by Mayukh Ghosh
Sussex’s Alan Oakman scored over 20,000 runs and took over 700 wickets in his first-class career. Yet while delivering those after-dinner talks, he always talked more about a fielding performance. He took five catches in a Test match, all off Jim Laker’s bowling. The famous 1956 Old Trafford Test. This went on for so long that Laker jokingly asked him about how long he’d wished to live off that tale.
But it was such a performance that in all probability will never ever be repeated and Oakman knew anything about that match would keep the audience engaged.
Plenty has been written about it. And also, about Laker. But nothing organized and detailed about just that match.
Vic Rigby, about 20 years ago, set out to fill that gap.
“The idea for the book came about as the 50th anniversary neared of Jim Laker’s still-unbelievable 19-wicket Test match performance for England in 1956.
“ In 2004 there were a host of the participants in the Old Trafford Test still alive. Of these, I was able to contact England’s David Sheppard, Trevor Bailey, Alan Oakman and Peter Richardson. On the Australian side, Ron Archer, Colin McDonald and Ian Craig were also reached. Today Australia’s Neil Harvey, now 95, is the only survivor from either team.
“Peter Richardson immediately agreed to provide a foreword to the book, in which he explained he was not in the least concerned to see his own notable performance being completely overshadowed. He wrote: ‘It cannot be often that you are happy to see your maiden Test century, against Australia as well, go unnoticed afterwards. Yet that is what happened. It was Jim’s amazing performance that won England the match and put us 2-1 ahead in the series with one Test to go and so ensured we retained the Ashes.’
“Ian Craig was visiting England in 2004 and I was lucky enough to meet him at Lord’s. A modest, charming man, he was also happy to provide a foreword for the book. Looking back at the match he wrote: ‘To be part of it makes one truly appreciate the skills that made Jim Laker the great bowler that he was.’
“Gracious though Ian Craig was, Australia’s Colin McDonald was still bitter, nearly 50 years later, about the condition of the Old Trafford wicket. He said bluntly: ‘The major thing about that match is that England cheated. I’m not talking about the English players. I’m talking about the administrators and the people who gave the instructions for the preparation of the cricket pitch. It wasn’t a matter of feeling the pitch had been doctored. It had been doctored.’
“Whereas McDonald insisted the wicket was specifically doctored to suit Surrey spin twins Jim Laker and Tony Lock, Craig thought otherwise. He said: ‘I have never believed . . . there was some sinister plot to give Lock and Laker a major advantage but rather an effort to nullify our pacemen who had enjoyed the conditions in the Second Test. In the process of trying to get the balance right there was a “stuff up” which undoubtedly tipped the balance if England’s favour.’
“As well as having the privilege of communicating with so many great players of the past, I will never forget a delightful afternoon spent with Jim’s widow Lilly (passed away earlier this year, aged 102) in her apartment alongside Salisbury Cathedral
“Putting the book together also entailed many weeks tracking down pictures of all Jim’s 19 wickets. This was finally achieved through sifting through hard copies of old photos in the picture libraries of The Times, News of the World and Daily Express. Further invaluable help in this search came from Empics and Roger Mann.”
The book, unsurprisingly, did well.
“ Laker’s Match was first published in 2006 by John McKenzie to coincide with the 50th anniversary and it proved an immediate success. All the limited-edition hardbacks signed by Richardson and Craig, in addition to the softback editions, sold out quickly. Since then, these editions have been eagerly changing hands and this demand has prompted McKenzie to reprint more copies, this time in hardback and with updated statistics.
“The Cricket Society in London is now hoping to put on a special presentation in the New Year about Laker’s Match. It is hoped this will entail black-and-white film of the wickets, along with details of all the dismissals from the book and contemporary newspaper reports.”
Books which are unconventional even in the slightest manner are often discarded by the established risk-averse publishers. Rigby, though, had a friend agreeing to the idea and publishing it.
“John and I have been good friends for 50 years or so, having first met at a local cricket club, Hook and a Southborough, near Surbiton in Greater London. I was working for The Sun newspaper at the time and had always thought of writing a book on cricket so it was me who in 2004 first suggested the Laker idea. John agreed and, once I eventually supplied the words and the photos, he arranged the design of the book and the publication in time for the 50th anniversary”
The best parts of two decades have elapsed since the first effort and Rigby had enough opportunities to think back on his effort.
“ I think it’s fair to say that anything and everything can be improved. I do wish I’d been more persistent in talking to Richie Benaud however. When I tried to contact him through the BBC I was told: ‘Richie doesn’t give interviews.’ In the end, by reading his book My Spin on Cricket, I was able to glean some of his thoughts but it would have been a privilege to speak to him in person.”
Writing on one match is never easy and that too featuring so many great names and, especially, an all-time great performance was always tricky. Deciding what to keep, what to leave out, and how to arrange all that was to be kept was not an easy task!
“Firstly, I did not want to turn the book into a biography of Jim Laker as this had been done brilliantly by others already. I wanted to focus on the match itself.
“After the initial research and contacting as many as the players as I could, I planned the structure of the book by working out a sequence of chapters.
“These were 1) the background to the 1956 Ashes series; 2) an explanation of the leg trap employed by Laker; 3) a look at the changing nature of the Old Trafford pitch during the match; 4) by using all the pictures I had sourced, a look at all 19 of Laker’s wickets; 5) the mystery of Tony Lock taking only one wicket; 6) the Australian opinion of the pitch; 7) the rest of the 1956 Ashes series.
“After this plan, the book almost wrote itself!
” I gave myself a deadline to complete the book and I must leave it to the reader to decide whether all the chapters came out well or not.”
The first edition is now quite difficult to obtain and McKenzie has done a great favour by brining out this updated edition.
It can be obtained here: https://www.mckenzie-cricket.co.uk/index.php