Young Bradman

30 Beginnings The governor, Sir Walter Davidson, chose a team captained by Hordern to play Sutton Forest. Hordern bowled, the governor umpired, and his team won. Bradman may have left it out of his life story because it did not fit his narrative. Nothing came of the encounter; Bradman’s bowling withered, although as late as February 1930 Arthur Mailey the spinner-journalist wrote that Bradman ‘bowls very well at times and as he bowls a faster break than most leg-break trundlers English wickets should assist him’. Nor would the story of the governor have sat easily with most readers, who never met ‘his excellency’, the peak of Sydney society. We can speculate that the whole day at the grand house may have been formal; slightly unreal – three of the governor’s batsmen retired, ‘under instructions … as time was short and the captain wished all the team to have the opportunity of an innings’; uneasy, even, as in the presence of royalty, that the governor was representing after all. We can imagine Bradman presented as an exotic local to visiting dignitaries; given empty words of praise, a condescending hand on the shoulder. By contrast, Bradman told in detail the story of his first century, aged 12, for Bowral High School, ‘against our then great rivals Mittagong school’, in the next town, a couple of miles towards Sydney. On a pitch of matting laid over concrete, Bradman made 115 (not out) of 156: My teammates were very excited because we won and I was very proud about my hundred but I was rebuffed suitably the next morning and put well in my place by the headmaster. Before morning school he had us all assembled and this is what he said: ‘I understand that there is a certain boy who yesterday scored a hundred in a match. That is all very well but it is no excuse for having left the bat behind. See that it is recovered.’ Bradman learned his lesson, and by printing it let readers know it. The individual, no matter how great – in a school, or eventually a nation - had to think not only of himself but others, if he wanted to stay in the group, let alone be loved. The entrance to the NSW Governor’s residence at Sutton Forest, south of Bowral.