Test Match Special - Ashes Tour Tales: Ep 3 Adelaide

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

From Bodyline to 2010 glory, Eleanor Oldroyd is joined by Jonathan Agnew, Steven Finn and commentator Simon Mann to share stories of matches played at the iconic Adelaide Oval.

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the biggest names covering the biggest games with the biggest debates, all hitting your podcast feed seven days a week. Get involved and subscribe to the Football Daily on BBC Sounds. Now, back to your podcast. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello, I'm Eleanor Aldroyd, and welcome to this bonus TMS podcast, the latest in our series. of Ashes Tour Tales.

We've moved on to Adelaide for the second test with commentary from 325 on Thursday morning. And we're going to be sharing memories of visits to the iconic Adelaide Oval, where body line erupted in the 1930s and more recently the scene of a Phil de Freitas-inspired victory in 1994-95 and an incredible opening to the 2010 test.

Well, it's so wonderful to be in Adelaide, one of the most beautiful cities in Australia, in Australia, one of my favourite cities in the world probably, and almost certainly my favourite cricket ground outside the UK. Adelaide Oval is just set in beautiful parkland, you walk to it

along and across the Torrens River and it just unfolds in the most scenic setting that you can possibly have and I love coming here. It just seems to kind of fill you with that sense of history and Jonathan Agnew who is on his ninth Ashes tour, Stephen

Finn, three times Ashes winner, three Times Ashes Tourist, who was part of the team that won here 11 years ago. TMS commentator Simon Mann on his fifth tour here and to add statistical and historic context. Andy Sautzman, I'm sure, also delighted to be here in Adelaide and Agers, first of all, what is it, what's so special about Adelaide over? What makes it such a great place to come? Well, it's a cricket ground. It's a proper cricket ground. As simple as that. I mean, so many of these grounds here in Australia, they're very impressive. They hold tens of thousands of people, but only this one and the whack here, which sadly is no more. It's at least

men's cricket. They're actually proper cricket grounds. And so this place, I first played here in 1978 when most of it was grass and you could actually walk around the ground and you could see the cathedral and so on. And so it's interesting coming back every, you know, so often since then and see how it's changed. What's wonderful about that particular ground is it's really strictly controlled by the planners here in Adelaide. This whole city is very historic and very traditional, very wide streets and so on. But they've been really meticulous about maintaining that proper feel about the Adelaide Oval, even though now it's a very modern stadium

and obviously hosts Aussie rules as well. They've done it so well. I mean, they just have. And you can see straight down the park from our ends. They've maintained the old scoreboard there. Those are an electric one beside it. There's still plenty of grass. There's still a hill, which, of course, used to be Sydney's great domain,

but that went years ago. But above all, it just feels like it's a very traditional, yet modern, modern cricket ground. and that's what I love about it. What was your first visit here like, Simon? First visit here, actually, was for a game, bizarrely, between Australia and Australia A in the Tri-Series. Actually, say Tri-Series, actually four teams involved. They didn't think England and Zimbabwe were strong enough in 94-5, so they put in Australia A as well.

So Australia A against Australia, the day Australia played with itself. It was a strange occasion because Australia A nearly beat Australia. And I was looking actually at the Australia-A-team that day. Lehman, Hayden, Martin, Langer, Ponting, Tom Moody, rifle, Murph Hughes. Of course, a lot of ranker, didn't I remember the game well, too. Both teams hated playing it because the main team didn't want to be beaten by Australia A. The Australia A team thought they should have been playing in the main team. It was a very strange set up.

But look how strong that Australia A team was. It was absolutely incredible. And basically the Australian team was the test team. I had a look at that. And in the end, they ended up playing in the final. but I remember playing the game being played here and it was a great game actually because Australia just beat Australia A

but all the Australian supporters who were in were supporting Australia A it was a really weird occasion it was a very whole thing, the whole series was really weird I remember actually England beating Australia A in Melbourne and it seemed like a massive victory because it was such a real slim pickings on that tour bizarre I don't think it happened these days

I think talking about the way it looks as well and it's when I was growing up wanting to come to Australia, fascinated by cricket. It was the place I wanted to come to, I think, because of the cathedral in the background, the hill, just that traditional element to it. But when I did first come here four years ago, Graham Swan, your old teammate, Finney, was working with us,

and we walked across and he said, they've ruined it. They've ruined it because of the big stands that have built up, blocking the view of the cathedral. And it has changed an awful lot, hasn't it, since you played here in 2010? Yeah, it has, it was a bit more quaint, I suppose, in 2010 on the far side of the ground

