Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

48 scheduled for three days against the full Argentine side, while two others were single-innings affairs in which the home side were allowed 15 or 16 players. Though MCC’s opponents were never able to pose a serious threat to a side whose members were all first-class cricketers, Mike had a tour disappointingly bereft of runs until he struck gold in the second representative match. After dismissing Silk and Doggart for ducks and then Mike Bushby, to leave MCC 26 for three, the home side were away to the best possible start. When Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie almost immediately had to retire hurt, a stand was needed. With the aid of Donald Carr, Mike steadied the ship. They took the score to 222, after which Mike batted on to reach 216 not out, setting up victory by an innings and 217 runs and allowing an unscheduled one-day fixture to be played on the third day. Thanks to this final innings he was eventually top run-scorer on the tour. When Mike visited the Argentine he felt that the standard of their cricket was just below that of their rugby, though their cricket has since receded while Argentine sides have become a world force in rugby. Cricket in the first half of the twentieth century had been helped by the presence of C.H. Gibson, the medium-fast bowler who took part in the famous victory of A.C. MacLaren’s Eleven against the Australians in 1921. Born in Buenos Aires, Clem Gibson returned to the Argentine in the early 1920s and was a prominent figure in their representative cricket until the War, becoming a good friend of the Leach family and remaining in the country until his death in 1976. While Mike was in the Argentine, a much-vaunted MCC side was sliding to heavy defeat in Australia. In the face of a fast-bowling attack widely condemned as chuckers and draggers, the batting had failed repeatedly, and the various opening combinations had been particularly disappointing. The selectors’ search for a new pairing began in MCC’s two early-season matches at Lord’s, against Yorkshire and Surrey. Mike was still seen as a candidate, opening first with Milton, then with Gordon Barker of Essex. No reputations were enhanced and, when Mike returned to Warwickshire, it was at number four that he started the season. There were a few useful scores, notably a century in the defeat of Surrey, and when he was next summoned to Lord’s – to play for MCC against the Indian tourists – it was in his preferred position that he scored a fluent 82. A golden summer