Bob Borsley remembers a famous Test match incident from 1985:
It is said that those who are old enough know where they were when they heard news of Kennedy's assassination, and I know where I was (at home). I also know where I was when I received various important bits of cricket news. England needed to win the 1985 series against Australia to regain the Ashes, and at the start of the fifth Test the series was level at 1-1. Bad weather meant that Australia's modest first innings of 335 did not finish until early on day three, but by the end of that day England were 355 for 1. The next day they declared at 595 for 5, with a double century from Gower and centuries from Robinson and Gatting, and Australia were 37 for 5 at the close of play. On the final day it looked as though the weather might save Australia. When play eventually resumed in the afternoon, Wayne Phillips, a useful wicketkeeper batsman, put up some determined resistance, but eventually he was out caught controversially from a ball which rebounded from Allan Lamb's instep.From the archives:I heard about the dismissal when driving with my wife to a woollen mill in the hills of North Wales. (Probably the weather was poor there too, or we would have been on the beach.) We were staying with my parents, and the series was the last that my father, a lifelong cricket fan, witnessed. (I suspect that the first was the 1911-12 series, during which he reached his tenth birthday.) He seemed to follow the Tests less closely than usual, and to derive less pleasure from them. Perhaps I should have guessed that it was his last series. He died the following December.
Rain, rivalling Australia as England's greatest adversary, rolled away on the final afternoon to allow just enough time for Gower's side to force a thoroughly warranted victory. There was, however, a dark cloud of controversy waiting to shed its gloom. Australia's captain asserted that the crucial, quite freak dismissal of Phillips should not have been allowed, claiming that enough doubt existed for the umpires to have judged in the batsman's favour. Border insisted that the incident cost Australia the match. Phillips hit a ball from Edmonds hard on to the instep of Lamb, who was taking swift evasive action at silly point. The rebound gently stood up for Gower, a couple of yards away, to catch, and 48 minutes later England won... Umpire Shepherd, not having a clear view of the incident, asked Constant, standing at square leg, for his version, and the latter unhesitatingly confirmed that the ball had at no time hit the ground. - Wisden 1986For Phillips, who had batted spiritedly, taking six boundaries in four overs off Ellison, it must have seemed diabolical. - Patrick Eagar and Alan Ross, An Australian Summer
Border says he has seen the replay 20 times and is sure it was not out. Not everyone agrees, including this observer. But it does seem a peculiarly fatuous issue over which to raise such a storm. If Constant had given an obviously bad decision and Australia had lost by 18 runs it would be fair enough. But it cannot seriously be called more than doubtful; the umpire raised his finger and Australia lost by an innings and 118. - Matthew Engel, Ashes '85
How Border could presume to have had a better view of the episode, even with the aid of television, than the square-leg umpire is a mystery. - The Daily Telegraph, The Battle for the Ashes
[For links to the other posts in this series, see here.]