I think the only stand that was developed was the one that we changed it and the rest of it was still as it was before then but it's a magical sort of ground everything about it the shape of the oval it is literally an oval shape it's really long and thin which is quite strange

for a cricket ground so you have to alter the way that you play here the wickets tend to be really flat it means that the test matches always last five days it's like a social occasion as well I've got some friends from Adelaide and it's like going to the races

or a day at the Lord's cricket you go there to or Wimbledon too actually you've got to touch of Wimbledon about it isn't it? Yeah very much so in the back out the back and vast areas where people just go and socialise and stuff so yeah everything about it is quite a magical place and obviously fantastic memories from that

2010 tour being the first game that we won in that series. It's interesting the comparison to Wimbledon isn't it? Because you've got, I don't know whether it's Boston Ivy or Virginia creeper or whatever it is, but it's some kind of creeper that's on the back of the stand where we were down next to the Nets

yesterday, Agers, and the scorebox as well just to be able to go into there. But you go into the old pavilion as well and there is a fantastic display about body line. And I remember doing that four years ago. We walked around that and looked at the history of it. And Andy Zaltzman, I kind of think

it's something that we should probably just set the context of what happened in that bodyline series because it's one of the most notorious stories in cricket? Yes, it was the third test of the series and the series stood at one all going into it. England started disastrously badly. They were 30 for four on the first morning, recovered to 3.41. When Australia batted there, Captain Bill Woodfull was hit on the heart by a short ball from Larwood and then later in the innings, Bert Oldfield, their wicketkeeper was hit on the head. after top edging and attempted pull shot. And it did sort of spark the diplomatic side of bodyline.

I was reading the Wisden report from that match. It led to the dispatch of a cablegram protesting against bodyline bowling. So it became a proper diplomatic incident, you know, cablegrams in the 1930s. That's pretty much as serious as it got, really. So England ended up winning the game quite comfortably in the end And they went on to win the series 4-1 But it was Adelaide where the sort of crowd erupted in protest And things happened off the field

And there was that incident where Woodfull in the Australian dressing room I think England's sort of tour manager, Helen Warner, went in And Woodful said there are two teams out there and only one of them is playing cricket or words of that effect and yes again by today's standards probably a strong words yes oh it's worth making the point actually why it was so controversial i mean these days you wouldn't bat an eyelid short ball to any batter really but in those days well it was more it was so directed and because you could have more than two fielders behind square on the leg side yeah so so i think that you know some of the concern about it was and it was not

considered a fair tactic bringing the batsman's body into play in order that it led to cricket that wasn't great to watch because the range of shots batsman could play against that type of bowling was limited so I think there was partly an aesthetic complaint about it and I mean old I think if I'm right and you might be able to back me up on this time and when old field was hit I don't think the body line field was in place I think he was playing a pool shot but you know when they had an offside field, but it, you know, was a spark when he top-edged it into his own head and had to be taken to hospital. Of course, there are, though, who do you think Douglas Jardine is England's greatest ever ashes hero? He came up with a plan to stymie Don Bradman,

who still average 56 in the series. You won't find many people in Adelaide thinking that. Actually, the one thing before we move on from that, I would say that the other nice thing about, well, one of the other nice things about Adelaide Oval is that the statue of Don Bradman at the front does actually look like Don Bradman. It's on the walk from the cathedral to the ground. You don't often find a statue that looks like the subject that it's based on. But look, let's...

The one in Sydney, there's a plaque in Sydney with a sort of 3D relief of Bradman that looks absolutely nothing like it, so obviously they prefer him here in Adelaide. Anyway, let's bring it kind of slightly more up to date. Actually, maybe we'll jump forward. Let's jump forward to some good news and that 2010 victory here, Finney, which you played in.

