While Woodfull was lying on the treatment table some time after loosing his wicket, Plum Warner entered the dressing room and apologised to the Australian captain for the Bodyline bowling. Woodfull was not amused, it was at this precise moment that he uttered the now infamous words: -

"There are two teams out there, one of them is trying to play cricket" with that Plum Warner left the dressing room.

The following day was a rest day and the previous days meeting between Woodfull and Plum was all over the Australian newspapers, much to Jardine’s annoyance. The headlines read: -

‘Woodfull protests against shock tactics’ – Jardine seemed to be concerned by the fact that Warner had given the Australian captain an opportunity to accuse him of behaving in an un-sportsmanlike manner, something Jardine strongly disagreed with. Jardine gave Warner no choice but to go back to Woodfull and demand he write an apology in the following day’s newspapers – without fail. The
test series was in jeopardy for the first time today, thanks mainly to the articles found in the Australian press.

On that Monday morning the newspapers were again full of controversy, one of the headlines read

‘Woodfull Apologises’ found in the Adelaide News. The Australian players were furious at the thought that their captain had apologised for the remarks found in Sunday’s papers. When Woodfull arrived at the ground he was confronted by the
players and he categorically denied ever speaking to Warner since Saturday’s meeting in the dressing room. The articles basically stated that Woodfull had since spoken to Warner and he had unreservedly apologised for any hurt caused by the remarks found in the Australian press. Woodfull’s response was classic‘ I will not dignify a lie with a response’. The captain was under mounting pressure to hit back at the English on the playing field, however Woodfull was adamant that this was not the way to play,he certainly didn’t want to in his words ‘Stoop to Jardine’s level’.

When play resumed that morning, the English side took to the field with a chorus of barracking and groans from the pro Adelaide crowd ringing in their ears. The Australian pair of Ponsford and Oldfield took to the field however with an enthusiastic welcome from a large crowd, especially considering it was a Monday morning ! Jardine was unmoved by the weekend headlines as he called for the
Bodyline field to be set from the off, Larwood’s first ball hit Ponsford and the crowd went wild. Larwood continued to bowl fast short deliveries aimed at the body and it wasn’t long before there was a serious injury occurred. Oldfield was on the receiving
end as a short pitched delivery raised up and hit him in the temple. He immediately dropped his bat and fell to the ground, his team mate and some of the English players rushed to see if he was ok. Larwood went over to apologise to Bert Oldfield as Woodfull rushed onto the field to help carry him off to hospital.

When Woodfull met up with Warner behind the grandstand he muttered ‘This isn’t cricket, it’s War’, Plum stood there speechless. As Oldfield left for hospital, the crowd began to burn the Union flags in protest, it was a long time before play resumed. One thing that was clear however, Oldfield would play no further part in this Test match due to a fractured skull received from the blow to the head. His wife heard the news while listening to the wireless. He returned to keep wicket in the fifth and final Test match.

At the end of the 3rd test Woodfull met with his players in the dressing room. It was at this point that Bodyline started to go political. The Australian captain vowed that he would resign as captain if the Australian Control Board could not get an assurance from the English that they had seen the last of Bodyline.

 

Woodfull met with the Control board and in turn they called Warner for a private meeting. They had hoped he would go back to Jardine and ask him to stop with the tactics. This was not new territory for Warner as he had continually tried to get Jardine to stop throughout the series. Warner advised the control board to write to Lords as he held little hope of getting Jardine to back down.

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