Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

After so much enthusiastic prediction Keith’s debut began as a severe anticlimax. In reply to Queensland’s first-innings 290 – led by Test opener Bill Brown’s 87 – both New South Wales openers, McCabe and Jack Fingleton, got ducks, Sid Barnes scored ten at No.3 and Carmody was also out for nought, batting at five. But 85 by Bert Cheetham and 81 by Cec Pepper took New South Wales to within three runs of the Queensland total. Both Cheetham, a fast bowler who’d dismissed Keith three times in grade cricket, and Pepper were his future teammates in Australian Services elevens. A second-innings 98 by McCabe and 89 by Cyril Solomon took New South Wales to a three-wicket victory, with Carmody’s 30 the third-highest score. The Mosman Annual Report for 1939/40 remarked that ‘K.Carmody, second in the aggregate, was perhaps the most consistent run-getter.’ Opening the innings in every match, he’d made 488 runs at 32.53, with best scores of 70, 69 and 63 against Glebe. Despite the lack of centuries, ‘it will be surprising if more is not heard of this young player in the higher spheres of cricket.’ ‘Special mention’ was made of two McCabe/Carmody partnerships: 178 runs in 64 minutes against St George and 159 in 96 minutes against Waverley; also 171 in 81 minutes against Manly by Carmody and McCaffery. While Keith had made a big impact in first-grade and at least tasted first-class cricket in this first wartime season, he also clinched his all-time record aggregate of 1,606 runs in the Poidevin-Gray Shield. In late January 1940, just three weeks before his twenty- first birthday made him ineligible for that competition, his 124 for Mosman against New South Wales Juniors B included 22 fours and a six. Slow left-arm spinner Peter Pearson – who took three for 42 in that match and remained a close friend for life – recalled that Keith captained the Poidevin-Gray side for several years, giving him early experience of the leadership role he would play for much of his future career. After the ‘phoney war’ ended in April 1940, Keith’s older brother Harry (John Henry James) was the first to enlist, joining the RAAF on 18 June. For Keith a modified first-class programme in 1940/41 was a reminder that the war couldn’t be avoided forever. But he hung on to a place in the New South Wales side, playing mainly in the shadow of McCabe and of Barnes, who had begun his eventually brief thirteen-Test career in 1938. 23 Escape From Poverty