Geoff Rabone: One of the greatest stonewallers of all time

Geoff Rabone, born November 6, 1921, was one of the slowest scoring batsmen of all time. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the life and career of the New Zealand captain who scored at 21-22 runs per hundred balls in his Test career.

The blocking Miller

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As someone who led a charmed life during the Second World War, staying ahead of death by hair’s breadth and escaping capture through the quirks of fate and fortune, Geoff Rabone was in some respects the Kiwi version of Keith Miller. He flew Lancasters for the RAF, came dangerously close to death many a times and oft. When his bomber jet finally crashed, the 23-year-old parachuted into France and was hidden until liberation by a friendly French family.

Hence, like Miller, Rabone too enjoyed laughter and camaraderie, beer and song. And that is where similarities come to an absolute stop.

One can be deceived and start finding traces of Miller in Rabone even from the old 1949 photograph — where he can be seen smiling from the makeshift slips, with the gorgeous Rona Anderson playing an extravagant lofted off-drive in front of a barrel which formed the wicket in the Pinewood Studios, with Kiwi cricketers crouched in catching positions. That was in 1949, during New Zealand’s first post-War tour. But, as has been mentioned, the similarities with Miller ended with the War and a fondness for fellowship. Rabone was a thorough family man, whose wife waited eagerly for him at Perth when the team returned from South Africa. Yes, she had come all the way to Perth to receive him.

While Miller approached his cricket in his dashing and debonair dare-devilry, a direct result from cheating death, Rabone went to the other extreme. He once scored 29 in 215 minutes, on another occasion 18 over 3 hours. His only Test hundred was scored in over 6 hours. The indefatigable Charles Davis pored over old scorebooks and came up with the conclusion that through his career Rabone scored his runs at a strike rate of 21-22 per hundred balls. That placed him at par with the celebrated stonewaller William Scotton as the tardiest batsman ever, even edging out the other barn-door extraordinaire Alec Bannerman.

But then, Miller would come out to bat after men like Arthur Morris and Sidney Barnes, Don Bradman and Neil Harvey, Lindsay Hassett and Colin McDonald, with others like Ray Lindwall, Sam Loxton, Ron Archer, Alan Davidson and Richie Benaud to bring up the rear after him. Rabone, in contrast, had no such treasures ahead of or following him. For a very brief while he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Walter Hadlee, Merv Wallace and Martin Donnelly, while Bert Sutcliffe opened the batting with Tom Burtt and young John R Reid down the order, with Jack Cowie lending firepower to the bowling. That heavenly summer of 1949 saw the Kiwi tourists holding the Englishmen to a 0-0 draw over four Tests.

But soon after that the core of that excellent side fell away or sped fast down the hill. Sutcliffe remained, Reid grew in stature, but the rest had little more to offer. Rabone became the man to hold one end up, bat endlessly, with runs a mere nice-to-have. He was always a dour batsman, even from the early Wellington days before the War. With the 1950s ringing in, he set a new benchmark for caution. And all the while he floated up and down the order.

Blessed with long fingers, Rabone was also a versatile in the field, right from his early days. He could bowl both off and leg-spinners. The fingers could also scoop up near-impossible catches in the slip. Well, you got me. The versatility lends some more distant parallels to Miller. But, he was as different from the Australian icon as any cricketer can be.

Test career

Rabone had played just 6 First-Class matches when he was called up to join the merry 1949 team to tour England.

There was wisdom in the choice. With Donnelly and Sutcliffe playing flamboyantly higher up the order, Rabone’s limpet-like style provided balance and solidity. He did not score too many, but played two vital hands at Old Trafford to force a draw, including an unbeaten 39 in the second innings.

That tour also saw him open the innings against Nottinghamshire and bat 340 minutes for an unbeaten 120, his maiden First-Class century. He passed 1,000 runs on the trip at a decent average of 32.93, but his bowling proved rather too expensive. He captured 50 at 35.70 — his Test wickets amounting to four, all at Lord’s.

By the time New Zealand played Test cricket again, a lot had changed. Rabone was by now playing for Auckland. Donnelly and Hadlee were no longer in the fray, nor was Cowie. And they were up against a phenomenally strong West Indies side.

