtesy of another sharp Inverarity slip catch. A fine bowler for state and country, in 201 first-class matches Connolly never made a fifty. Helped by a strong breeze, humidity and a lively wicket, Brayshaw had bowled with fine control of swing and cut and had been well supported by his close fielders. Like Peter Allan, he had broken some long-standing records. The previous best figures at the WACA were by Denijs Morkel who had followed up his 150 not out for the 1931/32 touring South Africans by taking eight state wickets (including John Inverarity’s father) for 13, whilst the previous best figures for Western Australia were eight for 28 against Victoria by medium pacer Bobby Selk in March 1910 in the last of five matches played at the Fremantle Oval. Western Australia made 371 in their second innings, with main contributions coming from Becker (95) and Inverarity (82). Brayshaw failed to score, dismissed again by Watson. For the second time in the match wicketkeeper Ray Jordon prevented any byes. When he retired three years later ‘Slug’ Jordon was Victoria’s then most successful wicketkeeper with 260 victims. He never played for Australia, although, like Irvine, he toured India and South Africa in 1969/70. Set an almost impossible 381 to win in five hours, Victoria fell well short. This time Lock (five for 36) did most of the damage. Brayshaw’s contribution was a more modest two for 46. However one of his wickets was the key one of Lawry, bowled for 53 just when he was getting set for a long stay. The return match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground at the end of the season was the Shield decider. Victoria went into it leading Western Australia by two points, but a ten wicket defeat saw the Shield go west. Brayshaw’s performance this time was more modest: just one wicket and an innings of 29. However, as an ever-present, with 268 runs and 24 wickets his contribution over the whole season had been considerable. Remarkably, after taking his all-ten it would be another eight years before Brayshaw took five in an innings again (well, actually six for 48 against Queensland). And then two seasons later, his final one, he not only came second in the national averages with 35 wickets at 18 apiece but scored 491 runs at an average of 38. In 101 first-class matches, all played for Western Australia, his final tally was 4,325 runs (including three centuries) at 31.80, 178 wickets at 25.08, and 108 catches, mainly in the slips.