Craddock: How on-field beers used to fire up English fast men as they took on the Don

Bumpers and boozers is usually a dangerous recipe for disaster but in cricket’s most infamous summer something strange happened.

Booze was the secret weapon behind England’s Bodyline assault against Don Bradman, a new book has claimed.

Next year is the 90th anniversary of the infamous Bodyline series where notorious English captain Douglas Jardine unveiled a brutal game plan to stack the leg side and use bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to target the unprotected bodies of Australian batsmen.

“Booze was definitely the secret weapon, no doubt about it,’’ Roland Perry, a long time confidante of Bradman and author of Bradman vs Bodyline (Allen and Unwin) told News Corp.

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Larwood and Voce were renowned beer lovers and in a pattern set by previous English captain Arthur Carr who once wrote “all fast bowlers need beer to keep them going’’, they were fuelled not simply after play but during it.

”When they brought the drinks out on trays there were times in the Bodyline Tests when everyone else would have orange juice and Larwood and Bill Voce would have beer,’’ Perry said.

“The Bodyline method was very dramatic with the captain clapping his hands and the players moving across to their positions and the fuel was alcohol.

“They had to get Larwood fired up. He might have a beer at lunch as well and they certainly had some after play. Jardine was giving them drinks during the game, there is no doubt about it.

“Arthur Carr set them on the path to drinking and Jardine kept it going.’’

Bradman’s averaged an honourable 56 in the Bodyline series won 4-1 by England, a major reduction from his Test average of 99.94 but still well above most of his teammates.

Perry said Bradman devised a game plan to avoided being struck and unveiled a game plan which was essentially T20 batting ahead of its time with plenty of audacious footwork on both sides of the wicket.

“I spoke to him in 1999 about some of his shots and he said “I had to hit up and unders (over slips) and when I said it was like one-day cricket he agreed. But it is more like T20 cricket.’’

“He pulled away and him them through the off-side and he backed away and hit them over slips like Mark Waugh did (against Curtly Ambrose). He also ran to the off-side and hit him over leg.

“In two series before Bodyline Bradman slapped Larwood around. At times he humiliated Larwood who said he did not want to face Bradman without a weapon and that weapon was Bodyline.’’

Perry claims Bradman could “forgive but could never forget’’ Bodyline.

“After Bodyline, he had doubts about continuing on with cricket for his country,’’ Perry wrote.

“He considered becoming a professional in England, or a journalist and decided instead to become a stockbroker in Adelaide.

“This was about as conservative and invisible as one could get in Australia, alongside banking or undertaking. It showed where his mind was.’’

When Larwood died on July 22, 1995, Bradman contacted two newspapers to release the quote “Harold Larwood will live in history and one of the greatest bowlers of all time.’’

In some ways it said nothing. In others everything.

Never again: Smith captaincy was a disaster, says great

As someone who has held the office, Kim Hughes speaks with authority when it comes to the Australian cricket captaincy.

Hughes, 67, played 70 Tests for Australia as a dashing batsman from 1977-84, captaining his country in 28 and honouring the traditions of the office. He spoke from his home in Perth this week.

THE NEXT CAPTAIN

“I have felt for some time that Pat Cummins should be that person. Not in T20 and maybe ODIs, but he is the obvious candidate at Test level. He has conducted himself so well for so long. And it should happen after the Ashes series, which could even see Tim Paine remain in the side.”

Pat Cummins has the right credentials, according to Kim Hughes, to lead the country.

TIM PAINE

“He has done a really good job apart from letting himself down with that interaction with Ravi Ashwin. But the umpires should have stepped in and told Paine he would be off the ground if he kept going. End of story.”

Steve Smith doesn’t get a former Australian captain’s tick of approval for the top job again.

STEVE SMITH

“I would certainly would not go to Steve Smith as Test captain. It would be a recipe for disaster. The rules of the game say the captain is responsible for the spirit of cricket. Whether we like it or not, we cheated under his watch. I want to see him remain as one of the best batsmen in the world, plus helping with his experience.”

CRICKET TODAY

“I’ve had a bit to do with Cameron Green. His footwork is so good and unlike so many today, he plays beautifully off the back foot. Will Pucovski is the same and I just hope he gets the chance. And a young man named Shubman Gill from India is great to watch. Once you move forward you can never go back, and most move forward for their first movement.”

Australian cricket great Kim Hughes has spoken out against Steve Smith being reinstated in the captaincy role.

BEST BATSMEN AND BOWLER

“In my time Viv Richards, Javed Miandad and Greg Chappell as batsmen. Malcolm Marshall was the best all-round bowler. Jeff Thomson, before being injured, was the quickest by so far it didn’t matter. He was clocked at 160km/h in Perth and that was after he did his shoulder. No wicketkeeper has ever stood back as far as John Maclean did when ‘Thommo’ was playing for Queensland in 1974-76.”

Name locked in: Before and after

It was always going to happen and became just a matter of the name getting through.

Fortunately for Price Bloodstock, the company of passionate Western Bulldogs supporter David Price, Before Dan was approved. And Before Dan’s sire? None other than Ilovethiscity.

Cricket legend Shane Warne knows how to find a winner.

Warnie’s top tipple turns out to be gold

Sportsmen and the production of alcohol named in their honour has normally produced low-rent wine that quickly disappears from the market, and from memory there was a Shane Warne number back in the early 2000s.

But Warne is back, this time in the gin world where his SevenZeroEight 43% Classic Dry Gin was recently awarded a gold medal at the 2021 Australian Gin Awards. A timely honour given this Tuesday is International Gin and Tonic Day.

Golf course kicks goal with AFL

Cathedral Lodge, one of Australia’s most exclusive and finest golf courses boast a “Who’s Who” in the world of AFL among its 150 members.

While the club, which is based at Thornton (two hours’ drive north east of Melbourne) and run by David and Sonya Evans, closely guards the privacy of its 150 members, brothers Gillon and Hamish McLachlan plus Chris and Brad Scott are said to have been seen on the Greg Norman-designed layout.

Craig Kelly is another patron, while Shane Warne and Ash Barty are believed to be part of David Evans’ field of dreams.

Walsh on radar to replace to Cat

While everything about Carlton’s 2021 best and fairest winner in Sam Walsh reeks of loyalty, expect his management to have everything bar the kitchen sink thrown at it before the 2023 season starts.

Walsh is out of contract at the end of 2022 and obviously will attract a wide-ranging bevy of suitors. Leading the charge will be Geelong in the knowledge its captain Joel Selwood is possibly entering his last season. And Walsh did attend St Joseph’s College in Geelong.