Nowhowsthat
Cricket Spectator
In my recent poll on who has been England's best captain since 1930, Douglas Jardine won with over 40% of the poll (at least that is the present position with a couple of weeks still to go before the poll closes). That therefore begs the question as to whether by today's standards and perspectives, Jardine's 'bodyline' or 'fast leg theory' or simply 'leg theory' tactics were justified? Moreover, would England have still won the 1932/33 Ashes without those tactics?
Just as an aside, I recently watched the 1984 Australian television mini--series (called Bodyline) on the bodyline Ashes series for the first time in a number of years. I have to say, I thought it was somewhat emotive and took some liberties with the facts for the sake of dramatic licence. For one thing, watching the TV series you would have come away thinking that Pelham 'Plum' Warner (the so called 'Prime Minister' of Cricket) and Jardine ended up as bitter enemies as a result of Jardines 'bodyline' tactics. However, the reality is that following Jardines premature death from cancer in 1957, Warner paid Jardine the following tribute: "In my humble opinion, Jardine was a very fine captain, both on and off the field, and in the committee-room he was also extremely good. If ever there was a cricket match between England and the rest of the world and the fate of England depended upon its result, I would pick Jardine as England captain every time." (see following: Cricinfo) From this, it certainly does not appear to me as though they ended up as bitter enemies. There were other things as well such as "the depiction of angry Australian fans burning an English flag at the Adelaide Test, an event which was never documented" (see following account for quote: Legends of the Ashes: 1932-33: Bodyline). Nevertheless, I always enjoy watching the TV mini-series from time to time (the emotive parts and the historical liberties being no more than dramatic licence) and I think Hugo Weaving's portrayal of Jardine was absolutely magnificent - as indeed all of his performances have been down the years from Bangkok Hilton to the Matrix films, Lord of the Rings and V For Vendetta. An absolutely superb actor. Probably one of the best of his generation.
There has been talk for some time that Peter Clifton was going to make a film on the bodyline series called "The Bloody Ashes". However, nothing seems to have come of that as of yet - I wonder whether the film is still going ahead? There was talk at one time that Russell Crowe was going to be in it. Hope the film sees the light of day eventually.
The main victim of the bodyline Ashes series apart from Berty Oldfield in my opinion was poor Harold Larwood. There is a fantastic book which came out recently on Larwood by Duncan Hamilton. I read a great review of the book (at the following link: Review of Hamilton's book on Larwood) which provides a good summary of how Larwood was disgracefully hung out to dry and which says: "Harold Larwood tells one of cricket's most famous stories. Larwood came from the traditional source of fast bowlers in northern England: the pit. He became the fastest bowler in the country and led the attack in the Bodyline Ashes series of 1932/3. Others bowled bodyline – a systematic attack on the batsman's body, with a ring of close catchers on the legside waiting for a deflection as he fended the ball off – but Larwood did so with unequalled speed and accuracy, and that's what caused all the fuss. The Australians were outraged, the public schoolboys who ran the game in England, embarrassed. Larwood, who had simply followed the instructions of his captain Douglas Jardine, became the fall guy. They even asked him to sign a letter of apology. His mother told him that he would never see her alive if he signed it, which he didn't, but the pressure weighed him down.He never played Test cricket again, and Hamilton shows us Larwood's torment as he spent the next decade or more hiding from the nonsense that Bodyline generated. Hamilton resists the temptation to express his own outrage at the injustices done to Larwood, but tells the story in an understated way that leaves the reader to become angry on his behalf. The portrayal of incidental figures is strong. It was fascinating to learn how Nottinghamshire's coach Jimmy Iremonger turned the scrawny, five-foot-seven Larwood into one of the fastest bowlers the game has seen. With his strong emphasis on physical fitness, Iremonger was decades ahead of his time, except that his favoured energy drink came in pint glasses with froth on top. The villains are Sir Pelham Warner and Sir Donald Bradman. Warner was the England manager and appears here two-faced and weaselling. He was knighted in 1937, as Larwood, who he had hung out to dry, faded from the game, to the relief of Warner's fellow Lord's grandees, who were pleased to be rid of an embarrassment. Jardine (who Larwood revered to the end) adopted bodyline to nullify Bradman, who, alone among the bowler's Australian adversaries, remained cool towards him, and failed to offer any assistance to Larwood when he emigrated to Sydney in 1951. This was in contrast to Jack Fingleton, whose tracking down of Larwood to a backstreet Blackpool sweetshop I have written about: Fingleton's Intervention Hamilton says that the former Australian opener's intervention was more decisive than Fingleton himself described, suggesting that far from building upon an existing notion, it was this visit that set Larwood thinking about emigration to the place where he had been public enemy No 1 less than twenty years before, and where he lived happily for the last four decades of his life."
What an amazing person Fingleton was. The following link describes Fingleton's intervention: Brightly Fades the Don by Jack Fingleton - It says that while in the north of England after the war, Fingleton lead an "expedition to track down his old Bodyline adversary Harold Larwood, who he found running a sweetshop in the back streets of Blackpool. Fingleton, using that reporter’s eye again, notes that Larwood does not have his name on the shop, odd for a famous sportsman, even in those commercially unsophisticated days. He finds Larwood welcoming, but bitter, not at the Australians, but at the English cricketing establishment, which shunned him when it became expedient to place distance between itself and the events of 1932/3. The meeting had unexpected consequences. Fingleton was surprised to hear Larwood contemplating emigration to Australia, “the country which once flamed from end to end over his bowling”. The encouragement that they received from Fingleton helped the Larwoods and their five daughters to take the momentous decision to emigrate. He lived happily in Sydney for another 45 years." Just goes to show that there is a tremendous bond between most cricketers regardless of whatever team or country they played for, and that that transcended even the 1932-33 bodyline Ashes series, probably the most controversial series of all time.
