Young Bradman

74 Chapter six: Australia It is characteristic of men who have cut their way to fame that they have never allowed the opportunity to escape them. The successful man pushes to the front and seeks his chance; those of a temper less ardent wait till duty calls, and the call may never come. Lieutenant-Colonel GFR Henderson, Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War In the First Test, in Brisbane, he had only made 18 and one; Australia had only made 122 and 66, and lost by a colossal 675 runs. For the Second Test, at the SCG, he was only 12 th man. In June 1953, after England did not pick Peter May for the Second Test after his unsuccessful first Test, Bradman wrote neutrally, as a Daily Mail journalist, of how ‘all cricketers must at some time or other give way to others. One’s only thought should be to strive harder without any feelings or anxieties.’ In 1928 he did not take his own advice. Had he been disappointed? ‘Oh yes,’ Bradman answered in old age, ‘of course’; in his first Test innings he felt he was ‘the victim of a dubious lbw, rather than being beaten by the bowler [Maurice Tate]’: Then in the second innings I had to bat on a sticky wicket; I had never seen one before, let alone bat on one. I can recall asking one of my teammates what the ball would do on such a pitch; so naturally I was disappointed, even more so because I wasn’t told until we were in the dressing room on the morning of the [Second Test] match. Bradman then had to field for all 11 hours, 272 overs and one ball, of England’s 636, as Harold Larwood had hurt Ponsford’s hand while batting. Wally Hammond made 251, ‘probably the best innings I had seen at that time’, Bradman recalled. Typically, Bradman had turned it into a chance to learn (‘it was a wonderful education to watch him bat throughout that season’). In these watershed weeks, when he could have flopped altogether, and instead made his name, what was Bradman like? To most Australians, who did not witness any of the matches in the four main cities, it did not matter. He was a name to read in the newspapers, and to follow on the radio; and if, on Thursday afternoon, 3 January 1929, you could not afford your own wireless, and could not wait for the next edition of the newspaper, you stood outside Harry Gissing’s chemist’s shop in Fitzmaurice Street in Wagga Wagga (where they took the score off the wireless and put it in the window), or the office of The Register newspaper, in Grenfell Street, Adelaide (there they had a proper scoreboard), or in Hyde Park in Sydney (where the Evening News ran a ‘magnetic scoring board’). Bradman reached his first century for Australia at about 5.20 pm, an all-run four off Jack White. George Geary chased and threw the ball back, 20 yards from the fence, to the captain Percy Chapman at the bowler’s end, who threw it hard to wicket-keeper George Duckworth; Bradman was home