Ashes Heroes No 29: Arthur Mailey

I got my numbering wrong last week and had listed David Boon as No 29 in this series, only to realise just now that I missed out No 30, who died 41 years ago this Wednesday.

Here is a quiz question that even Line & Length's most anoraky readers might struggle to answer without looking it up on the internet (although there is a clue in the title to this post). Who is the only Australian to take nine wickets in a Test innings? Warne never did it (8-71 was his best), nor McGrath (an astounding 8-24 against Pakistan and 8-38 against England). Lillee's best was 7-83, O'Reilly's 7-54. Brett Lee has never taken more than five in an innings.

The winner is Arthur Mailey, a slight and solemn-looking leg spinner who took 99 wickets in 21 Tests in the 1920s, one-eleventh of them coming in England's second innings of the fourth Test at Melbourne in 1921. Mailey took four wickets in the first innings of that match, too, before his nine for 121 in 47 overs helped to keep Australia on track for a 5-0 series thrashing of England, one of only two Ashes whitewashes. Mailey had missed the second Test of that series, but took six wickets in the first, his Australia debut, ten in the third Test and a further seven in the fifth to give him 36 scalps in four matches.

Some debut, especially as it came late in life for Mailey. He was 34, a labourer by trade, when he received his call-up. Mailey learnt of his selection while cleaning a water meter under a coolabah tree beside a chicken coop, the sort of tale of rustic simplicity that Australians love to read about their heroes. He began his working life as a glassblower and said that "the continual spinning of the four-foot pipe which held the molten glass gave me fingers of great strength and toughness". He added that the continual blowing strengthened his lungs and enabled him to bowl for hours without fatigue. Monty Panesar should take note.

Although his Test debut came late, Mailey had been a solid state player for New South Wales, when work allowed, for almost a decade. In 1913 he was taken on Australia's tour to the United States and Canada, where he took 265 first-class wickets at an average of 11. Among his non-first-class achievements on that tour was a spell of eight wickets for five runs against Pittsburgh.

Opportunities were restricted during the war, but in 1920 Mailey took eight for 81 for New South Wales against South Australia to earn his place in that winter's Test plans. Having done so well against England in that series, Mailey's name was a formality for the 1921 Ashes tour to England. He thrived again: in all matches he took 146 wickets at an average of less than 20, and in the three Tests in which he played, he took 12 wickets.

Mailey's most notable achievement on that tour came in the match against Gloucestershire, when he took all ten wickets for 66 runs. It provided a witty title for his autobiography, published 50 years ago and called Ten for 66 And All That.

He was selected for the 1924-25 Ashes and took 24 wickets in five Tests but although he visited England in 1926, taking nine wickets in the final Test at the Oval, which Australia lost to surrender the Ashes 1-0, Mailey was being overshadowed by the more economical - and younger - Clarrie Grimmett and it would be his last series. Mailey could be expensive when his length failed him, but Wilfred Rhodes, the great England spinner, praised his never-say-die attitude. "He never gave up," Rhodes once said. "He would have nought for 100 and might finish with six for 130."

One record Mailey still holds that he would rather not have had was for the most expensive first-class analysis. Against Victoria in 1926 he had the figures of 64-0-362-4, although that is reasonably respectable when you consider that Victoria made a record score of 1,107 in 191 overs. They were eight-ball overs, too. Mailey, known for his sense of humour, complained afterwards that his figures would have been better if three sitters had not been dropped off his bowling - "two by a man in the pavilion wearing a bowler hat".

In later life, he became well known as a cartoonist and writer. One of the evocative scenes in his autobiography is when he describes being given the chance as a young man to play against Victor Trumper, his and all Australia's hero, in a club match. It is well worth reading in full. "I sat on my bed and looked at Trumper's picture still pinned on the canvas wall," Mailey wrote. "It seemed to be breathing with the movement of the draught between the skirting. I just couldn't believe that this godlike figure could say quietly, 'Two legs, please, umpire', in my presence."

He goes on to talk about being hit for several boundaries, and watching Trumper in awe, before he finally got the great man out stumped with a googly. Trumper walks off, smiling, patting his bat in applause. "It was too good for me," Mailey wrote. "I felt like a boy who had killed a dove."

Mailey also came out with words of wisdom after being criticised by his Australia team manager for showing Ian Peebles, the England spinner, how to bowl the googly on one tour. "Cricket is like art," Mailey said. "It is international." Amen to that.

Comments

[Lewis Winders]

Even if the Trumper/Mailey story is apocryphal, it rings true of them both: the champion batsman applauding the ball which had dismissed him, the bowler in awe of what he'd just done. Such grace isn't completely dead, as we saw during the fourth Test of the 2005 Ashes series. At a crucial stage in the second innings, Matthew Hayden was dismissed cheaply by a corker from Flintoff. As Hayden passed the bowler on his way back to the pavilion, he summoned up the decency to turn to Flintoff and remark "Good ball".

[AB]

Patrick, I can assure you that the answer to your opening question is known by more than anoraky readers. For any Australian schoolboy who delved into the record books over the past 80 years "AA Mailey, 9 for 121" was always the top of the list. BTW a new edition of "Ten for 66 And All That" has just been issued. The Mailey story still sells.

[Vidhya]

Mailey bowling against Trumper is now believed to be a figment of his imagination. Research has failed to uncover any match fitting that description.

Bloody good fiction, but that is about it.

[Vidhya]

On the subject of fiction, is what your profile says about how you caught the cricket bug true ? :-)

[Gavan]

Mailey also said if he ever bowled a maiden it was the batsman's fault. Legend!