He had hit the cover off one ball from Ray Bright which Rod Marsh caught down the leg side. I was next man in and the noise was so loud that I could hear it in the pavilion. I was already putting my pads on, but the umpire gave him not out.Everybody had to lay about the Australian attack except for Boycs, who batted in his usual way. The captain wanted quick runs on the board because he wanted time to bowl Australia out twice.We got them out cheaply, particularly in the first innings.
There was a public appeal and somebody in the crowd gave the cap to a policeman, who gave it to one of the Aussies, who rather reluctantly gave it back to Boycs.The Australians weren’t very pleased and not many of them had applauded his hundred Boycs hadn’t walked when he was 80-odd. Greg Chappell bowled him a long half-volley on leg stump which he on-drove I jumped over the ball and it went for four. Boycs’ reaction was quite restrained.I put my arm round him and congratulated him and the crowd rushed on the pitch. Somebody pinched his cap and Boycs refused to carry on until he got it back. There was a lot of talk about Geoff Boycott getting his 100th hundred to win the Ashes on his home ground.It duly happened late on the first day, with me at the other end. I’d come into the squad in the previous Test at Trent Bridge, where Ian Botham made his debut and got five wickets in Australia’s first innings: you sensed then that you were in at the start of something big.David Evans, who had a big office cleaning business and was a big cricket nut, decided before Headingley that to stop England players defecting to Kerry Packer he would pay them £1,000 a man.He said the people who had signed up to Packer shouldn’t get the money, but Mike Brearley, the captain, felt everyone should get it – which they did.
The Australian players took defeat pretty well, but the crowd didn’t By the end, most of them had gone. They’re a bit like Yorkshire crowds: if they look like losing they don’t hang around.Headingley, 1977ENGLAND WIN BY AN INNINGS AND 85 TO TAKE WINNING 3-0 LEADGraham Roope:We were very confident going into the fourth Test, with a lot of people in good form. I held the winning catch off Derek Underwood, but it should not have been given out. The ball came off Jenner’s pad.Any win Down Under is an achievement. The ball turned and Ray Illingworth, our captain, took wickets.
They were unhappy because he’d hit Terry Jenner on the head – but it was nothing compared with what Lillee and Thomson dished out on our next tour.Australia needed 223 to win. You’d think they’d been at Dunkirk.Sydney, 1971ENGLAND WIN BY 62 RUNS TO SECURE 2-0 SERIES VICTORYKeith Fletcher:It was Ian Chappell’s first game as Australia’s captain. He put us in to bat, which was a bit strange because the pitch was green and turned on the last day. Australia were 1-0 down going into that last Test and they needed a result pitch.Australia had a young Dennis Lillee, but we had the better bowlers, with John Snow in his pomp. We had to go off the field after the crowd pelted Snowy with cans and other stuff while he was fielding.
Somerset’s captain, Ian Blackwell, fell two runs short of a century against Northamptonshire at Taunton The hosts reached 382 for 7 after winning the toss.. The Oval, 1953
ENGLAND WIN BY 8 WICKETS TO WIN THE SERIES 1-0
Alec Bedser:Today’s players have 10 days’ rest before a Test match, yet the bowlers seem to break down a lot I think that’s because they don’t bowl enough. If you bowl in the nets for 10 days your muscles aren’t toned and ready for the effort you put into a Test match.In my day there was no question of resting I bowled 1,200 overs for Surrey in 1953. I played at Leicester on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the last Test, which began on the Saturday.