Clem Hill's Reminiscences

each other’s ways in running between wickets. When I was 99, I asked him to be on the move to run a short one. Barnes sent up a short-pitched ball, which I could have square cut to the boundary, but, uppermost in my mind was the thought that I had told Duff to be ready for a single. I attempted to pat it down quietly to third man, but instead touched it into the slips, and was caught. The second dismissal was on the Adelaide Oval. I hit a ball from Braund to the north-eastern boundary, where Tyldesley stepped on to the asphalt cycling track, threw out his left hand, and caught the ball. He did not know that he had brought about my dismissal. The arrangement used to be that if a fieldsman took a catch while he had a foot on the asphalt the batsman was not out. As, however, the umpire could not always tell if a fieldsman’s foot was on the paved track, it was decided by the captains that a catch anywhere on it was out. I knew this, but nobody had told Tyldesley about it. I was dismissed the third time when facing Jessop, a fairly fast bowler. He bowled one just outside my leg stump. I went to glance it fine but played it on to my pads. Then the ball rolled between my legs and I watched it go slowly towards my wicket. It was some seconds before the bails fell off. I have made this explanation to try to emphasise that it does not follow that a batsman is suffering from nerves because he loses his wicket when he approaches the century. 38 Our old wicket-keeper, Jim Kelly, distinguished himself in the fourth Test by catching eight batsmen out, four in each innings. Kelly was not brilliant like Blackham, Carter, and Oldfield; he was the solid and reliable type. Some stories are told about him. The ground on which we played Surrey was very short at one end and very long at the other. It was arranged that if a ball were played to leg at the short end and there was no fieldsman there, Kelly was to chase it. He was not fast at any time, but with his pads and gloves on he was much slower. He ran after one ball, and was pleased to think he had saved a four. Imagine his surprise when he was told the batsmen had run five. Wicket-keeper tied up with googly I will never forget the afternoon Kelly went in to bat against Middlesex at Lord’s for about ten minutes before time and came back with his eyes fairly staring out of his head and a look of surprise, and telling us in the dressing room that ‘there is a josser out there bowling leg breaks from the off.’ We had heard about this ‘josser’. 39 Plum Warner told us about him, but he was unknown to Kelly. He was none other than Bosanquet bowling his ‘googly’ for the first time against us. Jim stepped across to cut a ball which he thought was going away to the off, but it broke in and hit him on the pad. Four or five times this happened, much to our amusement. What a time we gave Kelly that evening! But we did not laugh so much when we had to face him for the first time. Bosanquet made all the Australians look silly at times. More of him later. MacLaren’s Tour of Australia 58 38 Hill has laboured hard with his explanations. 39 The word ‘josser’ has multiple meanings but in the context of its application to Bosanquet ‘outsider’ comes closest.