Gubby Under Pressure

Australians follow-on in the Second Test, must have given him pause for thought. At a critical point, his nerve failed him, but what a glorious gamble it would have been and who would have been so mean-spirited as to chastise him if it had failed? In fact, England did come close to winning when Australia continued their innings on the Monday and had lost five wickets for 97 by mid-afternoon, after showers had interrupted play. It meant a lead of only 221 and with only another five wickets in hand the match was wide open. Unfortunately for England, one of those five remaining wickets was Bradman, who now came into bat with his reputation and hold on the captaincy under threat from another failure. Together with Fingleton he saw Australia through to the end of the day at 194 for five. Next day, on a docile wicket, Bradman broke the record for the highest score in a Test match in Australia against England. With Fingleton he helped add 346 runs for the sixth wicket breaking more records, and was still not out at the end of the day with Australia 624 runs in front. When England finally started their second innings they faced a target of 689: it is a tribute to Allen’s team to note that they never gave up in a task that was clearly beyond them. At least it gave Robins another chance to get back into Allen’s good books, with a cheeky innings of 61, described by Cardus as ‘His gay, impudent dartings up and down were like a sort of whimsical dance of death in England’s extreme hour.’ Whimsical and gay were far from featuring in Allen’s brief thoughts on the match. ‘We were terribly unlucky in every possible way in the Test match and I can only describe it as a tragedy. We were in an impregnable position on the Friday night and undoubtedly had the match well won, but the rain fell and the wicket was the worst I have ever seen. We certainly had the weather on our side in the first two matches but don’t forget we were winning both of them when [the rain] did fall, whereas the Australians were in a powerless position when it came to their aid. Bradman played pretty well, but he was dreadfully lucky. Whether it will now mean he is going to be the match winner for the rest of the tour, I don’t know. Actually I think we shall scramble home in Adelaide especially if I can win the toss: if we don’t win there I fear we are beat. It will be terrible if we now lose as we had the whole within our grasp last Friday.’ Victory for some members of the Australian teamwas not quite as sweet as they had expected. O’Reilly, O’Brien, Fingleton, McCabe and Fleetwood-Smith were called to a meeting in the Victorian Cricket Association rooms at the ground, immediately after the match ended. The Australian Board chairman, Dr Allen Robertson, in front of three other members of the Board, read out a list of misdemeanours: too much drinking, late hours, neglected fitness and lack of full support for their captain. All five players were Catholics, whereas Robertson and his fellow Board members were freemasons. Bradman was a mason too but not present and when asked later, denied knowing anything about the meeting, although someone had tipped off the press in advance. Nevertheless, someone must have blown the whistle on the Catholic players and it is significant that Bradman appears to have pointed them out to Allen after the Second Test almost a month earlier. Whether the charges were true or not, the players escaped with a warning and knuckled down to play their part in Bradman’s campaign to keep the Ashes in Australia. The cricket 52