Ashley Mallett column: Red, white and Bluey has true courage
JONNY Bairstow’s story of rising from the ashes of utter despair to becoming a wonderful wicketkeeper-batsman for Yorkshire and England is one of sheer determination and love, writes Ashley Mallett.
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AUSTRALIANS love an ebullient, combative cricketer, especially one who wears his heart on his sleeve.
Jonny Bairstow’s story of rising from the ashes of utter despair to becoming a wonderful wicketkeeper-batsman for Yorkshire and England is one of sheer determination and love amidst a childhood shattered by his father’s suicide.
David Bairstow died alone in the family home. He had hanged himself from the staircase. It was a cold, black January night in 1998 when Jonny, his mother Janet and sister Becky returned home from Jonny’s football training at Leeds United to witness unimaginable shock and horror.
David Bairstow was just 46, Jonny was eight years old. His dad; his hero was gone - forever. The family’s shock and grief was unimaginable. For years Jonny kept searching for an answer.
Written in conjunction with Duncan Hamilton, A Clear Blue Sky, Jonny’s book is all of these things: eulogy, unofficial inquest, uncompromising love and loyalty and the manner in which David’s grieving family somehow rose above the sheer terror of their situation to get on with their lives.
No one who knew David “Bluey” Bairstow will forget him. I met Bluey in 1980, my last big match, the Centenary Test at Lord’s. Bluey was England’s ’keeper in that match, one of four Tests he was to play.
A feisty, solid little bloke with a big heart he gave his all on the field and joined us for a beer and plenty of laughs off it. There’s something endearing about Yorkshiremen.
They play hard and they are never backward in telling you how it is: never. Bluey was the very embodiment of everything Yorkshire. Two Yorkies I know and admire — Geoff Boycott and (Sir) Michael Parkinson – are poles apart in just about everything except when it comes to Yorkshire itself, the place they eternally call “God’s Own Country”.
The Yorkies love their cricket and they love winning. They are brilliant scrappers and if you had to have a fellow soldier alongside you in trench warfare, you couldn’t go past Bluey Bairstow, or indeed his son, Jonny.
Nine years after the Centenary Test at Lord’s, my next sighting of Bluey was in South Africa, on the occasion of the republic celebrating 100 years of Test cricket. Quite a bizarre celebration really given 1989 was more than 18 years into South Africa’s international sporting isolation and they had not turned out in an official Test match since 1970. Bluey and I were in the same Golden Oldies team led by Tony Grieg. The team included the likes of Graham McKenzie, Dennis Amiss and Norman Gifford.We played three matches against a South African one-day unit. The games were unimportant, but the great thing was I got to spend time with Bluey. We were there in March and Jonny was born on September 26 that same year. If Jonny wasn’t there among us he might well have been conceived on that short tour. A fun-loving, lovely couple Janet and Bluey Bairstow were like two peas in a pod, always sporting a smile, enjoying life.
I got the feeling that Bluey was so Yorkshire he was indestructible. I was wrong. Time froze when I heard the shocking news of David’s death. Must have been a year later that I read Wisden, in which Mathew Engel wrote in tribute: “Reports said he had been suffering from depression: his wife was ill, he had financial troubles, he faced a drink-driving charge and was in pain from his own injuries. The news stunned cricket, especially as Bairstow had always seemed the most indomitable and least introspective of men.”
How proud he would be of Jonny, whose 50 Test career has already brought him 3130 runs, including four centuries (167 not out his best), 129 catches and four stumpings. No matter if you smack a ton and take ripping catches or throw down the stumps to effect a run out, your father, who is very much alive in your heart, will undoubtedly raise a glass to you.
If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or beyondblue.org.au
Originally published as Ashley Mallett column: Red, white and Bluey has true courage
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