Rabone was pushed to open the innings at Christchurch and stonewalled his way to 37 in 178 minutes. It was not enough to avoid defeat at the hands of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. In the Test that followed at Eden Park, Rabone walked in at 61 for 4 in response to 546, and spent 83 minutes for his 9 runs. The match was drawn.

When the South Africans visited in early 1953, Rabone was not included in the first Test. After a heavy innings defeat he was back in the side at Eden Park. New Zealand earned a draw, owing much of it to the dead bat of Rabone, and also quite a lot to his nagging off-breaks. He picked up 3 for 62 when South Africa batted and spent 215 minutes at the wicket for 29.

Not the most enthralling of performances, but it did get him appointed captain of the side when New Zealand visited South Africa later that year.

Captaincy and end of career

The South African tour ended in a crushing 0-4 defeat for the visitors, and Rabone had to miss the final two Tests due to a fractured bone in the foot. However, he led from the front, opening the batting, bowling often and well, and produced some superb performances.

In the first Test at Durban, Rabone opened the innings and scored 107 in 6 hours, negotiating Neil Adcock and Hugh Tayfield with plenty of assurance before being eighth out at 215. In the second essay he hit 68 over 3 hours before Adcock struck his stumps. It came in a total of 148 and none of the others managed anything approaching decent. The success came at the cost of pain. By the time the Test was over, Rabone was literally tattooed by Adcock’s balls that had thudded into his person.

The tourists were humiliated in the second Test at Johannesburg, but it was during the third Test at Cape Town that Rabone enjoyed another high point of his career and perhaps the final one. He batted 4 hours for 56, putting on 126 with Murray Chapple. And when South Africa batted, he wheeled away for 38.7 eight-ball overs, picking up 6 wickets for 68. New Zealand could not force a win, but managed to put the hosts through the humiliation of following on.

Rabone was indisposed after this, and Sutcliffe took over captaincy for the final couple of Tests. However, he was named one of the South African Cricketers of the Year in 1954.

Next came Len Hutton’s men, in the wake of the destruction wrought by Frank Tyson in Australia. Reinstated as captain, Rabone batted 3 hours to score 18 at Dunedin. New Zealand lost, and there were severe questions asked about his captaincy. But, the man himself did not quite change his style. According to Sutcliffe, great fighter though Rabone was, he had difficulty understanding all the cricketers of the side. His sharp tongue also occasionally hurt some of his team members.

The second Test at Auckland looked set for a thrilling finish. New Zealand managed 200 in the first innings, with Rabone scoring 29 in 155 minutes. In response, Hutton held the innings together before being eighth out for 53 with the score on 201. The sides were going neck and neck, fighting for the minute advantage. And then it all metamorphosed in a dramatic period that is still unique in history.

The final 2 wickets of England put on 45; Tyson, Bob Appleyard and Brian Statham rallying around. Rabone found himself walking out as Sutcliffe was dismissed for 11, the score reading 14 for 4. He fought hard, lasting 53 minutes, before Statham trapped him leg before. His 7 was the second highest score of the innings after Sutcliffe. The Kiwis were all out for 26 and lost by an innings and 20 runs. It remains the lowest Test innings till this day.

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Rabone never played for New Zealand again. His career ended with 562 runs at 31.22 and 16 wickets at 39.68.

He did, however, keep playing for Auckland till the end of the decade. And in 1961, he enjoyed a grand and festive final match for the New Zealand Governor General’s XI against MCC. He later served as a Test selector and worked for Shell Oil.

Geoff Rabone, the most tenacious of batsmen, died in Auckland in January 2006.

His style might have driven spectators away, but his value to a weak New Zealand team could not be undermined. Reid wrote in his autobiography Sword of Willow: “Geoff Rabone gave his heart and soul to the team, a fighter of tremendous reserves. For sheer guts, some of his Test innings were the greatest I have ever seen.”

Also, he was a very likable man. Sutcliffe called him “the prince among story tellers, a man of sure charm, with a smile straight from a toothpaste advertisement.”

Besides, he knew his limitations. After a long innings, he would come into the pavilion, toss aside his bat, and say, “Well, that’ll have cost cricket a few more spectators.”

(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history of cricket, with occasional statistical pieces and reflections on the modern game. He is also the author of four novels, the most recent being Sherlock Holmes and the Birth of The Ashes. He tweets here.)