what was what was it like to play in that game what were you what are your memories first of the first the very first over of the day yeah it was one of the wildest starts to a test match that i've ever played in i think and the run-out jonathan trot aiming at one stump and i was at fine leg and i just remember coming round and i was almost behind him because i was going to cut off when you back up you sort of dovetails so that you run behind the other fielder and he was at square Lek and he came around and I was perfectly behind and I just saw it and as soon as it came out of his hand I was like that's hit the stumps this is phenomenal hits the stumps and he goes off doing his crazy celebration everyone hugs him and then in the same over graham swan took a fantastic

catch off um of ricky ponting I think it was um like a low down to his right and it was sort of that moment where you thought this could actually be something quite special you obviously try not to get carried away but in that moment and then to have them three down very soon after it was just yeah the most incredible start to a test match and i mean like england in the previous test match that we saw here had the worst possible start on the flip side um that for us just gave us so much momentum and from there it was just like it wasn't plain sailing but you just felt like you're in the ascendancy from from that beginning that first over the game what do you remember of that jonathan i remember michael clark running out of the nets because uh they were not for two almost

weren't they? And Clark was actually practicing in the nets beyond the pavilion and so he literally ran from the nets out into the middle didn't he? Yeah, it was an extraordinary start

It was one of those games where things just went right you know, KP comes on to bowl at the end and gets Michael Clark in the second innings and it absolutely hammered down with rain, well pretty quickly after he had won the match as well

and there was a sort of rain that would have meant no play it was brilliant because they come from Brisbane buoyed by that draw. Morale was very high. And it's one of those times when a draw is as good as a win. And Australia a bit deflated from what happened to Brisbane. So England didn't just cashed in. But it was a great win. I've only seen England win here once before that. So it is very rare. I mean, Australia have a great record here. So it's quite interesting that you talk about

teams being settled. Like we just knew after the first test that the team was going to be same for the second test, whereas there were so many question marks over Australia's bowling attack. Mitchell Johnson played the first one, didn't play the second one. Doug Bollinger got called in from state cricket to come and play. Peterson murdered him. Yeah, Peterson was just savage in that game. It was phenomenal batting. And you just felt as though you were in the ascendancy. It was a fantastic match to play in and so many different little quirks about that game as such fantastic memories, the Clark dismissal, where it was almost disbelief that he'd just managed to edge such an innocuous short ballad from Peterson onto his thigh pad, and it ballooned a short leg, and you're just

like, what on earth is happening here? I bowed a half-tracker to Mike Hussey, and he just spooned it straight in the air to mid-on, went for the entire previous test match, and the rest of the Adelaide test match, he'd murdered it through midwicket. It just felt as though everything went right, and I think something people forget about that game. Stuart Broad got injured as well, and tore his side really badly and couldn't bowl. So it was me, Jimmy Anderson and Graham Swan pretty much just doing all of the bowling. I think that's why Peterson was bowling on that fourth evening to give the rest of us a bit of a break. Yeah. And then afterwards when the rain came, remember Paul Collinwood sort of, we were all sat in the dress room having a beer because we had a gap between the second

and third tests where we went off to Melbourne, I think, to play a warm up game. So we were allowed to indulge ourselves slightly that night without fear of consequences in further test matters. and just sat there having a beer and all of a sudden Paul Collinwood runs through in his pants. Literally his little wife runs, sprints through the dress room and everyone's like, what is he up to? And he's making all this noise in his geordy accent, sprints up the concourse out onto the pitch and does a cleanseman dive across the covers in the pouring rain and it came back completely soaked. And one of my most vivid memories of that is just seeing Paul Collimwood, like little ginger fella, running back from the oval, completely soaked through.

It was just that camaraderie that we had on that tour was different to, I think, any other tour that I went on as an England player. It was such a warped experience and a complete contrast to what I experienced in latter years. Well, we should maybe move on to the latter years stuff, shouldn't we? And memories of Mitchell Johnson. Tell us about him, watching him bowl. Well, Adelaide Oval was one of the few grounds in the world where you watch from sidon. So if you're a batter, you're sat up in the... viewing gallery and you and you're looking from side on and and aggers will attest to this i think

old trafford the quickest wicket when you played in the country before it got turned you watch from side on so he sort of sat there and you're watching from side on you're like i mean someone bowling 63 miles an hour looks quick from side on so let's own 93 miles an hour and you see johnson whistling in and you don't see the ball come out of his hand and the only thing you see is brad had him just catching it above his head and you think oh that's pretty fast and it's like you're a gladiator just waiting to go out there and face your death sentence because it's terrifying watching from sidelon and it's one of the few grounds that you do that and that series in 1314 Johnson Bowl magnificently it was some of the best sustained fast bowling over the course of a series that I've witnessed live for pace accuracy skill and adelaide oval was the worst place to watch him because you were sidelong he took seven for 40 in that match. The other amazing thing about that game is just look at the scores on first innings. Australia made 570. England at 172. Australia did not enforce the follow on. I mean,

that's a leader about 400 on first innings. I'm not quite sure why. I mean, you want to give your bowlers a bit of a rest, don't you? But I mean, it was just like a slow torture for bringing that whole match. And Hading got, I remember Hatton getting 100 in the first innings. And England was sort of in the game a bit. And I think he was dropped, really badly dropped, somewhere like backward point. Might even have been off you, Philly, I don't know. You were a very unlucky bowler at times.

