In the lead up to the 14th and final ashes test to be held at the WACA next month I thought it might be good to remember the stand out performances of these games that started with the very first test match in Perth on the 11th – 16th December 1970.
If you talk about the Gabba being a fortress for Australia, the WACA is a ground of considerable pain for the old enemy. Out of the 13 Ashes tests, Australia have won 9, there have been 3 draws with the lone English victory coming in one of the seasons that World Series Cricket had decimated the Australian team (1978-79).
Even though I was only a young lad back in 1970, I vividly remember the excitement and anticipation leading up to the first test match, the papers were full of it for weeks beforehand. WA were very strong in the Shield at that stage as Tony Lock the cagey ex England International was the captain of the state side, so the warm up game WA v England was fiercely contested.
The WACA got a facelift for the occasion including the construction of the Inverarity Stand. Many ex cricketers including Bradman and others from the famous 1948 invincibles were in Perth for the occasion. There were two West Australians in the 1970 team, Rod Marsh and Graham Mckenzie.
Unfortunately the match didn’t live up to the hype because both captains (Illingworth and Lawry) were very defensive and risk averse, the pitch was a road and the game ended fizzling out to a draw. Geoff Boycott batted for nearly 7 hours over the 2 innings for 120 runs. The highlight was definitely day 3 when Greg Chappell broke out and scored a glorious debut century along with Redpath’s 171 which helped Australia recover from 3 -17 to end up with 440.
As a schoolboy I went along to day 4 with a friend and sat through the whole of Boycott’s second innings which believe you me was not very exciting. John Snow was the pick of the bowlers on a batsmen friendly pitch and his efforts in this game were a sign of things to come in the rest of the series. If anyone else remembers this game I would be interested in your observations.
Back in a couple of days to discuss the 1974-75 test which was far more exciting from an Australian point of view!
My earliest memory Mike is the 1982/83 WACA Test where that Pommy skinhead jumped the fence and headed towards WA’s own Terry Alderman who was fielding near the boundary and he tried to tackle the Pommy boofhead from entering the field of play any further but unfortunately dislocated his shoulder badly in the process, putting him out of cricket for over 12 months.
If that 1981 Botham series in England hadnt already ignited my hatred towards the Soap Dodgers than that 82/83 WACA incident certainly did!
Remember Rod Hogg getting ten wickets in a WACA Ashes Test during the WSC years. Hogg was the pick of the establishment boys.
Immediately after WSC a series was put together (May not have been an official ashes series) anyway Brealey I think protested Lillees aluminium bat a he threw a bit of a tanty.
Thanks for sharing your WACA memories guys, keep them coming. Tonight I want to talk about the 2nd ever test at the WACA.
The 1974-75 ashes test was the 2nd in a series that was dominated by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. The Englishmen arrived in Australia with an experienced team and quite confident of victory but by the time they got to Perth the wheels were a bit wobbly due to the fact they were blasted into submission by Thommo in Brisbane for a 160 run loss. Also many of their players were nursing broken fingers and bruises from the Gabba loss, so they were a sore and sorry lot by the time the WACA test came to its inevitable conclusion.
England had so many injuries that they had to call on 40 year old Colin Cowdrey to fly out from UK and he was thrust straight into the team. Legend has it that he tried to say good morning to Thomson when he went out to bat but was told to piss off by the bowler.
Ian Chappell won the toss and not surprisingly put England in to bat. They got to 1-99 with the fast bowlers having little impact but Doug Walters , a handy medium pacer, chimed in with a couple of wickets and England fell away to be bowled out for 208. The beauty of the Australian attack during this summer was that they had very good back up bowlers in Max Walker and Ashley Mallett as well as Walters who kept the pressure on when the speedsters needed a break.
On the 2nd day Australia made steady progress on a good batting pitch until Doug Walters played a wonderful innings scoring a century between tea and stumps. He brought up his century with a 6 off the last ball of the day bowled by Bob Willis. I was listening to the radio commentary and I thought that Norman May was going to have a heart attack, so excited was he getting.
