Among the many fine pieces of writing penned by Dick Brittenden was his description of one of the proudest moments in New Zealand’s cricket history, during the 1953/54 tour of South Africa
11-Jun-2002Among the many fine pieces of writing penned by Dick Brittenden was his description of one of the proudest moments in New Zealand’s cricket history, during the 1953/54 tour of South Africa.It is a poignant record of a highly-emotional day, but a lasting example of the skill of Brittenden.Extract from Silver Fern on the Veldt by R T Brittenden. Published by A H and A W Reed, Wellington 1954.Second Test, New Zealand v South Africa, Ellis Park, Johannesburg. Boxing Day 1953.”Second day: South Africa 271 and 35 for 3; New Zealand 189.”This was the day of which New Zealanders will speak with pride as long as cricket survives, this was the day in which the New Zealand team won its outstanding reputation for courage. The day a legend was born.”It began at the hotel in the early hours of the morning, when Jack Kerr [manager] received a cable concerning the death of Bob Blair’s fiancee. It was a stricken group of cricketers who arrived at Ellis Park that morning, to see the crowd of 23,000 assembling in that vast green arena, a crucible for cricketers. The flags of the Union and the Dominion, side by side at half-mast, drooped listlessly, but the crowd, sitting in brilliant colours in the white sunshine, demanded action, and it was not disappointed.”New Zealand went into the field without Blair, but the business of getting rid of the last two South African batsmen was accomplished without undue fuss and bother, 12 runs being added before [John] Reid bowled [David] Ironside and [Matt] Poore ran out [Neil] Adcock with a swift underarm return.”New Zealand began at 12.10pm with [Geoff] Rabone and [Murray] Chapple, [Bert] Sutcliffe being moved down in the order, presumably to allow him to bat when the first edge had been removed from the bowling. As soon as Adcock came swinging up with his athletic action, theory ended and grim reality began. From his first over, he bowled with extraordinary venom and at the other end Ironside, moving the ball off the pitch a little and whipping it away late in its flight, also gave a first-class exhibition. It was Ironside who took the first wicket – a lovely away-swinger which found the edge of Rabone’s bat and allowed [Russell] Endean in the slips to take the first of his three fine catches. This was at 5 and at 9 Adcock bowled one to Chapple which reared at the batsman, hit his gloves, flew on to his chest and then fell on the stumps.Sutcliffe had played only two balls when Adcock, bowling with tremendous pace, got one to fly from a length; Sutcliffe tried desperately to hook, missed and was felled when the ball hit his left ear. Then there was the sorry sight of a stretcher being rushed on to the ground, but Sutcliffe got to his feet and was helped off by Rabone and a couple of fieldsmen.”Poore square-cut Ironside for four beautifully, and although he was anything but comfortable facing Adcock for the first time on the tour, he managed to push one square for another four. Reid meanwhile had been having a trying time. He batted only 25 minutes before Endean held another wonderful slip catch. In that time he was struck five sickening blows by Adcock, but he somehow managed to smile and never for a moment flinched or faltered.”[Lawrie] Miller was the next one to be butchered to make an Ellis Park holiday – he was hit heavily the first time he faced Adcock, ran a single off the next ball, but was then persuaded by [Jack] Cheetham and an umpire to leave the field, for he was obviously shaken and was coughing blood. This situation was hardly what one would have liked for a 19-year-old in his first test innings, but [John] Beck looked as jaunty as ever and an off-drive for four off Ironside was the stroke of the morning. New Zealand was still in dire distress, however, for when the total was 35 Adcock made one move in and lift to Poore and the ball, after hitting the batsman went on to the stumps. And so within the hour, [Frank] Mooney became the eighth New Zealand batsman – of the ten then thought likely to bat – to appear and with Beck he saw the side through to lunch, when 41 runs had been scored for the loss of four wickets and two batsmen injured.”During the interval the press was informed through Geoff Rabone that Sutcliffe was unlikely to bat and that Miller had been advised by a doctor not to go in again. In the afternoon the pitch was not nearly as lively as it had been during the morning, although Ironside and [Anton] Murray, both of whom bowled really well, were able to make the ball move off the seam and keep on swinging it, for in the first two tests an Australian ball noted for its swinging propensities was used.”Adcock bowled only three overs after lunch and Beck square-drove him firmly for four. Murray however persistently forced the young left-hander on to his back foot, and when the total was 59 he moved one away and [John] Waite took the catch to make New Zealand 59 for five. Beck had batted nearly an hour with a coolness and confidence remarkable in one so young.There was a wonderful ovation for Miller when he returned, against medical advice, to continue his innings and although he was in pain, he demonstrated quite clearly that he was not there merely to offer token resistance. When he had made three he was dropped by [Hugh] Tayfield off