Ray Lindwall

Did You Know?

• Lindwall was born in Mascot, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, the fourth of five children.
• At age 11, Lindwall and his elder brother Jack were spectators at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the second day of the First Test of the 1932–33 Ashes series, which featured Bodyline tactics.
• In October 1938, Lindwall bowled to Jack Fingleton at the SCG, bowling him four times in 15 minutes; Fingleton brushed off the performance, saying he was just off the boat.

Invincibles

Ray Lindwall made the cut for Don Bradman’s Invincibles, the 1948 side that toured England without losing a match. But before the tour started, Lindwall had two problems: a sore leg tendon and a dragging foot in his delivery that made people question whether his bowling was legal. Bradman sent him to his own masseur, Ern Saunders, who fixed the tendon in two weeks. On the legality issue, Bradman told the press he thought Lindwall’s action was fine, and he advised Lindwall to drag his back foot even more than usual to avoid being no-balled.

He also told him not to bowl flat out until the umpires were happy. Bradman promised Lindwall he would play in the Tests even if he took no wickets in the warm-up games. Lindwall was never no-balled in the first match at Worcester, and that held for the whole tour. Against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, he took 6 for 14, with three of those wickets coming from yorkers.

In the First Test at the same ground, he bowled Cyril Washbrook but then pulled up with a groin strain, ending with 1 for 30. Later, batting at number nine without a runner, he put on a century stand with vice-captain Lindsay Hassett, who made 137, pushing Australia to 509 and a lead of 344. Lindwall couldn’t bowl in the second innings, and Australia won by eight wickets.

Later career

After the Invincibles returned to Australia, Lindwall played in Bradman's Testimonial match at the MCG in December 1948, scoring 104 in 86 minutes for Hassett's XI. The match raised around 10,000 pounds. In the 1949–50 season, Australia toured South Africa for five Tests. Lindwall's partnership with Miller was broken when Miller was omitted from the touring squad; Miller had stated he wished to be considered only as a batsman.

Miller was later drafted as cover after Johnston was in a car accident at the start of the tour, and both played in all five Tests. Lindwall started poorly in the First Test at Wanderers in Johannesburg, scoring 21 and going wicketless as Australia won by an innings. His wicketless run ended in the second innings of the Second Test in Cape Town, where he took 5/32 after the hosts followed on. He took match figures of 4/54 in the Third Test at Durban and 3/82 in the Fourth Test at Johannesburg, but was dropped for the Fifth Test.

His tour was interrupted by groin problems, fibrositis and a stomach disorder; he took 12 wickets at 20.66 in Tests and 50 wickets at 14.58 overall. In the 1950–51 Ashes series against Freddie Brown's England, Lindwall made the second top-score of 41 in Australia's first innings of 228. In England's first innings, he yorked Reg Simpson first ball, and Australia won by 70 runs. Lindwall took five wickets in the Second Test in Melbourne.

Transfer to Queensland

Ray Lindwall's move to Brisbane in November 1953, where he took a job with the transport firm Cobb and Co., stirred some resentment among cricket fans. Though he kept playing for New South Wales through most of the 1953–54 season, he was cut from the team for the final domestic game, and many felt such a distinguished player deserved a better send-off. His numbers that season were well below his usual standard: 22 wickets at an average of 30.14, and a mere 14 runs from six innings, sparking talk that his best days were behind him.

At the start of the 1954–55 season, he switched to Queensland and played well enough to hold his spot for the first Ashes Test against England. Batting in front of his new home crowd after England sent Australia in, he hit an unbeaten 64 as the total reached 8 for 601. He then dismissed England captain Len Hutton for four and took 3 for 27, helping bowl England out for 190 and force them to follow on. He added two more wickets in the second innings as England lost by an innings.

After that match, English fast bowler Frank Tyson asked Lindwall for tips on improving his bouncer. Lindwall said he would show him next time they met, which turned out to be the Second Test in Sydney. Lindwall bowled Tyson in the first innings, then in the second delivered a bouncer that struck Tyson on the back of the skull. Tyson's teammate Bill Edrich shouted that Lindwall had killed him.

Tyson went to hospital for X-rays, returned to bat, and was bowled by Lindwall. He later thanked Lindwall for the lesson. Lindwall took five wickets in the match, but Tyson helped England win a low-scoring game. In the Third Test, Lindwall battled a leg strain and hepatitis, managing only 1 for 111 as England won again.

He then pulled a muscle in a Sheffield Shield match and missed the next Test as England sealed the series. He returned for the Fifth Test, dismissed Hutton early, and finished with 3 for 77, his third wicket giving him his 100th in Ashes Tests. England posted their highest total of the series, but Australia held on for a draw after following on. Lindwall ended the season with 14 wickets at 27.21 as Australia lost the series 3–1.

Omission and comeback

After the 1954–55 Ashes, Ian Johnson and Keith Miller retired from first-class cricket. In the 1956–57 season, Lindwall took 27 wickets at 23.74 and scored 243 runs at 27.00. Having captained the side in Johnson and Miller’s absence, he was the most senior leader in the squad. But when the 1957–58 South African tour team was announced, Lindwall was left out.

He learned this on the radio while at work, with no advance warning. The selectors, reacting to three straight Ashes losses, had adopted a radical youth policy. Ian Craig, just 22 and with only six Tests to his name, became Australia’s youngest captain. The chosen pacemen were Alan Davidson, Ian Meckiff, Ron Gaunt, and John Drennan—Davidson had 16 wickets at 34.06 in 12 Tests, the others had none.

Craig’s team beat South Africa 3–0, while Lindwall kept performing for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield: 26 wickets at 25.77 and 274 runs at 34.25. That season, in his 54th Shield match, he broke Ernie Jones’s record of 209 wickets in the competition. During the 1958 winter, nearing 37, Lindwall intensified his training with a daily 5 km run and exercises to strengthen his abdomen and back, setting up gear in his garage. He was determined to add to his 212 Test wickets, just four short of Clarrie Grimmett’s Australian record.

He turned down a 6000-pound offer from an English newspaper to cover the 1958–59 Ashes as a journalist, preferring to play.