Gubby Under Pressure

were touring South Africa. There were no pressures on Holmes to succeed with his team of mainly young hopefuls, and all reports said that the purpose of the tour to prepare the ground for Allen’s tour a year later, by establishing good public and private relationships on a social level, had been achieved. The clue may lie in the timing of Allen’s actual writing of his official report. He had begun to put pen to paper while sailing from New Zealand to California at the same time he had heard disquieting news from England. Allen’s misgivings regarding the continued presence of Holmes among candidates for the England captaincy had in no way diminished over the past eight months and when Allen heard that his rival had been co-opted onto the selection panel, he took time out from compiling his report to knock the appointment. ‘We heard the news by cable that Errol Holmes had been co-opted as selector. What does that mean, I wonder? It look like two things from the distance of 10,000 miles: 1 That the Selection Committee, because of its lack of youth, has been badly attacked in the papers and that Plum thought this action might appease the wolves. 2 That he will captain England this summer. It seems a little early to decide that in view of his past BAD record in Test cricket. All the team on the ship don’t fancy him.’ Allen’s suggestion that every member of the team on the ship did not support the possible choice of Holmes as England captain, must surely have been an exaggeration. Hardstaff and Sims had both enjoyed greater success under Holmes’ leadership in the Australasian tour of 1935/36 than under Allen or Robins in 1936/37; and Wyatt had taken Holmes on tour to the West Indies in 1934/35 as his vice-captain with Ames, Hammond, Leyland and Farnes playing under him on occasions. Holmes never knew that Allen was working against him and always believed that ‘Allen and I were very good friends’. Allen would receive some more upsetting news when he arrived back at Lord’s just in time to play his part in the 150th anniversary celebrations, by acting as captain of his 1936/37 MCC touring team against the Rest of England. Holmes had been chosen as the opposing captain! Clearly disturbed by this confrontation, Allen promptly bagged a ‘pair’, but Holmes hardly impressed with a mere 19 runs from his two innings. At least Allen could take some satisfaction from the match by taking six wickets, although Holmes was not one of his victims, and playing a major role in bowling his team to victory. A cursory glance at the statistical tour records of the four captains listed by Allen as ‘failures’ indicates that he may have a case, but a closer study of their achievements suggests otherwise. Arthur Gilligan may have lost the 1924/25 series 4-1, but maintained his optimistic attitude throughout. He almost won the Third Test with his own effort going in at seventh wicket down and scoring 31 runs out of 84 taking England to just eleven runs short of success, and then inspired his players to an innings victory in the next Test. As a tailender he was not expected to make many runs, but opening the bowling with Tate it must be admitted that he was less successful than might have been hoped, taking only ten wickets in the series. At least he provided steady support for Tate who had 29 victims at the other end. Gilligan’s record for the whole tour was not so bad either, finishing with a batting average of 17·85 and taking 28 wickets in all matches. The assessment 64