Pornography stops Test at The Oval

It is not every day that pornography stops a cricket match, particularly a Test at The Oval, no less. However, one can trust Brian Johnston to come up with something like that. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at August 23, 1960, a day that witnessed the only known instance of a nude picture causing a hold-up in play.

It was turning out to be a one-sided affair. England, following their 0-4 Ashes humiliation Down Under in 1958-59, decided to take it out on India (5-0 in 1959) and South Africa. It started at Edgbaston with Fred Trueman and Brian Statham sharing 12 wickets between them to lead England to a 100-run victory.

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Lord’s witnessed an innings victory for England. This time Statham pulled it off single-handedly with 11 for 97. Trueman and Statham combined to take 15 wickets at Trent Bridge, and England sealed the series. South Africa gnawed back into the fourth Test at Old Trafford: set to chase 185 in a shade above 100 minutes, South Africa finished on 46 without loss.

While Trueman (25 wickets at 20.32) and Statham (27 at 18.18) were busy wrecking South Africa, Neil Adcock (26 wickets at 22.57) was fighting a lone battle for the tourists. Had he had a partner of his stature the series might have been more even, and though Trevor Goddard and Hugh Tayfield shared 29 wickets between them, they seldom ran through sides.

Adcock, batsmen give big lead

Colin Cowdrey batted [literally; he opened] after winning the toss, and England struggled against Adcock with frequent shower intervals. Geoff Pullar and Ted Dexter took the score to 89 for 1, but Adcock found support in Jim Pothecary. The Western Province fast bowler claimed 4 for 58 to go with Adcock’s 6 for 65, and England collapsed to 155.

Dexter removed “Pom Pom” Fellows-Smith and Roy McLean off consecutive balls; at 107 for 3, it seemed England might fight back, but Goddard  scored 99, and John Waite and Sid O’Linn both scored fifties; Tayfield and Atholl McKinnon took the score past 400, and South Africa eventually secured a 264-run lead.

Pullar (175) and Cowdrey (155) fought back, erasing the deficit and putting up 290 for the opening stand. By stumps England had moved to 380 for 4. The lead was 116, and given the weather only one result was possible.

A “very rude seaside poster”

It drizzled on the final morning, and though Jim Parks fell amidst the gloom, a result did not seem feasible. It was then that Brian Johnston decided to intervene (did he refer to Adcock as “Adders”?)

Johnston recollected the incident in A Delicious Slice of Johnners: “In the television box we were becoming a bit bored, so we thought that we would liven things up a bit. We had one of those very rude seaside postcards and put it inside an envelope from one of the telegrams which we had received. We addressed it to Neil Adcock and persuaded the South African twelfth man, [Geoffrey] Griffin, to take it out on the field.”

Adcock received the “telegram” but did not pay much attention to it. He shoved it inside the pocket of his trousers and sent down another over. Then he opened the envelope, saw the contents, and burst into unstoppable laughter. Always the sport, he summoned the rest of the team.

Obviously, the guilty party at BBC Test Match Special knew all about it. Not everyone had been in the joke. On microphone, meanwhile, the others kept guessing what the “telegram” might contain. Johnston added: “We heard our colleagues in the radio box next to us speculating. Had Adcock’s wife had twins or had he won the pools or what?”

Charlie Elliott and Eddie Phillipson, the umpires, got curious by then and wanted to have a look. The incident left everybody confused — to the extent that Adcock had to announce to the press at lunch that it had been a mere practical joke.

Meanwhile…

Doug Padgett made a grim 31 while David Allen hung on grimly. Trueman had some fun with the bat, as did Statham, and Cowdrey set South Africa 216 in three hours. The tourists may have had a go, but heavy rain robbed them of half an hour.

At tea South Africa were 66 for 3, but McLean kept the fight going, hitting Statham for consecutive boundaries.  Then Goddard’s resilience came to an end, and South Africa shut shop, finishing on 97 for 4.

Brief scores:

England 155 (Geoff Pullar 59; Neil Adcock 6 for 65, Jim Pothecary 4 for 58) and 479 for 9 decl. (Geoff Pullar 175, Colin Cowdrey 155; Tom Goddard 3 for 69) drew with South Africa 419 (Tom Goddard 99, John Waite 77, Sid O’Linn 55, Peter Carlstein 42, Hugh Tayfield 46; Ted Dexter 3 for 79) and 97 for 4.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)