Murray, but twice in an over he pulled Murray strongly for fours and with Mooney playing a determined defensive innings, New Zealand began to make a little progress at last. But once more Ironside had the last word. He bowled one to Miller which pitched outside the off stump and whipped inside Miller’s right leg to hit the leg stump. New Zealand was 82 for six, and 40 runs were needed to avert the follow-on.”When Sutcliffe walked into the sunshine, his head heavily bandaged, he received a tumultuous reception. In the morning the huge crowd had been jubilant at South Africa’s successes but now the mood changed: courage has its admirers anywhere, and it was only courage that sent Sutcliffe out to bat again. He had been badly bruised behind the ear, and the ear had been split. He collapsed after he had been hit, and when he was taken to hospital for treatment and X-ray examination, he collapsed again. Yet out he went, pale as parchment, to fact the music for the second time. If the tempo had slackened a little, it still demanded the ultimate in fortitude to go out again, for he too was in great pain, and when he appeared, the crowd took him to their hearts, and the South African players, sportsmen to the core, joined in the applause.”Within minutes Sutcliffe had given clear notice of his intentions, when he swung his third ball, from Ironside, over the square leg boundary for six. Mooney tucked Ironside away backward of square for four, Sutcliffe swung him for four, and when the total was 105 he hit Murray high on the off side but Tayfield missed the catch. Sutcliffe was then 17.”With the score 108 Cheetham brought Adcock back to bowl to Sutcliffe, and after each batsman had run a single, Sutcliffe square cut swiftly for four. Then Tayfield was brought on again. The first ball he sent to Sutcliffe was hit high and straight for six – and the follow-on had been saved. Two balls later he repeated the treatment, another incredibly easy and graceful stroke. Then he hooked Tayfield for four with superb disdain.”The 50 partnership took only 39 minutes, and they were still together at tea, after Mooney had been hit on his left hand by Adcock, an injury which was to affect him for the rest of the tour.”At the interval, New Zealand was 138 for six, but not a run had been scored when Ironside beat Mooney all the way and bowled him. Mooney’s 35 in two hours and a quarter might be forgotten because of Sutcliffe’s wonderful display, but it has its proud place in this dramatic day. [Tony] MacGibbon came, and went to Endean’s third excellent catch, with the score but 146, and [Guy] Overton arrived, apparently last man in. Sutcliffe went to 55 with another soaring six off Tayfield and in the same over Murray failed to hold a running catch. Overton had to survive the last five balls of this over, pushing the ball dutifully into the flock of fieldsmen perched about him. At 154 however, he was taken by Murray off Ironside, and the players were beginning to move off the field when Blair’s appearance gave a dramatic day its most vivid and unforgettable climax.”Sympathy for Blair in his sorrow and admiration for his courage in carrying on where natural, but somehow the whole vast crowd – normally more matter of fact than most – became as one at this poignant moment, a moment the New Zealanders and others will recall with vivid clarity all their lives. He walked out into the sunshine, finding it pathetically difficult to put on his gloves, and the huge crowd stood for him, silent, as he went. Looking down on the scene from the glass windows of the pavilion, the New Zealanders wept openly and without shame; the South Africans were in little better state, and Sutcliffe, walking out to meet his partner, was just as obviously distressed. Before he faced his first ball Blair passed his glove across his eyes in the heart-wringing gesture of any small boy anywhere in trouble but defiant. His was a courage unexcelled in a match which made heavy demands on the New Zealanders. To take physical knocks and come back for more is admirable, but to carry on after one’s world has fallen about one’s ears surely requires an effort quite out of the ordinary. Then came the most thrilling batting of the series. Sutcliffe swung Tayfield high and dry for six; two balls later another effortless on-drive went for six, and two balls later again he hit another one into a half-demented crowd. Then he took a single to retain the strike, but Blair finished off the over with a tremendous hit far into the seething cheering spectators at mid-wicket – 25 from Tayfield in an over. A few more were added and then Blair was stumped and the crowd, giving the batsmen a tremendous reception might have been thought from the warmth of their applause to have been cheering a last-minute Springbok win in a Rugby test. So the batsmen came back, and there was a last little unforgettable gesture. Sutcliffe had hit seven sixes, six off Tayfield, he had made 80 not out in an hour and a half. With Blair he had scored 33 for the last wicket in 10 minutes, he had saved the follow-on, and he was quite entitled to regard the tumult of cheering as a tribute to his skill and daring. But he stood aside at the gate, allowing Blair to pass in first. They went, arms about each other, into the darkness of the tunnel, but behind them they left a light and an inspiration that several thousand lectures on how to play the forward defensive stroke could never kindle.”