Davo’s Masterclass

John Rogers | June 18, 2023

The Nor-Easter is in.

It’s a classic Sydney summer holiday afternoon in mid-January – every square metre of sand at Bondi Beach has a semi-naked body on it.

The humid, stifling heat at midday that has perspiration dripping from every brow – has lost out to the nor-easter, and the crowds will stay at Bondi for the rest of the arvo. In Perth the “Freo Doctor” will be kicking up the fine, white beach sand driving people away, but in Sydney the heavier golden sand stays in place so that skins redden, bikinis are slipped a little lower …. . 

5kms inland from Bondi at the Sydney Cricket Ground another 40,000 people have no interest in the beach. They are packed into the Sydney Cricket Ground watching Australia take on England in the 1962-63 Ashes series. The last test in Sydney was two years previously when the West Indies tour galvanised cricket.

All eyes are on the Australian fast-bowling spearhead Alan Davidson as he licks the first two fingers of his left hand fingers and holds them up to test if the nor-easter has arrived. Yes, he decides, and tells the umpires he will bowl from the northern or Members’ end of the ground to take advantage of the nor-easter coming from behind, blowing over his left shoulder.

Ten minutes earlier his Australian team’s 1st innings series had finished – with a 40 run lead. The England team are not unhappy, a decent performance in their 2nd innings and they might well have the Aussies on toast.

Davo collects the new ball from the umpires, has a quick word to his captain Richie Benaud and begins his walk back to his mark. The crowd hushes for the first ball wondering what it might bring. Davo too is keen to know, and he wastes no time and races in to deliver the first ball. It starts on lefthander Geoff Pullar’s off-stump and at the last moment swings sharply away, climbs off the pitch, just misses a groping bat, and has the keeper jumping to his left to take the ball in front of 1st slip’s face.

The crowd roars.

Davo stands still in his follow-through when normally he’d have swung around and headed back. He looks at the batsman. And he looks at Benaud in the gully, grins, and points over his shoulder as if to say: ‘yes the nor-easter is in!”

He turns and heads back to his mark. This time there’s a touch of confidence. And it’s an athlete’s walk. A rugby league footballer’s walk. If he hadn’t been a cricketer, that’s what he’d have been, a powerful centre, or maybe a 2nd rower in Bob McCarthy style. He’s a 6-footer is Davo, and he’s broad. The legendary Ray Lindwall told him that fast bowlers need a big backside, so advised having a couple of beers at the end of a day’s play. Davo is no drinker, but Lindwall’s word is gospel, and the results show.

Davo is 33. He will retire at the end of the series. He has to, there’s no money in the game. If he hangs on any longer, then he’ll end up another penniless cricketer. His slightly younger captain will do the same the next year.

He has filled out. The bum is as broad as an axe handle his timber-cutter family have long wielded in the bush north of Sydney. He angles slightly to his left at the top of his mark and then swings around in a circle, checks the batsman is ready and pushes off.

“Fifteen Paces” he called his autobiography, so it’s no long, meandering run.

It’s not an upright run like Glen McGrath or Pat Cummins, nor a stylised run that Dennis Lillee learned after his first back injury. Davo’s head and chest are arched forward and his heels create a drum tattoo on his broad backside. There’s an urgency about it, and with it, the rhythm of a natural sportsman, he’s so perfectly balanced. The be-hatted crowd in the Members and Noble Stands behind him, and the shirtless, sunburnt punters in the outer standing on their eskies cheer him on.

Where other bowlers begin the wind-up for their action two and three strides before delivery, Davo stays in his running position until his very last stride when his body swivels left into a classic side-on position and over comes the highest and straightest of arms.

And the delivery is quick.

Yes, very quick.

As a youngster Davo was a tearaway. He’s steadied as he’s become Australia’s “go-to” bowler, shouldering a big share of the attack. But here he’s got just half an afternoon today, rather than a long hot day of hard yakka. The ‘nor-easter’ is in, and ball, you beauty, is swinging.

The second ball is a touch fuller and aimed just outside the leg-stump. Pullar thinks a single to fine-leg is a chance. But just before pitching, the ball veers to the right. Pullar sees the change in direction but is into his stroke and has no time to adjust. The ball whips across in front of him and he hears an explosion behind as the ball smashes into the top of off-stump.

The crowd erupts. At both ends of the ground. This is what they’ve come to see: the Aussie bowlers at England throats.

The England captain “Lord” Ted Dexter rises from his seat between team manager, the Duke of Norfolk, and his vice-captain Colin Cowdrey who will marry the Duke’s daughter. At the gate he is greeted by a crescendo of noise. He pauses for a moment, it’s like a bull-pen. He’s tall and aristocratic, the type that gets up the nose of every hard-drinking Aussie. He gets that message all the way to the centre. Arriving he has a word to the future Bishop of Nottingham, the Reverend David Sheppard, who has watched on as the other opener. He is told about the swinging ball.

And yes, the first delivery also ducks in and thuds into his thigh pad. The crowd roars again. Next delivery Davo changes the seam so as to make the ball stay on its line and not swing, hoping for an edge. But it swings again, this time in the other direction. Dexter’s bat has missed it by a foot. Davo’s grin widens. The crowd roars again.

Every delivery from Davo brings a roar or a gasp, with near-miss following near-miss. A few edges fly to the boundary at the other end and once Dexter imperiously cover-drives a boundary. Twenty runs are added. But it can’t last. Dexter drives at Davidson again and this time can manage just the edge of the bat and the ball flies to 1st slip where Bob Simpson holds on. The crowd is ecstatic. A few deliveries later and Sheppard finds a similar edge.

From 23 deliveries, Davidson has the figures of 3 wickets for 5.

The crowd is in full roar. England hold on and slowly build the score but at stumps the scorecard reads 86 for 6. Next morning Davo cleans up the final two with England all out for just 104. Australia canter to a win. Alongside Davo’s name on the iconic SCG scoreboard are the figures: 5 for 26.

Those of us who saw Davo that afternoon witnessed a masterclass