Another Slice of Johnners by Brian Johnston

Author:Brian Johnston
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781852279868
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

11 Patsy Hendren, Don Bradman, Wally Hammond

Patsy Hendren

AFTER I ‘BECAME’ Hendren in 1921, I noticed one day an advertisement in a paper. It showed a picture of Hendren batting, and underneath said: ‘Why not take Wincarnis like Patsy Hendren of 26 Cairn Avenue, Ealing W5?’ Just think of putting Ian Botham’s private address in a paper for all to see! Anyway, there it was, and I immediately wrote off asking Patsy for his autograph, neglecting to enclose a stamped addressed envelope. After a few days, back came a piece of foolscap paper with three of his autographs. They looked something like this:

E. Palsy Hendren.

Note that the t was not crossed, and the two lines under the n. His kindness made a deep impression on me. My signature today is still:

Brian Johnslon.

My next indirect connection with him was in 1926 after England had won the Ashes at the Oval. There was no commentary point over the radio then, so at the end of the match Patsy was rushed by taxi to Broadcasting House to give a summary of the game. I can still remember the words in which he described the exciting scenes in front of the pavilion: ‘The crowd was real glad and all was merry and bright.’

From then on I followed his career closely until he retired in 1937. Each morning I would find the sports page and see how many he had made. He seldom let me down. Early in his career, before I adopted him, he had had some hiccups in Test matches and was said not to have a Test match temperament. But he finished up with a Test average of 47.63 – just .09 behind Boycott (!) and ninth in the batting averages of all England Test batsmen. In other areas of first-class cricket there is no question as to where he stood. Altogether he scored 57,611 runs, beaten only by Hobbs and Woolley; 170 hundreds, beaten only by Hobbs; and an overall average in his career of 50.80, with only six other batsmen averaging more. So what was so special about him both as a player and as a man?

He had every stroke in the book from the late chop or cut, the square cut and an off-drive between cover and extra cover. He drove fiercely and was the best hooker of his time. He was – as befitted a professional footballer who played on the wing for Brentford – very fast between the wickets and always tried to take a quick single off his first ball. He was small by modern standards, with very strong wrists and forearms, and his twinkling feet and magnificent ‘arm’ made him an outstanding fielder in the deep. In later years he fielded closer to the wicket, either at slip or crouching at short leg with his hands cupped and his bottom sticking out.

As a man he was cricket’s most lovable clown, who never went too far. When batting he seemed to be in permanent conversation with the wicket-keeper, judging by the laughter of all those lucky enough to be fielding near to the wicket.

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