A "Gem of a Man" - Frank Misson - RIP
John Rogers | September 14, 2024
“Strepter! Great to see you!”
I can still remember the look of pure pleasure as Richie Benaud once greeted his former team-mate, Frank Misson. I’d known that Frank was universally liked in the cricket world, and here was his test captain confirming it.
And it wasn’t just pleasure in Richie’s voice, there was also a touch of admiration.
Doyen of the game of cricket that Richie was, he was acutely aware that Frank had been one of them game’s true revolutionaries. Cricketers in the 1950s kept fit mostly by playing other sports. Some would run around the block having heard what the likes of John Landy and Herb Elliott were doing in athletics. Frank burst onto the cricket scene with a similar approach plus long-distance swimming. But what was jaw-dropping at the time was his vegetarian diet regime highlighted by honey, nuts and other health foods, that was anathema to the then red-blooded Aussie sportsman.
And did he look the part! Tall and blond-haired, he possessed a beautifully balanced, athletic walk. With not an ounce of fat on him and an ever-present, genuine smile, Frank also took the English cricket world by storm. Astonished as the English media were by his training regime and diet, when he took 6 for 75 in the lead-up to the first Ashes Test of 1961and forced his way into the team, his name was on everyone’s lips. He held his own in the first drawn Test and played a key, if minor, role in Australian winning the 2nd Test at Lord’s. That Test was famous for the “Lord’s Ridge" that had balls flying off a length, where Bill Lawry’s "hold-the-fort” innings of 130, Richie Benaud would often say, was one of the finest in test history. Coming in at no.11, Frank showed he was more than a tailender in sharing in a key partnership of 49, remaining unbeaten on 25. His two wickets in both innings were also important factors in the Australian win. Sadly, such a famous victory would be Frank's last Test match. He tore a calf muscle in the following county match immediately after coming as substitute and without time to warm up. Meanwhile youngster Grahame McKenzie established himself as a long-term Test cricketer and there was no space for Frank to squeeze back into the team. Yet there would never be any sour grapes from Frank who remained the ultimate team-man with his ever-present good humour. It showed in the friendships he kept up. He would ring his mate “Phanto”, Bill Lawry, monthly. With his lovely wife Carole, he’d go on many a holiday with Warren and Clare Saunders, he’d have regular dinner-parties with Neil & Kay Marks who lived on the other side of Sydney, and there were hundreds more who enjoyed meeting up with him.
His nickname of Strepter fitted him perfectly. As he burst onto the scene brimming with health, the world was agog with the new anti-TB drug Streptomycin. It had earned a Nobel Prize for its discoverer. Some wag, possibly Neil Marks, associated the last syllable, “mycin”, with “Misson” and the first syllable “strepto” became “Strepter”. And no-one was ever less “obstreperous” than Frank. So Strepter fitted, and stuck. And Frank had a wonderful way of greeting people. “Hello, Johnny-boy,” he would say to me, and similar to everyone else, accompanied always with a deep-throated chuckle that implied he was so pleased to see you.
I was lucky enough to know him well by joining up with the Sydney Cricket Ground’s tennis club and finding myself in a team with Ian Craig, David de Carvalho, Ian Fisher and Frank - cricketers all. Somehow, I found myself allocated to a team playing “Badge Tennis” B2 division, and my main partner was Frank. He was fabulous to play with and the after-matches ‘drinkies' with the five of us were occasions I will always treasure. The first person to tell me about Frank’s passing was Ian Fisher who I know feels exactly the same way.
The mutual admiration between Richie and Frank that I happened to see that day, said it all. A gem of a man was Frank Misson.
"RIP Strepter”.
