English cricket team in Australia in 1958–59

Peter May captained the English cricket team in Australia in 1958–59, playing as England in the 1958-59 Ashes series against the Australians and as the MCC in their other matches on the tour. It was widely regarded as one of the strongest teams to depart English shores, comparable with the great teams of Johnny Douglas in 1911-12 and Percy Chapman in 1928-29.p96, Willis and Murphy It had no obvious weaknesses, and yet it was beaten – and beaten badly. By the First Test the top batsmen had made runs, the Surrey trio of Loader, Laker and Lock had taken wickets, as had Lancashire's Brian Statham, Victoria and an Australian XI had all been beaten – the last by the crushing margin of 345 runs – and all seemed rosy for Peter May's touring team. But in the Brisbane Test they lost by 8 wickets and the rest of the series failed to offer any hope of reversing their fortunes. The reasons for their failure were manifold; the captain was too defensive; injuries affected their best players; others were too young and inexperienced such as Arthur Milton, Raman Subba Row, Ted Dexter, Roy Swetman and John Mortimore, or at the end of their career; Godfrey Evans, Trevor Bailey, Jim Laker, Willie Watson and Frank Tyson. Their morale was further bruised when faced with bowlers of dubious legality and unsympathetic umpires. Peter May was criticised for seeing his fiancée Virginia Gilligan, who was travelling with her uncle the Test Match commentator Arthur Gilligan. The press blamed the poor performance on the team's heavy drinking, bad behaviour and lack of pride – a foretaste the treatment losing teams would receive in the 1980s. It was not a happy tour by any means and it would take 12 years to recover The Ashes. As E.W. Swanton noted

''It was a tour which saw all sorts of perverse happenings – from an injury list that never stopped (and culminated in only 12 out of 18 being fit to fly to New Zealand), to the dis-satisfaction with umpiring and bowlers' actions that so undermined morale. From various causes England gave below their best...''

The management

The tour manager was Freddie Brown, the rugged ex-Northamptonshire and England captain. He had led the 1950–51 touring side, which had been dismissed as the weakest ever sent to Australia, and his refusal to accept defeat in the face of great odds had won him admiration from the Australian public. He had played his last Test in 1953 when England regained The Ashes after 19 years, when he was the only man in the team to have toured with Douglas Jardine in 1932–33 when England had last beaten Australia. Brown had a more robust and combative style than May and wanted to complain officially about what the English party perceived as the throwing actions of the Australian bowlers, which might have resulted in a Bodyline type crisis. May refused, and Brown's unofficial complaints were rebuffed by Sir Donald Bradman. Fred Trueman thought "he was a snob, bad-mannered, ignorant and a bigot" Brown did not like Trueman either and threatened to send the Yorkshire fast bowler home, but May smoothed things over. The assistant-manager was Desmond Eagar, the captain of Hampshire in 1946–57, who built up the attacking team that would win the County Championship in 1961 and was a noted cricket historian. Like Brown, George Duckworth had toured with Jardine, and was now the scorer, baggage-master and general factotum. The physiotherapist or masseur was Desmond Montague, an experienced professional who would have a lot of work to do on the tour.p5, Bedser

The captain

In 1958 life looked good for Peter May of Charterhouse, Cambridge, Surrey and England; his county had been County Champions for seven years running, with May the captain for the last two seasons, and England had never been defeated under his leadership. Vice-captain on the triumphant tour of Australia in 1954-55 he had beaten South Africa 3–2 in 1955, considered by many to have been the most exciting Test series since the war, Australia 2–1 in 1956, the West Indies 3–0 in 1957 and New Zealand 4–0 in 1958. He was widely regarded as the best post-war batsman England produced, tall, strong and disciplined with a near-perfect technique, a straight bat and a complete range of strokes.p175-77, Arlottp53-54, Graveney and Giller His standards improved with the responsibilities of captaincy and his Test average as captain wa
54.03
His greatest century was against the West Indies in 1957 when England followed on 288 runs behind a

he made 285 not out, the highest score by an England captain until Graham Gooch'
333 in 1990
adding 411 with Colin Cowdrey (154) – still an England record for any wicket – and destroyed the mesmerising hold the spinner Sonny Ramadhin had over English batsmen. In the low scoring Ashes series of 1956 he had made 453 runs (90.60) and was out only once for less than 50, when he made 43. Although himself a highly educated amateur and a gentleman he realised that the old class divisions in English cricket were breaking down and under Len Hutton's leadership the amateur and professional had merged. He enjoyed the complete loyalty of the team and the selectors and was ready to help his players and smooth down feathers.p219-220, Trueman As a captain he was a strict team disciplinarian who expected high standards, he was ruthless when the occasion demanded, but could be inflexible and unimaginative and lacked the charisma of a natural leader. In 1958–59 he played too defensively and surrendered the initiative to readily to Benaud as he concentrated on saving runs instead of trying to get batsmen out. Faced with Meckiff's bowling in the disastrous First Test he declined to make an official complaint as it would appear unsporting and sour grapes. A more ruthless captain may have resolved this problem at the start of the series, even at the loss of Tony Lock, but that would have damaged Anglo-Australian cricketing relations. After the Australian tour May beat New Zealand 1-0, India 5-0 and led England to its first series victory in the West Indies 1-0. He lost 2-1 to the 1961 Ashes series and retired due to ill-health having been captain in a then record 41 Tests, Richie Benaud being the only man to defeat him in a Test series.

