Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

40 In the Air and on the Field with the RAAF Immediately after the match finished Carmody and Docking flew a ‘first light recce’ off the French coast from Pointe d’Ailly to Cap de la Hague without making contact with the enemy. When a mission to attack an E-boat patrol with bombs and cannon was aborted after an hour, continuing bad weather saw the 32 pilots at Langham concentrate on training and practice bombing between 25 and 31 May. But from 27 May Keith was concentrating on again leading his team at Lord’s. A crowd of 30,000 – ‘extending from the seats to the grass in front’ – flocked to the Whit Saturday match. Australia’s Prime Minister John Curtin, its High Commissioner, Stanley Bruce 22 and the Maharajah of Kashmir were all present. But a bigger attraction was the presence of Len Hutton and especially Wally Hammond, making his first wartime appearance. Joining the two great batsmen and other prominent English players in ‘The Rest’ against the RAAF were the New Zealanders, Dempster and Ted Badcock, and the West Indian Bertie Clarke. After brilliant stroke- playing innings from Hutton (34) and Hammond (46), the match was a triumph for Carmody. He caught Hammond off Cristofani, took a rare wicket in dismissing Robins for the highest score of 79 and then played a decisive innings. Although Workman scored 103, Carmody’s ‘free and delightful innings’ of 86 – with ‘footwork grand to watch’ – made Workman seem ‘little more than an efficient stopper-in at the other end’, said The Times . After Carmody was lbw to Badcock, Stanford (50) combined with Workman to ensure a tense one-wicket victory. On the following Monday – in a match The Times said was ‘rather grandly called England v Australia’ – the RAAF reached 243. Although Calvert’s 62 and Stanford’s 51 were the highest scores, ‘the only player,’ according to the Sydney Daily Telegraph wire service, ‘who really seemed comfortable against eight Test men was Carmody’, until he chopped a lifting ball from Bailey onto his stumps when he was 42. But by the time Ames took charge with 60 not out ‘the game had already been won’ by Hutton’s 84. Despite the six-wicket defeat, the match was a memorable finale to Carmody’s wartime appearances at Lord’s. The crowd was ‘so immense that the gates were closed by half-past 12’, said The Times : it had numbered 25,680, the Press Association told Australian readers. 22 Stanley Melbourne Bruce had been Australian Prime Minister from 1923 to 1929 and served as High Commissioner in London from 1933 to 1945. In 1947 he became the first Australian to be created an hereditary peer as Viscount Bruce of Melbourne.