Gubby Under Pressure

The letters 89 great performance tomorrow if we are going to win this blasted match. Ever since 1937 came in nothing has gone right for us in the Test matches and I am now getting pretty anxious about the issue. I have a reputation of being a lucky captain but I am damned if I can see it at all. However, perhaps I am unnecessarily depressed tonight and things may come right in the end. I wouldn’t in the least mind losing this match if we can win the 5th in Melbourne as I should love to see the crowd there, they are so hopelessly one-sided. I have no news other than about the cricket as I have done nothing else since I arrived in Adelaide. We moved down to our sea-side hotel at Seacliff last Thursday and it has been an unqualified success. The manager is a charming man and has done everything possible to make us comfortable. It is fairly clean and cool and right on the sea. I strained one of the big muscles up the back of my left leg in my third over on Friday and I am afraid it is going to worry me all the match. It is nothing to do with my old injury and will recover in a week or 10 days if and when I can give it complete rest. Wallie Hammond is not well and going through a bout of not being able to sleep which is worrying for him and me. Bill Voce has also got a bad back and Robbie has been hit over the heart so we are a side of crocks at present. I am afraid I have now missed the air mail so this letter will have to wait until next Friday by which time I suppose we shall know the result of the match. I hope it will end in jubilation. Later We had another bad day yesterday and I am afraid we are now certain to lose this match. Australian cricket simply does not exist and we have proved that match upon match, it is simply Bradman. Everything will now rest on Melbourne and what a lousy match it will be with 100,000 people on the ground per day and only about 99,850 there simply to scream for Australia. However it would be lovely to beat them in front of their own crowd and I would much rather we won in the last match but can we do it? I doubt it. If only I could win the toss for a change. Must stop. Best love to Dad. Best love Obbie Letter Twenty-Two Hotel Windsor Melbourne Feb 8 1937 Darling Dad, Just a short note in great haste to tell you that I am all right and not too depressed by our defeat in Adelaide. We undoubtedly threw the match away by our bad batting in the 1st innings and never really recovered from the shock. I personally think, funny though it may sound, that that match showed us that we can win the last battle for the following reasons given reasonable luck. 1. Fleetwood-Smith was new to us and now we have learned him, we will not be on the defensive against him next time. 2. That Bradman is the only danger. He has made 2 big scores against us so far and they have both been on the really slow wickets and the Melbourne wicket should be faster than any of the others on which we have played. 3. That O’Reilly still can’t bowl. 4. We were not a fit side in Adelaide. Hammond had had a touch of insomnia for a fortnight. Voce’s back was bad and he ought not to have played and I broke down on the first morning. It is the big muscle up the back of my left leg and it should be quite sound for the State match just before the Test match. It is nothing to do with my old trouble so I am not alarmed. The family have been in Melbourne in force this weekend. Denis and Margaret motored down to take David, his very nice son, to Geelong for his first term. The ‘Orion’ bringing hundreds of other Allens to Australia has been in port. We drove down and saw them all last night but I got carried off by the Purser, the Doctor and several stewards. Uncle Jack looked pretty well but that’s all. I shall see of them all up in Sydney next weekend. I am off tomorrow morning at 7.0 in a 25 h.p. Morris, which Lord Nuffield arranged for me, to motor to Canberra, 412 miles in the day, to stay with