WET AND WILD

"The elements are cricket's presiding geniuses," wrote Sir Neville Cardus, the effervescent nonpareil of this parish, and it seems apt to reflect on the intrusions of the weather this shower-wracked May as the Spin hourly checks the forecasts for the prospects of play at Lord's on Thursday.

Some of the greatest matches have been given a helping hand towards immortality by the rain. Indeed the England v Australia Test at The Oval in 1882, the one that inspired the sardonic notice "in affectionate remembrance of English cricket" and began the Ashes tradition, was settled by Frederick Spofforth's match figures of 14 for 90 and his mastery on the sticky dog.

The report in Wisden commences with a succinct if inconclusive appraisal of the possible reasons for England's defeat, "leaving the reader to attribute the Australian victory to the fact that the Colonists won the toss and thereby had the best of the cricket; to the fact that the English had to play the last innings; to the brilliant batting of Massie; to the superb bowling of Spofforth; to the nervousness of some of the England side; to the glorious uncertainty of the noble game; or to whatever he or she thinks the true reason." Matches as dramatic as that one sometimes defy rational explanation and the anonymous reporter thought explanation was preferable to condemnation. If only more we could get away with it today.

At the MCG in 1929 Herbert Sutcliffe scored 135 as England successfully breached a target of 332 to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series. "For many a day afterwards," he said, "I carried the marks of the ball which did such fearsome tricks on that rain-affected wicket."

Three years later on the same ground and on a similarly malevolent gluepot, South Africa demonstrated the scale of Sutcliffe's achievement. Bert Ironmonger, Australia's slow left-arm fizzer who was two months shy of his 50th birthday, bamboozled the tourists, taking 11 for 24 in the match as Jock Cameron's side were demolished for 36 and 45. In actual playing time, between the rain breaks, the entire Test took five hours and 53 minutes to complete.

In the age of uncovered pitches that Geoffrey Boycott looks back on with such fondness, the one at The Gabba in the first Test of the 1950-51 Ashes series stands out as among the most dastardly. The storms arrived shortly after Australia had posted 228 in their first innings, wiping out four sessions. England then declared on 68 for seven after 22 eight-ball overs on Monday afternoon, Australia did likewise on 32 for seven after facing 109 balls, setting MCC, as they still officially were, 193. Leonard Hutton and Denis Compton were dropped down the order to Nos 8 and 9 respectively in the hope that enough batsmen could survive the evening to give them a chance of better conditions the next day. "The pitch was the game's villain," noted the Almanack. "Medium-paced bowling of good length presented a well-nigh insoluble problem. Sometimes the ball reared head high, at other times it kept horribly low."

At close of play England were 30 for six but so majestically did Hutton bat on the Tuesday morning in making an unbeaten 62 that hope only evaporated with the fall of the final wicket.

"The spectators it the Woollongabba ground cheered every move and gesture and attitude of England's struggle," wrote RC Robertson-Glasgow in the Observer. "For they knew it was a struggle against nature's cruelty as much as Australia's skill. And, by the pearls of Cleopatra, they had something to cheer when Hutton was batting that last hour and a half of the match. Sir Donald Bradman was watching, and on his face was such a look of admiration and amazement as I have never seen there before."

Alec Bedser took three for nine in Australia's second innings in that Test and 59 years ago on Wednesday he was the matchwinner in an outrageous Surrey victory over Warwickshire at The Oval in the County Championship that began and concluded on the same day.

The game pitted the reigning champions Surrey against the team they succeeded to the title. Remarkably, given how quickly it was over, the start was delayed by rain and Tom Dollery, the Warwickshire captain, hoping that the moisture had brought some measure of docility to the pitch elected to bat on winning the toss. Bedser, bowling unchanged, took eight for 18 in 13.5 overs. Attacking leg stump with Tony Lock, Jim Laker and David Fletcher in the trap Bedser had seven of his victims caught.

Only Dick Spooner, the Warwickshire and England wicketkeeper, made double figures in a total of 45. Seventy-five minutes after the innings began it was over. Surrey's innings lasted only 74 balls more but their approach was more aggressive. Bernard Constable dropped anchor to make 37 and after he was out the captain Stuart Surridge hit three sixes off one Eric Hollies over and Lock raced to 27 before chancing his arm once too often against Charles Grove. Shaping to hook, the ball crashed into his forehead and he left the field on a stretcher. After a short delay while he was put in an ambulance, Surrey's innings closed 101 ahead with their last man retired hurt.

Warwickshire's second innings then began at 5.30pm. At 6.40pm the match was over. Bedser captured the first wicket before Jim Laker, who took the new ball, bowled out Tom Cartwright then a few balls later struck with a hat-trick to dismiss Spooner, Tom Dollery and Raymond Hitchcock. Laker finished with five wickets, Bedser with four as seven Warwickshire batsmen departed for ducks in their total of 52, Surrey winning by an innings and 49 runs.

Seven years later at Nevill Road, Kent repeated the feat, bowling out Worcestershire for 25 and 61 to record victory in a day by an innings and 101 runs.

Since the covering of pitches became mandatory rain interventions tend to add a short-lived zip to the wicket, truncate games or, as at the Adelaide Oval in 2010, add an agitating sense of urgency to proceedings. Such freak results are a thing of the past but, by the pearls of Cleopatra, they were fun.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I don't normally drink, but I could do with a brandy" - the great rainmaker himself, Dickie Bird OBE, on going to Buckingham Palace to receive his gong.

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