ten boundaries in making 56 and Trevor Bailey completed the double with some spirited fast bowling. Worcestershire had to follow on 232 behind the Essex total of 456 but a hundred from Cooper saved the day. In contrast to Worcestershire, who fielded most of their pre-war side when play resumed in 1946, Essex were left mourning the deaths of Ken Farnes and Laurie Eastman. Stan Nichols was too old for first-class cricket and Jack O’Connor, due to retire in 1939, had secured an important post as a coach. However, Tom Pearce continued as captain, Dodds and Sonny Avery became one of the best opening partnerships in county cricket and the cousins Ray and Peter Smith were allrounders who virtually carried the attack, Ray with medium-pace or off breaks, Peter with leg breaks and googlies. Doug Insole came in as a batsman good enough to play for England and, above all else, there was to be Trevor Bailey. Great things had been predicted when he was at Dulwich College; his reputation was enhanced as a batsman and right-arm fast medium bowler at Cambridge and he was in the England team by 1949. Bailey’s deeds in the Test arena have sometimes obscured the fact that he could be a match-winning all rounder in county cricket, where his batting was much more attractive. He was appointed assistant secretary to Essex at the end of 1948, this enabling him able to play regularly for the club as an amateur. Bailey marked his first appearance for the county with an undefeated 97 in the 1946 August Bank Holiday match at New Road. Worcestershire had won the Whitsun game at Chelmsford by five wickets; requiring 358 to win at Worcester they finished 31 short with two wickets remaining from 88 overs, 74 delivered by the Smiths. The issue, frustratingly, was wide open when time was called but there was even more thrilling finish at New Road in the Whitsuntide fixture of 1947. The Cooper brothers, Edwin and Fred, began with a partnership of 163 for the first wicket and Worcestershire made 371, which, despite an unbeaten 137 from Pearce, was enough to give them a lead of 111. The game turned on the final morning, when Worcestershire lost their last six remaining wickets for 109. Essex, needing 284 in four hours, were 63 for four but Pearce (96) remained until the score reached 220 for seven. Ray Smith hit 57 in 50 minutes and then in the last minute of the extra half-hour the wicket-keeper Tom Wade twice swept Jackson to the boundary to get Essex home by one wicket. A demolition job from Perks at Chelmsford brought due revenge for Worcestershire in August. Worcestershire won the August fixture again in 1948 at New Road despite Peter Smith’s eight for 123 in their second innings including three in four balls but the real drama that year was at Southend on 15 and 17 May. Instead of meeting Worcestershire – who faced Glamorgan - at Whitsuntide, Essex entertained the redoubtable 1948 Australians and the match entered cricket history when the tourists made 721 on the first day. Jack Fingleton, in Brightly Fades The Don , recalled the glorious weather of that Whit Saturday. He remembered the different smells along the front. He described the crowd thronging “the front slowly, amid varied yells and smells as the innumerable shops emit the odour of their eating wares and attendants advertise them. In quick succession one sniffs curried eels, elks, whelks, mussels, cockles, oysters and the like, and even early in the morning the sounds of community singing float out from the pubs.” A terrific round of applause from the packed ground greeted an off-drive for four by Sid Barnes in the first over. Barnes and Bill Brown opened the Australian innings with a partnership of 145 before Barnes (79) hit his own wicket. Bradman Essex v Worcestershire 162