Gubby Under Pressure

result of the early tutelage or because he always had been capable of performing his duties efficiently, by the end of the tour that is exactly what Howard was doing. And probably would have been invited to do so again in 1940/41 if the Second World War hadn’t intervened. When that conflict eventually ended, his success had not been forgotten and he was asked to manage the MCC touring party to Australia in the first post-war tour in 1946/47. Stand and deliver Added to Allen’s workload was the responsibility for making appropriate replies in response to speeches of welcome from town and city mayors, and other leading officials, on arrival at each new destination in Australia. Four years earlier, Jardine had spoken as briefly as possible, leaving Warner to pontificate at greater length on the ties that bonded the two great countries together. It seems that Allen had decided, right from the start, that Howard was not in the same league as Warner when it came to the speaker’s platform. So Allen shouldered that load as well. Perhaps he was flattered by all the attention and the desire of his Australian hosts to hear what he had to say. There can be no doubt that they were pleased to see him and even more pleased to hear him. By all accounts, Allen was not a natural speaker but soon became proficient. According to Bruce Harris he was ‘no orator’ and ‘had to master the art of speaking as he went along. A very good, if unpretentious, job he made of it’. Allen was quite pleased with his first, tentative steps as the voice of the team and representative of MCC. Only four days after arrival in Perth, he expressed his satisfaction with the way audiences had responded: ‘I made five speeches in my first 48 hours in the country and, though I say so who perhaps shouldn’t, they seem to have gone very well indeed. Charles Fry said they reminded him of someone stroking a cat. The only one which I think was really good was my broadcast to the whole of Australia. I was furious when I heard it had been announced in all the papers in all the states as it gave me no way out, but I am glad now that I did it. I think I have got over my nervousness but am doing everything to discourage it. People keep coming up to me and saying “you seem to enjoy it” and I don’t want to earn that reputation.’ The text of Allen’s speeches obviously varied according to the occasion and situation, but he had ruefully realised early on that there were going to be quite a few of them, when he was reported as saying: ‘The Lord Mayor says he knows very little about cricket. Well, I know very little about Lord Mayors, but I shall know a great deal more about them before I leave Australia!’ And taking over the mantle of Warner, he frequently referred to the important nature of his team’s visit by declaring that: ‘We came here to play cricket but we realise too that we do bring the best wishes of the English people to you in Australia; if we can do anything to cement the bonds which hold us together, we shall regard it as our duty and pleasure.’ Harris also commented that in Allen’s early speeches he attempted to assure the Australians that there would be no repetition of the previous tour’s bowling controversy by asserting that ‘his side will play the sort of cricket the Australians like to see.’ Managing the show 18