Thank God it's Friday ... A FRONT-ROW SEAT FOR PATTERSON V WAUGH ... and ... DEAN JONES
MY FRONT-ROW SEAT FOR PATTERSON V WAUGH with Dean Jones. BackPageLead, November 2013
So, here we are - it’s that time of the week again - ‘Thank god it’s Friday’.
This time we circle back to 1989 - Old Trafford, Manchester - June 14-16. Lancashire v Australia. A time when tour games were welcomed by both the counties and tourists, and spectators, believe it or not, actually came to watch a day of cricket!
Lancashire employed two overseas professionals in 1989. Wasim Akram (Pakistan) and Patrick Patterson (West Indies) - surprisingly both opted, or insisted, to play in the aforementioned tour game. It was as amazing to me as reading my own name on the team-sheet! Generally one, or both, would have rested, allowing less experienced locals to do battle with the resurgent Australians.
Batting first, Lancashire cobbled together a scratchy total of 184. Losing the last seven wickets for less than 40. This might have been due to the visitors shaking off some night-before cobwebs as the day progressed. Fortunately, I batted at the right end of the day!
In any case, the main course was about to be delivered.
It transpired that Patrick Patterson was suitably upset with several of the Australian’s, this after a turbulent recent West Indies tour of Australia (1988-89). ‘Patto’ was a quiet man; he was also a huge man, and one not to be riled. And this is just what had happened, principally Steve Waugh was in the Jamaican’s gun, and the next bullet had Dean Jones name on it; that’s literally of course. What went before I am not privy to, what came next, though I will never forget. I hope you enjoy, as much as I did.
Dean Jones was the subject of a post I wrote earlier this week. And here, some words I wrote back in 2013, reflecting on what was the finest session of cricket watching I will ever experience, all from the relative comforts of short leg. There were two fast bowlers (Patterson and Wasim) in sixth gear, and two batters (S Waugh and Jones) standing resolutely firm.
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MY FRONT-ROW SEAT FOR PATTERSON V WAUGH
November 28,2013 for BackPageLead
Richard Burton, the famous Welsh actor, was ill-advised returning to his first wife, Elizabeth Taylor, after an earlier divorce. Taylor’s penchant for marriage was insatiable; in all she was married eight times, to seven different candidates. One imagines Jimmy Anderson will be less accommodating if Michael Clarke ever comes knocking again.
As a captain defending his troops, Clarke’s response to Anderson in the dying stages of the first Test was unavoidable, though the choice of content – threats of physical harm – was ill advised.
Obliged to stand by a teammate, he delivered the well-versed serve; more importantly, though, he realised the landscape had suddenly changed. The smug, unforgiving English team were on the ropes and it was now or never. In poker speak, the preferred language of his leg-spinning master, he had to be all in. Johnson’s money was already in the middle of the table and Clarke needed to be alongside his speedster.
All in he was, to the point of ending an already fragile relationship. The direct threat, and aftermath, has laid to rest any hope of reconciliation, this partnership is done and dusted. Unlike Burton, coach and captain have no interest in third party counsel, or kiss and make up.
Fast, or in this case very fast, bowlers drive a pack mentality. This mindset can permeate the entire team, often without them realising.
Australia pummelled opposition through the ’70s with Jeff Thomson, Dennis Lillee and co terrorising not just England but the West Indies and others as well. Later we saw the return serve when the West Indies employed their own assault team that ruled the cricket world through the following decade.
My own experience of this was as a bit part actor, watching on from the relatively safe confines of short leg in county cricket.
Lancashire played the 1989 touring Australians directly after their crushing Test victory at Headingley. Literally the day afterwards – and celebrations had gone on long and late in the Australian dressing room the previous night.
The anomaly in the game was the request made by both of Lancashire’s overseas players to play. Both of them happened to be opening bowlers.
The peerlessly talented Wasim Akram and peerlessly rapid Patrick Patterson both had good reason to play. Unbeknown to me at the time, they each had a score to settle with a member of Australia’s middle order.
Patterson was still smarting over a run-in he’d had with Steve Waugh on the West Indies’ recent tour of Australia. And Akram was keen to get up the nose of Dean Jones, just because that was the sort of reaction Deano elicited from most fast bowlers.
What followed, after we stumbled to be 184 all out on day one, is easily the best cricket watching I have witnessed in my career. And I had a front-row seat, only metres from the action.
Patterson made early inroads with two wickets in three balls at the top of the Australian order – Mike Veletta was one of his victims after spooning a catch to me at short leg. A partnership followed, then a double break was made, bringing the aforementioned batsmen to the crease.
The eight or so overs to stumps were remarkable. Raw fast bowling, fearless batting and both verbal and silent intimidation. The intimidation went both ways, bowler to batsman, batsman to bowler; for me it was a case of keep your head down, avoid eye contact, and watch it all play out.
Patterson was absolutely steaming in and sometimes bowling at Waugh from considerably fewer than 22 yards. The Australian gave as good as he got, never backing away and meeting the assault head-on, both with his bat and his mouth.
Those runs should be added to the Tests stats of Waugh and Jones because I doubt whether they’d have faced many more hostile spells of bowling than late on that day in Lancashire.
Back in the present, the question arises: will England galvanise in the face of the overt hostility dished out by their opponents, and will Clarke remain comfortable with his new enforcing role?
Both captains are being pushed away from their preferred modus operandi; Clarke moving to the role of standover enforcer, and Cook, who must adopt a more pugnacious approach, urging his charges to return fire where required.
A fascinating Test match is around the corner. Will the city of churches quell the Australian fire? Will its serenity serve to bring some calm back into proceedings? The hosts will be hoping for the former, the tourists should come out swinging, and Richard Burton should have settled for just one crack at Ms Taylor.
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Some additional notes from that game and tour …
Australia’s tour consisted of: a six-match Test series, 14 first-class games (three-day games), three One-day internationals, and eight non-first-class games. Extraordinary by today’s standards. And what was even more remarkable, was the scheduling of a first-class game (Lancashire) the day after a Test match finished! And a Test match Australia won.
They lapped England in the first Test of the series in Leeds. Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh both made hundreds in the first innings, enabling them to 7/601(d). England responded with a creditable 430, Allan Lamb top-scoring with 125. After Australia extended their lead with assertive second-innings batting, Terry Alderman swing his way to ten wickets for the match, and Australia to victory. How’s this: Kim Barnett was the lone spinner in England’s team!
It was captain, Allan Border’s, fourth tour of England, second as captain. He could not of hoped for batter from a relatively inexperienced touring party. You can read more on the 1989 Ashes here.
Balfour Patrick Patterson was the quickest bowler on the planet at that time. Fearsome, and yet aesthetic to the eye, he sadly was not able to fulfil the career that his talents demanded. Returning home to Jamaica, he was lost to the cricket world for a long time. Thankfully he is well and living his life. You can read more on the extraordinary efforts made by author - Bharat Sundaresan - to find ‘Patto’ and tell his story. Read it here.
You can read my original article here. And, other coverage of the ten-match Ashes series in 2013.
As always, thank you for being here. And, have a great weekend.
And to think that he played at Austerlands
Good piece Speaky, you certainly had the best and closest seat in the house