Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

85 when they decided to pack their side with batting and play only one spinner, Kelly Seymour. Mike won a crucial toss. Barber, in assertive mood, and Boycott added 120, England closing at 260 for four with Barrington 48 and Mike 27. Though a slow outfield had restricted the scoring, the pitch had not yet misbehaved. ‘We need to bat a day and a half,’ David Allen remembers Barrington saying early in his innings. Next day he went on to 148, adding 207 in an undefeated stand with Parks that took the score to 485 for five. Mike’s declaration allowed South Africa 50 minutes batting. There were wickets for Price and Thomson before Titmus was brought on to bowl at Graeme Pollock. By the close the great white hope had failed again, dragging a rare loose delivery into his stumps as South Africa slumped to 20 for three. The next day belonged to the spinners, Allen taking five first-innings wickets and Titmus making decisive inroads after the follow-on, with Pollock, caught by Mike in the gulley, now a first-ball victim. Tony Pithey and Colin Bland offered some resistance, but by early afternoon on the fourth day the spinners had finished their business and England had won by an innings and 104 runs. Though there were concerns about injuries, notably to Cartwright, the MCC bandwagon rolled on with innings victories against South African Universities and North East Transvaal before the Test series resumed at Johannesburg. Starting the day before Christmas Eve, it produced some suitably festive cricket. Boycott fell early but Barber and Dexter were soon in full flow, their stand of 136 ending only when Barber, the dominant partner, decided to go to his hundred in the grand manner by launching ‘their non- spinning off spinner’ Seymour into the stand at long on. Barber, who asserts, with some conviction, that he sees nothing inherently special about reaching three figures, departed after dragging the ball into his wicket for 97, leaving Dexter (172) and Barrington (121) to ensure a dominant England total. Barber remembers Barrington making a suitable gesture to the players’ balcony before showing how a straight six should be hit to reach his own hundred. All out for 531, England’s batsmen had given their spinners the runs with which to play, and on Boxing Day they got to work. This was cricket for the connoisseur, and with Pithey in obdurate mood it was not easy for the bowlers, John Woodcock in The Times capturing the essence of the battle: ‘It is on days like these, when there is time in which to work and little spin to work on, Triumphant in South Africa