Not quite Right Said Fred

By Fozzie
November 15 2014

Fozzie turns the clock back over 50 years to report on his introduction to cricket at Lord's. We hear about a thrilling finish with some Middlesex influence. 

My friend Rob sent me a photo last week of his brother receiving a coaching award from none other than Brian Close. He said that Close had kept repeating the same story in his presentation speech, which I put down to him now being an octogenarian but which Rob attributed to the long-term effects of the battering he took from Holding and Daniel in 1976.

Talk of Close’s Test swansong brought to mind earlier battles he had had with Windies pacemen, and in particular the part that he played in making me a cricket devotee just 50 + years ago – on 25 June 1963 to be precise, on the final day of the thrilling Second Test between England and West Indies at (fittingly) Lord’s.

This brilliant Windies team, captained by Frank Worrell and featuring the likes of Sobers, Kanhai, Wes Hall and Gibbs, had won the First Test at a canter.  They started the Second Test well too, and their first innings of 301 had looked a potentially winning score, but England fought back well to trail by only 4 on the first innings, with none other than Fred Titmus marshalling a recovery by the tail and scoring 52 not out.   Batting again, West Indies fought their way to 229, leaving England 234 to win in a day and a half.  England lost three early wickets, and after a recovery they suffered a severe blow when Hall broke a bone in Colin Cowdrey’s wrist, ruling him out for the rest of the season. At the time there were no sightscreens at the Pavilion End, so as not to inconvenience the members, but this incident resulted in their introduction the following season.

The match was affected by bad weather throughout, and play finished early on the fourth day and did not resume until 2.20 on the final afternoon, with England 116-3.  At the time I was not aware of any of the events summarised above, and I should digress at this point for the benefit of those too young to remember 1963 to explain the broadcasting arrangements back then. BBC2 had not yet arrived, and BBC did its best to fit live Test cricket into the schedule in its sole channel: usually showing the morning’s play, an hour or so in the afternoon and returning at 6 p.m. for the final half-hour of the day.  On the afternoon in question my friends and I settled down for children’s TV at 5 p.m. - only to find that BBC had decided to stick with the cricket because of the chance of an exciting finale.  My mother heard my snort of disgust, and immediately rushed in to watch.  My parents were both cricket fans – Mum is still a TMS devotee – and there must have been something about her enthusiasm that made me stay and watch too.  The match had reached a critical stage, with England needing some 50 runs in the final hour but with only four wickets in hand, plus possibly the stricken Cowdrey.

Close and Fred Titmus were batting at the time, withstanding a barrage from the fast bowlers Hall and Charlie Griffith, both of whom bowled practically unchanged throughout the truncated last day. It was mesmerising to watch the loose-limbed Wes Hall bounding in on his thirty-yard run-up before leaping at the crease and, in a flurry of arms and legs, fire short-pitched deliveries into Close, who would either fend the ball away or unflinchingly take the ball in his ribs.  No helmets or arm-guards then, of course; and even I, watching the action on a fuzzy black and white TV screen, could sense the drama of the personal duel and the tension as the match moved towards its conclusion.

Close and Titmus had added 45 and brought the target down to just 31 more runs needed when Fred was caught on the leg-side, bringing in Fred Trueman.  Trueman had bowled magnificently to take 11 wickets in the match, and this was to be his best season with the bat, scoring two centuries. However, this situation was beyond him.  I can still remember Hall’s first ball to him rearing towards him, Trueman jerking backwards with his bat held out, and Deryck Murray took the catch behind. 203-7, and the Gloucestershire off-spinner David Allen came in. (As an aside, it seems particularly strange to recall England picking two off-spinners for a Lords Test in a cold wet June, when we’ve recently seen them go for a single specialist spinner on an Indian turner).

At this point Close changed his tactics and went on the offensive, moving down the pitch as Hall and Griffith approached the bowling crease.  The first time this happened Hall was so shocked that he pulled up in his delivery stride and ricked his back.  It was totally gripping, with Close alternately connecting with powerful swings of the bat or taking a battering; but it couldn’t last, and eventually a big swing resulted in an edge behind.  Close had batted courageously for nearly four hours in making 70, his highest Test score, and he exited bruised but unbowed.

At the age of 38, Derek Shackleton was playing his first Test for eleven years, and batting at number 10 was a rare, albeit forced, promotion for him. Somehow he and Allen hung on, and at the start of the final over an England win was still possible, with eight needed. Two singles taken, and Shackleton facing with three balls left, when Allen sprinted down the pitch for a single that was never there. Shackleton, taken by surprise, set off late, and the ever-calm Frank Worrell gathered the ball and out-sprinted Shackleton to run him out at the bowler’s end.

Nine wickets were down with only two balls left.  The TV cameras focused on the pavilion for what seemed an age, before Cowdrey came out holding his bat in his left hand, his right wrist encased in plaster. Apparently he would have batted left-handed if necessary, but fortunately Allen had the strike. Wes Hall put everything he had into the final deliveries, but Allen kept the first out, somehow got his bat on to the second – and I can still hear the fruity tones of Brian Johnston trumpeting “It’s a draw! It’s a draw!”.

And that was it. A single hour of cricket, and I was a devotee for life.

More generally, I think that that Test had the same galvanising impact on the public that England’s win by 2 runs over Australia had in 2005.  Both matches followed one-sided defeats and suddenly opened up whole new possibilities for the series ahead.  My friends and I were glued to the TV for the rest of the summer, especially when Trueman bowled England to victory in the Third Test.  But they were outplayed in the Fourth, and West Indies finally prevailed in a compelling final Test to deservedly win 3-1.  A magnificent series, especially as one’s introduction to cricket.