(courtesy Andrew Wyatt, editor Wairarapa Times - Age, Masterton)

The rainy day trip that robbed the crowd - (Part 2)

The team returned aboard the Monowai, via Wellington where a match was scheduled against a Wellington representative side. Fellow passengers included a New Zealand parliamentary delegation, led by the Coalition Government’s Minister of Public Works and Transport, Mr J.G.Coates, after a conference in Ottawa, and the 23-strong New Zealand team – mostly rowers – returning from the Los Angeles Olympics with a silver medal. But the crowds that thronged the wharf to greet the Monowai in Wellington, on a cold, wet Sunday morning, were there to catch a glimpse of Bradman.

Wellington’s Evening Post reported: “Although he had never set foot in Wellington before, this young man was no stranger; he was known by the deeds which have made him the most talked-of man in the world of cricket. Mr and Mrs Bradman were escorted with difficulty through the waiting crowds... For the small boys it was a memorable occasion – the nearer they could get to Bradman the more lasting, no doubt, the impression upon their minds. The crowd surged around the motor-car and lustily cheered the Bradmans ere they broke clear of this remarkable demonstration.”

So there was general dismay, shared by the Wellington players, when more rain the next morning washed out the Monday match against Wellington. The weather was clearing but the Australians had to sail on Tuesday At a dinner on the Monday night the two captains came up with a plan.

The current curator of the National Cricket Museum at the Basin Reserve, Stan Cowman, has read the Wellington newspaper reports, and the Wellington Cricket Association’s annual report for that season. He says: “As I understand the story, Stew Dempster and Vic Richardson agreed at dinner – at a late hour – to play a very short match at the Basin in order not to disappoint the many who had failed to see play.” The exhibition match was to start at noon and last just two hours, as the Monowai was due to sail at 4pm.

The news got around. Mr Cowman says the reports indicate a crowd of about 8000 turned up at the Basin Reserve. But two of the Australians didn’t, and one of them was Bradman. That was a huge disappointment, though Mr Cowman says it was relieved later by the scintillating batting of the Australians – whose numbers were made up by Wellington players Ken James and Eric Tindill.

Wellington scored 43-1 in 10 overs and the Australians 155-4 in 26 overs, McCabe 78 not out, before time was called at 2.05 and the Australians hurried to the wharf to catch their ship.

So what happened to The Don?

Mr Cowman says Bradman and his wife didn’t know of the late arrangements for an exhibition match when they left the dinner. They had made their own plans for the next day which would have involved a very early start.

The Bradmans, along with Fleetwood-Smith, had arranged to hire a car and driver for a “motor tour of the southern Wairarapa”. The car arrived and the threesome left before they could be told of the match arranged late the night before.

Bradman was said to be astonished on returning in the afternoon to learn that cricket had been played, and “more than a bit concerned” that the crowd had been deprived of the chance to see him bat.

There is no public record of the Bradmans’ “motor tour of the southern Wairarapa”, and no evidence of what they did. It was at least a two-hour trip by car from Wellington to Featherston, engine and radiator permitting, and there’s no proof they reached there, or even the Rimutaka summit, before succumbing to time worries, frustration or vertigo.

The Hill Road would have been a novel experience to young Australians, and in 1932 it was still unsealed with a 25mph (40kmh) speed limit – 15mph where visibility was less than 150 feet (45m). The fences were wire and the regional weather forecast for the day was for easterly winds “freshening at times in exposed positions”.

But Bradman was not an easily frightened man, as countless fast bowlers found out. Nor was he known for quitting, or declining a challenge. And he was to face much bigger challenges than the Rimutaka Hill Road. One was just a month later, when Douglas Jardine’s English team arrived in Australia, hellbent on destroying Bradman, and the “bodyline” series began.

Bradman’s absence from the exhibition match in Wellington provided another twist to the extraordinary career of one of New Zealand’s sporting greats, Eric Tindill.

Tindill is not just a double All Black, having represented New Zealand at both cricket and rugby. He also officiated in both sports at the highest level as a test cricket umpire and test rugby referee, a unique achievement.

But that was all ahead of him on September 20, 1932, when, aged 21, he was called in as one of the replacements for the missing Bradman and Fleetwood-Smith. He kept wicket for the Australians, a job he was later to perform at test level for New Zealand.

Tindill, now 90 and remarkably fit, is still living in Wellington. This week he recalled the match when he filled in for Don Bradman as a “friendly” on a fine day, with a big crowd who, like the Wellington players, were “pretty cheesed off” by Bradman’s absence.

Tindill’s career was to cross Bradman’s once more, five years later when he caught the great batsman out in the only innings he played against New Zealand.

New Zealand met South Australia, captained by Bradman, at the Adelaide Oval, on the way home by sea from their 1937 tour of England. On the first day New Zealand were dismissed for 151 and South Australia reached 64-2. Bradman went in half an hour before stumps and, Tindill says, batted “sedately” to reach 11 not out, mostly in singles.

Next morning Bradman was in the nets well before play started and, to the New Zealanders’ consternation, was “belting it all around the field”. But in the first over of the day, by fast bowler Jack Cowie, he edged the first ball be faced and it carried through to Tindill.

Crowds queueing at the gate went home, costing New Zealand cricket a substantial share of the gate-takings, and in terms of the match the dismissal didn’t help. Australian test opener Jack Badcock scored a century and New Zealand lost by 10 wickets.

But Tindill, a modest man, is proud of his part in Bradman’s downfall and remembers it well.“It was an obvious nick.”

Part 1