Young Bradman

92 England He did know how to tour, from travelling to Adelaide three times and Brisbane twice with New South Wales: he had to be good enough company that he did not make others unhappy, while he pleased himself enough so that he was happy; it was another balance to keep. The diary and some newspaper reports sent by journalists with the 15 do not give many clues whether Bradman was one of the crowd on their sight-seeing on the way to England. While Bradman seldom named others in his diary, that could be because he was so often in company; ‘per char-a-banc on a tour around Paris’, for example, on Tuesday 22 April, their last full day before England. Once in England, time was even shorter. They awoke on the Thursday 24 April in the Midland Hotel beside St Pancras station (‘surprisingly quiet’, and ‘roomy and comfortable in an old-fashioned way’, newspapers assured readers). They had their first practice on English pitches in the afternoon, after lunch and speeches at the Savoy; Friday was Anzac Day, and they had to attend Australia House. That left only Saturday morning, and Monday and Tuesday for more practice at Lord’s, because on the Saturday afternoon they went to Wembley for lunch and had complimentary seats (north terrace, uncovered; Bradman kept the ticket) for the FA Cup final. ‘I left at half time,’ wrote Bradman, which would have beaten the crowds at full time. ‘Train to King’s Cross. Arrived Leeds 10.15 pm. Met by Sykes and home with them.’ Australian reporters told home that on Sunday, nine of the 15 went golfing in Essex, and McCabe played tennis. They did not say where Bradman went. A three-hour journey after changing trains in London in the dark, on his third full day in the country, took some doing. England was ‘home’, as Bradman put it in his 1930s memoir – he meant Australians were used to it, from their everyday culture; yet to be there ‘was all rather bewildering at first’. After 13,000 miles already (including a Bradman in touring blazer. John Player & Sons cigarette card of Bradman in 1930.