Oldfield was the neatest stumper of them all
By Kersi Meher-Homji
I was surprised reading Sheek’s post on Monday of the best Australian teams selected by Cricinfo and its readers, with wicket-keeper Bert Oldfield’s name missing from the list.
Australia has produced wicket-keepers of world renown – Oldfield, Don Tallon, Wally Grout, Brian Taber, Rod Marsh, Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist.
Although I never saw Oldfield keep or bat, Oldfield remains special to me because I had the pleasure of chatting with him.
I was new to Sydney and was walking on Pitt Street in 1976. I stopped as I saw the sign “Bert Oldfield’s Sports Stores”. Not THE Bert Oldfield, I wondered.
I entered the shop and saw a big photograph at the entrance. It was the picture of Walter Hammond cover-driving, everything in place – even the handkerchief in his left pocket. And behind the stumps was Bert Oldfield with cat-like anticipation, matching Hammond in grace and poise.
Was it 1976 or had I travelled in a time-machine to 1920s? Inspired, I rang him the next morning to fix an interview. When I said that I was from India, he sounded delighted.
“Yes, India – the land of Ranji and Duleep,” he exclaimed. “Ranji was before my time but I played against Duleep. He was a stylish batsman with a charming personality. I think you are charming too, to ring me up.”
I was greeted at his Sports Store by the jockey-like figure of Bert Oldfield, 82, standing straight, his blue eyes smiling as he welcomed Duleep’s countryman.
He invited me to a nearby café. It was an unforgettable experience. The hand that had caught 78 batsmen and stumped 52 in 54 Tests (victims including Jack Hobbs, Hammond, Herbert Sutcliffe, ‘Patsy’ Hendren, Frank Woolley…) was putting sugar in my coffee cup!
We discussed the 1975-76 Australia–Windies Test series. What did he think of Rod Marsh as a ‘keeper?
“I wouldn’t call Marsh a wicket-keeper. He jumps about too much for my liking. Taber was a better wicket-keeper.”
I wondered how Bert would have coped against the menacing pace and bounce of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee. He read my mind and said, “Ted McDonald and Jack Gregory were just as fast. To ’keep to Jack Gregory was extremely difficult.”
His face softened. “In a match at Nottingham, I noticed that Jack Gunn had the habit of standing outside the crease when playing. He had only to miss a ball and I would stump him. But he was so well-set that he did not miss a ball.
“I arranged with Gregory that he should pitch the third ball of his next over outside the leg stump. But he forgot all about our little plan and the fast ball on the off-side resulted in four byes!”
“I consider Hobbs as the greatest batsman of all time. He was a true gentleman. His wife was seldom in good health and he was always with her in her hours of need.”
What about Don Bradman?
“He was extraordinarily good even at a young age. When he was brought to Sydney he had no cricket gear or shoes. I received an SOS to lend him clothes from my Sports Stores. The only clothes that fitted him were mine!”
When World War I broke out, Oldfield enlisted and sailed to Egypt. In France in 1917 he was blown up by a German shell. Then a Bosche shell burst near their stretcher killing his three mates while he was buried and remained unconscious. “For six months I suffered from shell-shock and was invalidated to England.”
At that time the Australian Imperial Force was playing cricket in England. One of Gregory’s express deliveries gashed ‘keeper Ted Long’s face. Another ‘keeper had to be located pronto and thus was pitch-forked little Bert Oldfield into the strong AIF XI of 1919 as a stumper. The rest is history.
After the interview I shook the hands described by experts as the safest from 1919 to 1936. Even 74 years after his retirement, Oldfield’s record of 52 stumpings remains unbroken although some modern wicket-keepers have played twice as many Tests.
Bert Oldfield died a few months after our get together. But his beautiful wife Ruth was very appreciative of the sentiments expressed in my article. “I found your interview on Bert so beautifully written that it made the information read as a fascinating human story. You are certainly a gifted writer and I’ll treasure your article”, she wrote.
That’s one letter I’ll always cherish.
Kersi is an author of 13 cricket books including The Waugh Twins, Cricket's Great All-rounders,Six Appeal and Nervous Nineties. He writes regularly for Inside Cricket and other publications. He has recently finished his new book on Cricket's Conflicts and Controversies, with a foreword by Greg Chappell.
Kersi Meher-Homji | The Roar