Always, always unlucky. Yeah, but I mean, he was just phenomenal, wasn't he, in that series, Mitchell Johnson? That was Ben Stokes' test debut, the Adelaide test match. I remember, I think he got Brad Haddon out off and no ball in that match

before he'd got 100. And it's the first time, like, I'd heard of Stokesy, I'd been in a England ODI squad with him in 2011 when he first got called up to the team. But it was the first time that I'd witness live

like his charisma and his character for someone making his test debut there'd be great photos of him he got in a confrontation with Haddon on test debut as a 21 year old or 22 year old or whatever he was and stood up to him who was one of Australia's main players

it's when you're sort of like okay this guy's got something special about him and the character that you want from an all-rounder then he goes and scores that magnificent 100 in Perth the test match after as far as your memories of that that kind of series aggers and watching Mitchell Johnson. Yeah, well, being a fast bowler.

I mean, I love watching fast bowler's bowl, especially when you're 100 yards away in a commentary box. I remember Stuart Broad in that match, walking out to bat. And he, I don't unwisely had a bit of a go at Mitchell Johnson. I think he and Jimmy, I don't seem to remember them walking off. I think when Johnson was batting at the end of play, and they both got involved, they were giving a real earful. I remember saying at the time, I'm not sure that's very wise.

But then Stuart Brawl came out to bat. he's not happy against fast bowling as we know and he picked out some spot before he faced a ball some spot on the sight screen and it took forever for the ground staff to sort it out and a bloke came with a ladder and put it up on the side of the screen and did something

it took forever and we all knew what was going to happen sure enough you know the bloke came down his ladder put it away broad finally takes guard gets over his bat and Johnson he came from the far end and it blew his stumps out of the ground first ball that kind of summed it up But I loved watching Mitchell Johnson, not least because of the great story.

It was a great sporting story. The way he'd turned his career around, albeit quite briefly, but to come back as he did was absolutely amazing. And to watch him in that game was clearly very special. When we were talking about doing this podcast, Andy Zaltzman, you said, as long as I don't have to relive 2006, 2007. You're going to have to relive it now, I'm afraid. So just remind us of the extraordinary sequence of events.

well England had lost the first test the series after their wonderful win in 2005 so defending the ashes and you know had a period of great success as a team and in the second test having lost that first test scored 551 for six declared Collingwood made a double century Peterson 158 England were in total control of the game

took some early wickets they had Australia 65 for three when Damien Martin was out Ricky Ponting was dropped by Ashley Giles I think it was deep square leg from a pull shot and he went on to make up 142 Australia recovered to 513 so England still had a lead and you thought the game was heading towards

heading towards a draw at the end of day four England were 59 for 1 from 19 overs and so 100 odd ahead and day 5 was a slow motion catastrophe for England Shane Worn, four for 49 from 32 overs. England only went at 1.7 and over,

and bear in mind they scored at 3 and over for the first part of that inning. So on day five, they just got constricted and tensed, got tensed up as I remember watching it through the night alone at home as this just gradually unfolded and sort of, it wasn't a sort of one of those spectacular collapses. It was wickets sort of gradually through the day and almost no runs whatsoever, all out 129. from 73, a couple of wickets for Lee McGraw,

two for 15 from 10, and then Australia knocked off 168 and 33 overs to win by six wickets. But it was that, you know, that tour ended in a 5-0 defeat, but at 1-0 down and having beaten Australia before and started that game so well, it felt like England had a chance of getting back into it, but that last day as an England fan

was about as harrowing as it gets. I did an event with Mike Cussie the other day, and he was in that Australia side and he was saying that when they turned up on the fifth morning of the game, they're in the dressing room. Shane Warren and Ricky Ponting and John Buchanan, Australia's coach at the time

said, we can win this game. And Mike Hussey said he was at the back of the dressing room going, you what, mate, you must be absolutely mad. He was thinking, he didn't say it out loud. And they said, right, what are we going to do? Are we going to attack or are we going to defend? So are we just going to squeeze them? And in the end, that's what they did, didn't they?

