Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

33 In the Air and on the Field with the RAAF scored 140 to the New Zealanders’ 45 all out – were clearly better than the slaughtered Kodak House innocents. Basil Sheidow, from Mosman, who retired hurt on 47, had opened in a match the previous June for a London Australian XI against London Counties. On 22 May 1943 he enhanced his claims for inclusion in the imminent match against Warner’s XI with 41 not out in a victory at Lord’s for a British Empire XI over a Civil Defence Services XI, which included J.H.Parks, the Langridge brothers and Harold Gimblett. The two other players who progressed from the 1942 to 1943 RAAF team were Victorians Alan McDonald and D.Ross. Wartime casualties made it essential for the RAAF to recruit players without first-class experience such as Sheidow, McDonald and Ross. Sismey pointed out that, in addition to Ridings’ death, Ross Gregory, Victorian batsman who’d played twice for Australia in 1936/37, and Charlie Walker, a wicketkeeper in 109 matches for South Australia, were both killed in 1942. 17 Sismey himself was shot down off the North African coast, receiving critical injuries that removed him from flying duties for four months. From four available Sheffield Shield cricketers Carmody emerged as Ridings’ replacement. In the absence of an external process his selection must have reflected respect already won from the other three. 18 Certainly, it wasn’t a matter of service rank. His two fellow-New South Welshmen, Sismey and A.W. (Mick) Roper, were both Flying Officers, while Keith was a Pilot Officer, one rank lower. He had more first-class experience than fast bowler Roper, who’d played just two Shield games, but less than Sismey, who’d established himself as his state’s wicketkeeper in eight successive first-class matches before the war. The fourth player, Sergeant Keith Miller, was still far from establishing himself as one of cricket’s great allrounders. Although his batting record was better than Carmody’s, 19 he wasn’t yet even a part-time bowler. It’s impossible to say whether the Victorian Miller had formed 17 Gregory was killed in India so was an unlikely potential recruit: he was Australia’s sole war casualty from the ranks of Test cricketers. Walker had been a member of the Australian touring sides in Britain in 1930 and 1938, without playing in Test matches. 18 Sismey overlooked a fifth, former Shield player, perhaps not surprisingly because Brian O’Connor, who had played five matches for Queensland in the 1934/35 and 1935/36 seasons, returned to Australia after playing just once for the RAAF in England (on 3 June 1943) and had a lifetime batting average of 11.85 and, for bowling, six wickets at 75 each. 19 Miller’s first five first-class matches were all against the two states not yet in the Sheffield Shield competition: he scored 181 in the first of three against Tasmania and 38 and 55 in the first of two against Western Australia. In later matches for Victoria he’d scored a number of 30s and 40s and one century and one half-century, both against South Australia.