Life inside the scoreboard

‘John Dyson’s catch.’

Those three words, mentioned to anyone who was a cricket fan in the 1980s, will bring back immediate memories.

It was 5 January 1982, the fourth day of the second test between Australia and the West Indies. Deep into the West Indies’ second innings, Bruce Yardley was bowling from the Randwick end to number nine batsman Sylvester Clarke. Swinging across the line, the muscle-bound Barbadian connected with the ball very cleanly, sending it high and long towards the deep mid-wicket boundary. Time froze as everyone – the players, the crowd and the television audience – waited and watched as the ball traced its arc.

Standing about thirty metres in from the fence, Australian opener John Dyson found himself tracking the flight of the ball more closely than anybody, hoping for a catch rather than a six

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