Bedtime Tales for Cricket Tragics by Geoff Lemon & Adam Collins

Author:Geoff Lemon & Adam Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Affirm Press
Published: 2025-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

11 BRADMAN’S HONEYMOON

19.32

CLUE SENT BY:

DAVID JONES

‘BRADMAN DOES NEW YORK’ isn’t exactly a familiar strand of the sepia-toned nostalgia story. But it did happen, on a trip with a lot more besides.

We know the Don didn’t mind making runs, we know he didn’t mind making a quid, and we know he was up for an adventure. Put those together and you get the story born from our number, 19.32. An unusual clue from David Jones (the guy, not the shop) told us that in fact there was no right answer, and instead we should find one that suited us. We answered with the Australian winter of 1932, when instead of the familiar path to England, a tour headed to the USA and Canada.

This was very much a commercial tour, not an official team, but it did feature some Test players. Like the start of a good heist movie, retired leg spinner Arthur Mailey was the character tasked with pulling a squad together. Bradman was cricket’s biggest star, and Mailey put the hard word on him, saying the whole thing would fall over if he wasn’t involved.

One problem, Bradman pointed out, was that he was going to marry Jessie Menzies that April, and they had plans for the winter. Another was that he was due to start work for a newspaper and radio station – the same job that later cost him a Test during Bodyline. In response, on top of the £100 tour fee, Mailey offered to pay Don’s salary for his time off work, plus – in the days when families never came on tour – expenses for the couple to travel together. Jessie had never left Australia, so she thought this a great deal: the cricket trip would also be their honeymoon.

An idiosyncratic bunch signed up alongside Don. Two young bucks: Stan McCabe was new in the Test team, Chuck Fleetwood-Smith yet to debut. Two current Test veterans: Vic Richardson (granddad to the Chappell brothers) and Alan Kippax. Two retirees: Mailey had finished for Australia six years earlier, still fresh next to wicketkeeper Sammy Carter, well into his 50s with a Test debut 25 years behind him. Then a step down to the rest of the squad: three with a sprinkle of state matches, including the unfortunately named Richard Nutt, and a couple of clubbies, spanning professions like doctor, lawyer, stockbroker. But hey, they still knew how to play better than Yanks or Canadians.

So began a truly bonkers itinerary: 51 matches in 20 towns across 76 days, a round trip of 10,000 kilometres, with only one spare player. A couple of matches were 11 versus 11, a couple were vaguely competitive, but for the most part – George Washington, your boys took a hell of a beating. The first game the tourists ransacked 503 from 368 balls before Mailey took nine wickets, and that pretty much set the tone.

Most often having a single day against teams of 15 to 20, the Australian XI had to make enough runs to

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