Lives in Cricket No 1 - Allan Watkins

Test innings. “Norman Yardley said, ‘Right, Allan, as close as you like to get.’ And I said, ‘How close is that, skipper?’ He said, ‘See the whites of his eyes.’ I didn’t get all that close, but I saw exactly what happened to the ball.” Bradman pushed forward quietly to his first delivery and Allan fielded. To Hollies’ next ball, a perfectly flighted googly, Bradman lunged forward and missed. “He had the shock of his life when it bowled him! He looked down very quickly to see what the hell had happened.” Had emotion finally got the better of the world’s greatest run-maker? “I don’t know, I can’t say that,” Allan replies, “but I can tell you he was dry-eyed!” Allan remembers Bill Tucker making sure that his shoulder received urgent attention. As soon as practical he was taken off to Grosvenor Square. There he saw an Irish doctor who specialised in sports injuries. “A man called O’Flanagan, if I remember correctly. He was an Irish international rugby player and an Irish international soccer player.” Allan might have added that Kevin O’Flanagan shared this unusual sporting distinction with his brother. He also played football for Arsenal and it was only the war that prevented the doctor from competing in the Olympics as a sprinter and long jumper. But, for all his medical and sporting prowess, O’Flanagan’s remedy was a simple one: injections were pumped into the injured shoulder. “Then Bill Tucker came in and this doctor said, ‘I don’t know what else I can do. The only thing to do is to give him some more injections.’ Bill said, ‘How many have you given him?’ ‘Eight!’ ‘Oh Christ,’ he said, ‘don’t give him any more.’” After Australia’s innings had closed on 389, England fared a little better in their second knock, reaching 188, but for Allan there was little to celebrate. A couple of runs saw him avoid collecting a pair before, succumbing to a Doug Ring long hop, he became the only England batsman in the match to fall to spin. “I hooked him and I thought, ‘That’s four runs.’ But it went straight down Lindsay Hassett’s throat. He didn’t have to move.” In Allan’s absence, Glamorgan’s challenge for the Championship, thwarted by rain at Lord’s, had suffered again when only eight balls could be bowled on the final day of the match against a weak Northants side at Cardiff. The home supporters then enjoyed a change of fortunes as Surrey, only four points behind Glamorgan with a game in hand at the start of the match, were routed by an innings and 24 runs, 50 year-old Johnnie Clay returning to the side Called Up For England 41