They squeezed them. They set quite defensive fields. England couldn't find a run. and they produced, I mean a miracle victory But there was trouble because Matthew Hoggar got seven for the first in the first headings but bowling cutters So it was one of those pictures

Where the ball was gripping It wasn't easy to score at a rate And so you knew actually that warn could be a threat So I guess that's what they They took into that conversation The other thing about that game as well Is that I remember I remember actually being at home for this game

I was coming out later And screaming at my television Don't declare! Don't declare! When England declared on the second day. I mean, they'd just taken 50 runs off about 5 overs. Just get masses.

Just get absolutely masses. I know they wanted a bowl at them before the clothes and they did get Langer out. But I remember that was my instinctive reaction as they walked off at 5.50. Okay, so good score, but don't declare. Just keep on going.

Finney, do you remember watching that at home? Yeah, that was one of the first test matches that I ever really stayed up through the night to watch. I remember Colin would score in his double hundred. It was, yeah, and it was one of the first times that I saw England in the ascendancy in Australia and especially after what happened in the first test you felt enthused by the way they started the game but yeah like sort of says the

slow motion car crash on day five sort of had you looking through your fingers through the night but yeah it's the first time that I properly stayed up through the night to watch England play on an overseas tour that that final day England 70 for nine from 54 overs and the first inning's worn and McGrath between them one for about 270 and then destroyed England on that final day. We should talk about Phil De Freitas, Agas, shouldn't we, as well? Because that was, he won Man of the Match for his batting in

94-95. That was 94-95, which is a really good game of cricket. That was the only other victory I've seen England pull off here. Yes, he got his man of the match for his batting, and Devin Malcolm and Chris Lewis actually bowled Australia out at the end. I think one of my clearest memories, though, is of the

served before that, when David Gower and Graham Gouch had spectacularly fallen out. Gower had flown his biplane up in Carrara. They actually waited until they got here to fine him for that. So, you know, the morale was absolutely rock bottom. And I'd had a running bet with Martin Johnson, who was writing those days, I think, for the telegraph. I was trying to say, look, Martin, you don't deliberately bowl at someone like David Gower's legs. You don't do it. And Martin gets to say, but he keeps getting out, caught down the legs. I said, I'm telling you, as a former international bowler, mate,

you don't do that. I'm having a $10 bet with you. You just don't do it. So the last over before lunch, sure enough it was McDermott, who bowed one down that leg's dump line Gower went swish and was caught by Merv Hughes about 10 yards in, deliberately placed and at the press box in those days was right beside the dressing rooms outside and the walkway was literally right beside the press box

and I remember as well Gower walked off, you know, a bit airily Gouche went behind him with that face like absolute thunder because they weren't talking anyway and I just reached over and gave Barton the $10 Fair enough, mate. I think you probably know more about bowling than I do.

But that was the real beginning of the end for Gower. And certainly it was the end of any sort of relationship that he had with Graham Gouche. Sadly, it's sort of rather dribbles on to this day. The remarkable thing about that series, though, I guess, is we had a look at it, is that Gower, before that innings, he's got 100 in each of the two previous test match and 61 in the Brisbane test match as well.

So in a way, he was entitled to... It was a shambolic tour. There were some people who to say they were sort of the antithesis of Graham Gooch as far as training and work hard. Wayne Larkins and go right now. I mean, it was a hard work tour for Graham and I just think he just got so frustrated by that bi-played incident. There you go. Well, look, we're hoping to create lots more exciting tales at Adelaide Oval starting on Thursday. Thanks to Aggers, Steve Finn, Simon Mann and Andy Zaltzman.

They will all be back on TMS from 325 on Thursday. morning and I'll have updates on Five Live throughout, including extensive coverage on Five Live Breakfast. There will also be video clips available on the BBC Sport website and app and a full highlights show available on the BBC Eye Player from 6pm. And look out on this stream for plenty more podcasts, including no balls with Alex Harley and Kate Cross, plus our daily TMS at the Ashes Test Review. BBC Sounds June 2008. Across the London skyline, a helicopter emerges. It lands. at Lord's Cricket Ground.

Emerging from the helicopter is a tall, brash Texan called Alan Stanford, and he's come with a load of money and a revolutionary idea to change cricket.

One night, one game, one or take off, 20 US million dollars. What was to follow was one of the most extraordinary stories to ever hit sport. This guy smells high heaven.

He fooled important people. I'm Greg James, and you can hear Alan Stanford, the man who bought cricket by searching for sports strangest crimes on BBC Sounds.

Thank you.