Gubby Under Pressure

Unfortunately, things did not go the way expected and by the end of the day Australia had reduced England’s lead to 201 for the loss of only one wicket, L.P.J.O’Brien: and Bradman was 57 not out. It must have been an anxious night for Allen too. Were Australia on the brink of a revival? Was Bradman going to come back the next day and score one of his great double centuries? And Allen would have been infuriated that such questions would never have arisen if Robins had held on to a catch earlier that afternoon, when Bradman had hooked Allen straight to him at square leg. Harris said it was ‘a difficult chance’ and Cardus doesn’t mention it at all, but Allen was bitterly disappointed that his friend had let him down and might possibly have cost England the match. Fifty years later in Wisden Cricket Monthly , John Arlott reported that when Robins, full of remorse, went to Allen to apologise, he had received the sarcastic reply: ‘Don’t give it a thought, Walter, it has probably cost us the rubber, but don’t give it a thought.’ Swanton, on the other hand, quoted Allen as saying: ‘Oh, forget it, old boy, it’s probably cost us the rubber, but what the hell!’ Whatever the actual words were, obviously something sharp was said and Swanton tries to play the situation down by adding Allen’s comment that ‘Robbie was such a temperamental chap I thought the best thing was to try and make him laugh.’ But from that moment onwards, Allen used the privacy of his letters to reveal his gradual loss of confidence in Robins’ value to the team, which Swanton discreetly ignores. That evening Allen penned his concerns. ‘I am dead tired having been in the field all day and bowled a lot. Having deliberated for hours, I decided to declare our first innings at 426 for 6 closed and it went right for us. Voce again bowled magnificently and though we might have got them a bit cheaper 80 was good The cricket 47 Second Test at Sydney. Allen brings Australia’s first innings to an end by bowling F.A.Ward for a duck