This is one of eight films of MCC tours taken during the 1950s by the ex-Yorkshire and England cricketer and later cricketing journalist Bill Bowes, who was then covering the trips for the Yorkshire Evening Post.   Bill was born in the small Calderdale town of Elland in 1908, and died of a fatal heart attack at his home near Otley in September 1987. The films cover the MCC tours of Australia in 1950/51, 1954/55 (including New Zealand) and 1958/59.  There is also one of the Australia versus...

This is one of eight films of MCC tours taken during the 1950s by the ex-Yorkshire and England cricketer and later cricketing journalist Bill Bowes, who was then covering the trips for the Yorkshire Evening Post.   Bill was born in the small Calderdale town of Elland in 1908, and died of a fatal heart attack at his home near Otley in September 1987. The films cover the MCC tours of Australia in 1950/51, 1954/55 (including New Zealand) and 1958/59.  There is also one of the Australia versus West Indies Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1952, which was Richie Benaud's Test debut.  The films include a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ footage as well as quite a lot of cricketing action.  Some of the cricket is taken from way up in the press boxes, but it also includes some that show the action fairly close up, especially impressive when considering that it was filmed by an amateur, and in possibly clandestine fashion.

 

The films were donated by Bill’s son Tony.  A contributor to the online ‘The Corridor of Uncertainty: the voice of Yorkshire cricket fans’, under the name of Hawke, notes that Tony himself was a successful Bradford League cricketer, and a school teacher who coached the game to pupils for decades, including district and county level.  In 2009 he received a special award from the Yorkshire Cricket Board for ‘Services to Coaching Young People’, and, although retired, remains actively involved in schools cricket and is currently secretary of the Bradford Schools Cricket Association.

 

Cricketing journalist Huw Turbervill, who has written the definitive account of the Ashes tours, states that, “Bill Bowes will forever be remembered as one of England's finest fast bowlers in the inter-War period. Although he only took one wicket in the Bodyline series, it was Donald Bradman's, first ball, at Melbourne; and his overall record, 68 wickets in 15 Tests, is excellent.”  This view of Bill as an exceptional bowler is shared by Martin Chandler in an excellent article he has written on Bill for cricketweb: “Overall Bill Bowes career figures are simply magnificent. In all First Class cricket he took 1639 wickets at a cost of just 16.76. The only pace bowler of note who has a better record, and then only just, is Brian Statham, and it is worth bearing in mind that for well over a third of his career Bowes had to contend with the old lbw law, which prevented his inswinging deliveries that pitched outside off stump getting him any decisions at all. Yet despite that he played in just 15 Test matches.”  Ray Illingworth picked him for his best ever Yorkshire eleven.

 

Martin Chandler also opines that “Bill Bowes was charming, intelligent and generous”, and notes that he qualified as a football referee and became an accomplished magician.  Doubtless all of this would have contributed to making these films what they are.  As someone who knew and socialised with the players, Bill was able to film them in relaxed situations which would have been impossible for any newsreel.

 

During the Second World War Bill was captured at Tobruk along with 20,000 others in 1942 as part of the North African campaign, and spent three years as a Prisoner of War in Italy and Germany.  He wrote up his experiences in a memoir written in 1949, Express Deliveries.

 

England went into this test series in 1958 as firm favourites having won the previous ashes tour in 1954/55, and having one of its strongest ever England teams.  Yet the tour turned out to be disastrous for the visitors, losing four of the five tests (the third was drawn).  Much of this has been put down to the excellence of Australia’s new captain Richie Benaud, whose leg spin took 31 wickets in the five-Test series, including match figures of 7 for 112 in the first test seen here at Brisbane.   He was helped by paceman Alan Davidson, who took an overall 24 wickets at 19.00.  But also, more controversially, by Ian Meckiff and the ‘blond giant’, Gordon Rorke.  Both were accused by English players of dragging their back foot over the bowling crease, and Meckiff for almost throwing the ball with a bent arm that went very close to the batsman.  Yet not a single no-ball was called for this throughout the tour, and England decided against making a formal complaint for fear of appearing as bad losers.  The rules for where bowlers have to place their feet has subsequently changed (in 1960), but both Fred Trueman and Jim Laker claimed that Meckiff’s action in particular was illegal even at that time.  In the end Meckiff took 17 wickets at 17.17 (although there were also suspicions about some of England’s bowling too).  The film has some good shots of two left arm pace bowlers, possibly Alan Davidson and/or Ian Meckiff (all the England pace bowlers were right handers).

 

But this was certainly not the only reason for England’s downfall.  For one thing, that former scourge of Australia Frank Tyson, who had tore into them on the previous tour, had now lost much of his pace and sat out the first three tests.  England also suffered quite a few injuries, and some felt that the attention given to England captain Peter May and his fiancée Virginia Gilligan didn’t help.   It was also felt that the batsmen were failing to be aggressive enough, with England getting the lowest number of runs in an Ashes test on the fourth day of the first test in Brisbane at The Gabba, getting just 106 runs before being all out for 198.  Trevor Bailey, or ‘Barnacle Bailey’, as he was nicknamed, was unperturbed by the criticism levelled at his defensive game.  The Essex man also played football for, among others, Leytonstone and Walthamstow Avenue, winning the FA Amateur Cup with the latter in 1951-2. He was probably though at his most entertaining as a commentator for the BBC’s Test Match Special.  A full account of the tour can be found in Huw Turbervill’s book.

 

Australia went on to an unbeaten run for their next 11 series, while England were to fail to win back the Ashes until 1970/71 when Illingworth was captain – see the Context for Ray Illingworth - Children Early Age; Cricket - Scarborough (1962).   Unusually there was only one Yorkshireman in the party that toured Australia, Fred Trueman, having had four on their previous tour.  This latter included the left arm spin bowler Johnny Wardle who wasn’t picked, despite his fine form in South Africa the previous winter, after falling out with the Yorkshire committee.  Of course, there was another Yorkshireman in the team, Jim Laker, but he was playing for Surrey.  Laker had, famously, set a record-breaking performance during the 1956 Ashes series with 46 wickets – a record that remains unbroken – and on this tour also he topped the bowling averages both in the Tests and in all first-class matches.  But in his memoir, Over to Me, published in 1960, he complains bitterly about his treatment on this tour by May and the England manager, Freddie Brown, claiming unfair treatment afforded the professional players – on which see also the Context for Headingley Cricket Test Match England V India (1952).   An outspoken stance that caused both the MCC and Surrey to withdraw his honorary membership.

 

(with special thanks to Huw Turbervill)

 

References

 

Huw Turbervill, The Toughest Tour: The Ashes Away Series Since The War, Aurum Press, 2010.

Charles Williams, Gentlemen and Players: The Death of Amateurism in Cricket, Phoenix Books, 2012

Martin Chandler, ‘Bill Bowes - The Elland Express’, cricketweb

Hawke, ‘Bill Bowes, MCC, Yorkshire, England, Italy and beyond’

Interview with Illingworth in 2006, ‘Illy - Getting Yorkshire Cap Was Greatest Moment’