Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

22 as McCabe’s opening partner. His Mosman aggregate in 1938/39, 463 runs, was almost identical to that of the previous season. He averaged 38.58 with highest scores of 129, 93 and 71. He was stumped once, and caught eight times in eleven completed innings. But if these dismissals suggest any flaws, the club’s Annual Report had nothing but praise for ‘the wonderful improvement shown by this young player’: His batting at all times was pleasing and now that he is hitting the ball harder and his placement is improved we feel sure that he has a bright future. His fielding at cover-point was one of the features of our out-cricket and he made ten catches. The Report included a photograph of Keith playing a posed forward defensive stroke and also recorded that during the season, in addition to his 82 against Queensland Colts, he had scored 24 and 17 for the New South Wales Second XI against Victoria in Melbourne in late January 1939 – probably the first time he met Keith Miller – and ‘59 for the New South Wales Cricket Association team against the Junior Union.’ * * * * * * * When Australia joined Britain in declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939, there was no immediate rush to cancel either grade or first-class competitions. Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald on 28 September 1939, former Australian batsman Charlie Macartney hoped the game would provide ‘an antidote to unavoidable worries’: Cricket must be lifted out of the mire of perpetual defence, and the duty of the State selectors will be to encourage those players who attempt to raise it … McCabe, Carmody, Schaffer and Gulliver of Mosman are a few who come to mind who can present the highest entertainment.’ Very soon the Queensland press predicted that recent Mosman form against North Sydney showed McCabe was ‘going to prove a thorn in the side of the Queensland bowlers’ at Brisbane on 17 November. Scoring 127 in 134 minutes, with 12 fours and six sixes, ‘he was ably supported by Carmody, who made 71 in a partnership of 150 in 90 minutes’. The Sydney Morning Herald added that Carmody had ‘engaged in some delightful partnerships for Mosman with McCabe, and the two have earned the reputation of being the most entertaining opening pair in Sydney’. A week later Macartney was pleased that Carmody’s ‘stylish and accomplished batting’ had been recognised with State selection for the Brisbane match. Escape From Poverty