The opening batsmen

The English bowling was obviously of great strength, but their batting was not far behind. The slightly built left-handed Peter Richardson looked set for a long career for England; he had a Test average of 46.20 at the start of the series and had made centuries against Australia, South Africa, the West Indies and New Zealand. A
Johannesburg
in 1956-57 he took 488 minutes to reach three figures, a new record for the slowest Test century. Despite this he was known for his ability to make runs against the tightest fielding and was known to be a good tourist, but despite making consistent runs in the state matches he failed in the series and never made another Test century. He had been the amateur captain of Worcestershire and wanted to become a professional player for Kent under Colin Cowdrey, but his old county refused to release him from his contract and he had to sit out the 1959 First Class cricket season while qualifying, and lost his England place. This situation could not have been comfortable for him and was considered to have affected his form in Australia. His opening partner was Arthur Milton, one of the two England players who was not a great name, but he had a Test average of 140.00 after making a century on debut against New Zealand a
Headingley
when England lost only two wickets in the match and won by an innings. Milton was one of the last "double internationals", he played football for Arsenal, Bristol City and England. Raman Subba Row had transferred from Surrey to Northamptonshire in 1955 and made 300 against his old county in 1958, earning him a place on the tour. Unfortunately, just as he was needed he broke his thumb and didn't play in any of the Tests,p106, Swanton, 1977 but later made a 59 and 112 on his Ashes debut in the First Test a
Edgbaston
in 1961.

The middle order batsmen

The England middle order was full of stroke-makers, but it was on the captain Peter May and vice-captain Colin Cowdrey that the real burden lay. Unlike the others they were a permanent fixture in the team and it was generally felt that if they failed then so did the batting. May was the leading England runmaker in 1954-55, 1956 and 1958–59, making runs where others could not. Cowdrey had made his first and best Test century in 1954-55, 102 in an innings of 191 and could send the ball to the boundary with the most fleeting touch of the bat. Like Cowdrey Tom Graveney entertained the crowds with the "sunshine of his style", but was unfairly seen as a fair weather man who only succeeded when the going was good. He came a poor third to May and Cowdrey in the Test batting averages, but was the most consistent batsmen on the tour. If ever a man was famous for a single innings it was Willie Watson when he batted for 346 minutes to save the England a
Lord's in 1953
after Australia had reduced them to 12/3. The left-handed strokemaker failed to gain a regular place in the Test team, but was recalled after he moved to Leicestershire as captain in 1957 and had his best season in 1958. He injured his knee getting out of a deckchair on the ''Iberia'' and missed the first two months of the tour, thus reducing the touring team to 15. When he did get to play he was out of practice and out of form. Ted Dexter was flown in from Paris (where his wife worked as a model) in the middle of the tour, having been unlucky to not be picked in the first place If he had been part of the original team he would have acclimatised, but although he did well in the tour matches he failed in the Tests, but made 141 in New Zealand. After an indifferent summer against India he was taken the Caribbean in 1959-60 where "Lord Ted" made his name by thrashing the fast bowlers with his ferocious driving. Trevor Bailey was on his third tour down under, but his painfully slow scoring was blamed for paralysing the England batting. This is unjust as the stonewalling of "Barnacle Bailey" had been previously seen as the backbone of the lower border and was unlikely to change his style when promoted to open the innings.

The fast bowlers

England took four fast bowlers; Frank Tyson, Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, which Swanton thought was one too many, and the all-rounders Trevor Bailey and Ted Dexter. Tyson had been the decisive force in England's 3–1 victory on the previous tour, but had been dogged by a heel injury since 1955 and had played only intermittently for England ever since. Though still capable of blazing his way through many First Class cricket teams, Tyson struggled on the slow, plumb wickets used in the Tests. The outspoken Yorkshireman Fred Trueman called himself ''"The Best Bloody English Fast Bowler That Ever Drew Bloody Breath"'' and with considerable justification. He possessed a text-book side-on action which generated great pace and menacing late swing which was coupled with the fitness and stamina to bowl
thousand overs a season
On this tour he was strangely subdued, he was overbowled at the start of the injury-struck tour and took just 9 wickets (30.66) in the last three Tests, but took 28 wickets (19.54) in his other matches. Brian Statham

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