D.G. Bradman b Hollies 0

Bob Borsley writes of an inherited cricket memory:

Can you remember an event that took place before you were born? Not unless you believe Plato, but you can remember hearing about such an event. I wasn't born at the time of Hollies' dismissal of Bradman (though I was conceived), but I heard about it at an early age from my father, a life-long Warwickshire supporter. My early knowledge of cricket came from his tales of the exploits of Warwickshire cricketers. I heard about F.R. Foster (who my father, as a young boy, saw at a railway station in 1911), Billy Quaife (who played for England before my father was born and was still playing for Warwickshire when my father was in his twenties), Bob Wyatt (who he wasn't so keen on), and Tom Dollery (who in his view was one of cricket's finest captains).

But most of all I heard about Eric Hollies. I think my father's opinion was that there were few finer spin bowlers. The facts don't support this view, but arguably Hollies was England's best leg-spin bowler. (Admittedly, this is not a hotly contested position.) In 13 Tests he took 44 wickets at an average of 30.27, and he might have achieved more if the Second World War had not taken a chunk out of his career. In first-class cricket he took 2323 wickets at an average of 20.94. So he had a number of claims to fame, but it's dismissing Bradman for a duck in his final Test and ensuring that his Test average was below 100 that Hollies is best known for. I don't have anything against Bradman, but I'm glad that he didn't quite manage a Test average of 100 (he's still far ahead of anyone else), and glad that my father's hero was responsible for that.

Here are some contemporary accounts of Bradman's dismissal:

[S]hortly before six o'clock Bradman walked to the wicket amidst continued applause from the standing crowd. Yardley shook hands with Bradman and called on the England team for three cheers, in which the crowd joined. Evidently deeply touched by the enthusiastic reception, Bradman survived one ball, but, playing forward to the next, was clean bowled by a sharply turning break-back - possibly a googly. - Wisden 1949

The ground as a whole rose to cheer Don Bradman, making his last appearance in Test match cricket. It was not difficult to learn from the tumultuous reception... what a grand part he has played in the history of cricket in the past twenty years. The wholehearted applause of the English crowd, who really had little to be cheerful about in this game, was a splendid tribute to one of the greatest cricketers of all time... The din must have been audible across the river in Whitehall. - W.J. O'Reilly, Cricket Conquest

Then [Hollies] hit Bradman's off stump with a ball which might have been saved up for him all through the season. - Denzil Batchelor, Days Without Sunset

Bradman played his first ball from Hollies firmly in the middle of the bat. The second was a googly: Bradman played outside it and was bowled - was his eye a little misted at his reception I wonder? A lesser man's might well have been. After such a reception a man could hardly do other than score a duck or a century - and a duck did Australia no harm. - John Arlott, Gone to the Test Match

This was one of the strangest experiences I have ever known on a cricketing ground. One moment the crowd was acknowledging Bradman lavishly in his farewell appearance in Test cricket against England; that noise had barely died on the afternoon air when it was rent again with the crowd shrieking at Bradman's dismissal. As the game gives, so the game takes away! Bradman looked back at his stumps, seemed not able to believe what he saw there, turned slowly and very, very slowly retraced his steps to the pavilion and a sympathetic reception. The game that had given him so much had denied him at the very last Test appearance. - J.H. Fingleton, Brightly Fades The Don

On the day this happened, I was a bit further along than Bob; I was a few days short of my fifth birthday. I knew nothing of cricket. Yet I too possess the 'memory' of this dismissal, as clearly as any memory of dismissals I've actually witnessed. (Here's a YouTube clip of it - thanks, Chris.)

[For links to the other posts in this series, see here.]