Just as an aside, I recently watched the 1984 Australian television mini--series (called Bodyline) on the bodyline Ashes series for the first time in a number of years. I have to say, I thought it was somewhat emotive and took some liberties with the facts for the sake of dramatic licence. For one thing, watching the TV series you would have come away thinking that Pelham 'Plum' Warner (the so called 'Prime Minister' of Cricket) and Jardine ended up as bitter enemies as a result of Jardines 'bodyline' tactics. However, the reality is that following Jardines premature death from cancer in 1957, Warner paid Jardine the following tribute: "In my humble opinion, Jardine was a very fine captain, both on and off the field, and in the committee-room he was also extremely good. If ever there was a cricket match between England and the rest of the world and the fate of England depended upon its result, I would pick Jardine as England captain every time." (see following: Cricinfo) From this, it certainly does not appear to me as though they ended up as bitter enemies. There were other things as well such as "the depiction of angry Australian fans burning an English flag at the Adelaide Test, an event which was never documented" (see following account for quote: Legends of the Ashes: 1932-33: Bodyline). Nevertheless, I always enjoy watching the TV mini-series from time to time (the emotive parts and the historical liberties being no more than dramatic licence) and I think Hugo Weaving's portrayal of Jardine was absolutely magnificent - as indeed all of his performances have been down the years from Bangkok Hilton to the Matrix films, Lord of the Rings and V For Vendetta. An absolutely superb actor. Probably one of the best of his generation.
There has been talk for some time that Peter Clifton was going to make a film on the bodyline series called "The Bloody Ashes". However, nothing seems to have come of that as of yet - I wonder whether the film is still going ahead? There was talk at one time that Russell Crowe was going to be in it. Hope the film sees the light of day eventually.
The main victim of the bodyline Ashes series apart from Berty Oldfield in my opinion was poor Harold Larwood. There is a fantastic book which came out recently on Larwood by Duncan Hamilton. I read a great review of the book (at the following link: Review of Hamilton's book on Larwood) which provides a good summary of how Larwood was disgracefully hung out to dry and which says: "Harold Larwood tells one of cricket's most famous stories. Larwood came from the traditional source of fast bowlers in northern England: the pit. He became the fastest bowler in the country and led the attack in the Bodyline Ashes series of 1932/3. Others bowled bodyline – a systematic attack on the batsman's body, with a ring of close catchers on the legside waiting for a deflection as he fended the ball off – but Larwood did so with unequalled speed and accuracy, and that's what caused all the fuss. The Australians were outraged, the public schoolboys who ran the game in England, embarrassed. Larwood, who had simply followed the instructions of his captain Douglas Jardine, became the fall guy. They even asked him to sign a letter of apology. His mother told him that he would never see her alive if he signed it, which he didn't, but the pressure weighed him down.He never played Test cricket again, and Hamilton shows us Larwood's torment as he spent the next decade or more hiding from the nonsense that Bodyline generated. Hamilton resists the temptation to express his own outrage at the injustices done to Larwood, but tells the story in an understated way that leaves the reader to become angry on his behalf. The portrayal of incidental figures is strong. It was fascinating to learn how Nottinghamshire's coach Jimmy Iremonger turned the scrawny, five-foot-seven Larwood into one of the fastest bowlers the game has seen. With his strong emphasis on physical fitness, Iremonger was decades ahead of his time, except that his favoured energy drink came in pint glasses with froth on top. The villains are Sir Pelham Warner and Sir Donald Bradman. Warner was the England manager and appears here two-faced and weaselling. He was knighted in 1937, as Larwood, who he had hung out to dry, faded from the game, to the relief of Warner's fellow Lord's grandees, who were pleased to be rid of an embarrassment. Jardine (who Larwood revered to the end) adopted bodyline to nullify Bradman, who, alone among the bowler's Australian adversaries, remained cool towards him, and failed to offer any assistance to Larwood when he emigrated to Sydney in 1951. This was in contrast to Jack Fingleton, whose tracking down of Larwood to a backstreet Blackpool sweetshop I have written about: Fingleton's Intervention Hamilton says that the former Australian opener's intervention was more decisive than Fingleton himself described, suggesting that far from building upon an existing notion, it was this visit that set Larwood thinking about emigration to the place where he had been public enemy No 1 less than twenty years before, and where he lived happily for the last four decades of his life."
What an amazing person Fingleton was. The following link describes Fingleton's intervention: Brightly Fades the Don by Jack Fingleton - It says that while in the north of England after the war, Fingleton lead an "expedition to track down his old Bodyline adversary Harold Larwood, who he found running a sweetshop in the back streets of Blackpool. Fingleton, using that reporter’s eye again, notes that Larwood does not have his name on the shop, odd for a famous sportsman, even in those commercially unsophisticated days. He finds Larwood welcoming, but bitter, not at the Australians, but at the English cricketing establishment, which shunned him when it became expedient to place distance between itself and the events of 1932/3. The meeting had unexpected consequences. Fingleton was surprised to hear Larwood contemplating emigration to Australia, “the country which once flamed from end to end over his bowling”. The encouragement that they received from Fingleton helped the Larwoods and their five daughters to take the momentous decision to emigrate. He lived happily in Sydney for another 45 years." Just goes to show that there is a tremendous bond between most cricketers regardless of whatever team or country they played for, and that that transcended even the 1932-33 bodyline Ashes series, probably the most controversial series of all time.
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