Gubby Under Pressure

transcriptions of the letters, commencing with those from 1932/33. But as I read and transcribed each of them in turn, I discovered that here were aspects of the history of the ‘bodyline’ tour previously ignored or unknown. The letters needed to be re-examined and analysed. The result was my book Gubby Allen: Bad Boy of Bodyline? published by Cricket Lore in 2004. When I turned to the letters of 1936/37, I had expected to find a fairly straightforward account of Allen’s experiences as captain in an exciting but, by comparison, less dramatic tour than that enjoyed four years before, plus a similar catalogue of visits to cocktail parties, dances, dinners, theatres, cinemas, race tracks, golf clubs and the homes of relatives. Certainly his social life is described in detail, the reunions with friends and family are all recorded, but to my surprise, the letters were riddled with Allen’s impatient response to the quite natural desire of all Australians to welcome and entertain the MCC team in an attempt to make amends for the unpleasantness of 1932/33. And this was coupled with Allen’s persistent condemnation of those members of his team who he believed were letting him down on the field and responsible for him failing to take the Ashes back to England. It is important to remember that the letters were being written in the middle of the demands of a time-consuming cricket and ‘goodwill’ tour in which Allen was playing a major role as England and MCC captain. They were written off the cuff in hotel rooms, train compartments, ship cabins and cricket pavilions, with no time for rewrites or second thoughts. I must confess that, when I had finished reading Allen’s 1936/37 letters from Australia, New Zealand and California, I felt almost as exhausted and disappointed as the author himself. The letters seem to have been written by at least three different people. First there was the dutiful son with good news about old friends and relatives. Then there was the anxious captain of an MCC touring team with inside information on how his players were performing and how the campaign to win back the Ashes was progressing. Finally there was the rebellious tourist, annoyed and frustrated by demands from people, official and unofficial, previously unknown to him, asking him to do this, do that, go here, go there, and make speeches in response to speeches of welcome from other strangers, when he would have much preferred to visit places and meet people of his own choice. I believe that by breaking up the contents of the letters into more easily digested sections I have helped to clarify Allen’s multi-personality record of the tour. Certainly they must be unique as a record of an England captain’s battle to steer his team to victory in an Ashes series, while struggling to maintain his health, both physical and mental, in response to disappointment, frustration, provocation and aggravation. Maybe Allen did not win back the Ashes; maybe he was harsh, unforgiving and less than helpful towards some of the members of his team; maybe he did exaggerate the pressures he was under; and maybe he did over-indulge in self-pity at times, but no one can deny that he cared and obviously cared very deeply. The one subject that is disappointingly conspicuous by its absence fromAllen’s 1936/37 letters is ‘bodyline’. Half of the MCC party that travelled to Australia under the leadership of Allen had been with him as team-mates four years earlier, and were re-visiting the scenes of shared bitter-sweet memories. And The story of the Gubby Allen letters 6