Walters actually fell in the first over the next morning without adding to his score but local boy Ross Edwards carried on to a big century and Australia built a lead of 250+. This presented Thommo and Lillee with the perfect opportunity to attack the English batsmen physically and psychologically and I can attest from sitting on the other side of the fence on a 37 degree day that they were both going at full pace and it was very scary even from where I was sitting.
Poor old David Lloyd got hit flush on the box by Thommo and the box split and some of his “sensitive bits” got caught in the destroyed box. He had to be carted off in agony. The English battled hard but the relentless bowling wore them down in the end and Australia only needed 21 to complete a 4 day victory.
They reckon Dougy got out so quickly that next morning Mikeh because he was still pissed from the previous nights celebrations of his brilliant hundred!
I was sitting at mid wicket on the Perth side in the 74 test and recon Max Walker was as fast as Lillie on that pitch.
Saw Cowdrey bat and he was all seven and nines on the crease against the bowlers but the crowd gave him grudging respect when you could see he was having a go even after getting hit a few times.
Good days. Wooden benches, towelling hats, no histrionics by the fielding team when a wicket fell and batsmen hooking balls outside off stump for 4’s.
Thanks for the video, Devonleigh, I’ve only had a quick look at it thus far.
I sensed the disgust and disdain in Richie Benaud’s voice when he said that both sides had opted not to include a spinner in their XI.
We weren’t sitting too far away from each other - I was at deep square-leg on the western side of the ground.
Was there on the Saturday when Dungog Doug scored his century and also recall Ian Redpath hitting Geoff Arnold to deep square for four (almost a six) to win the game on Day 4.
You’ve brought back great memories of the 1970 Ashes Test, mikeh.
Unfortunately, Bill Lawry and Ray Illingworth were such dour captains that neither was prepared to risk defeat in pursuit of victory.
The amazing thing about Hogg’s feat was that it was in a losing side; me thinks that that was the only test match England has won in Perth, a ground where they have achieved little.
Hogg was also involved in the bat incident, when the batsman concerned disregarded the instructions of Australia’s captain and tried to use the said bat. In the end the captain had to put things right himself.
Don’t forget, KJ made a 99 in an Anglo-Australian test which was not played for the urn. Was this the match where Boycott was 99 not out? There was a similar series which did not have the urn on the line played in England in 1975.
Great footage of the 74 - 75 test Devonleigh, thanks for sharing. As well as seeing all the players it was great to hear the legend George commentating again.
The 1978 test against England was a complete mismatch as was the whole series. The Australian team was a 2nd XI because all the best players were in World Series Cricket whereas the English team was pretty much full strength with only Tony Grieg of their best players in the Packer regime.
England batted first and made 309. They were rescued from a poor start by Boycott who made 77 in 7 and a half hours and an elegant 102 from a young David Gower. Rodney Hogg as he did for the whole series restricted the England score by taking a 5 wicket haul.
The Australian batting line up was very brittle and they were reduced to 7- 100 before an unbeaten 81 from Peter Toohey with support from the tail got the score to a more respectable 190.
England led by 119 and built well on that lead early in the 2nd innings to get to 1- 93. Then Hogg triggered off a middle order collapse and England were bowled out for 208. Hogg with 5 - 57 and 10 wickets in the game won the man of the match award in a losing team.
Australia were never going to get anywhere near the 328 required although Graham Wood showed his potential with a fine 64. Wood was one of three West Australians playing in this game, the others were Kim Hughes and Bruce Yardley.
The English came back to Australia in 1979-80 to play a three test series which was a recognition that peace had been negotiated between World Series Cricket and the Australian Cricket Board and as a result Australia had access to all their best players again. However the ashes were not at stake in this series as England had won them less than 12 months before.
The Perth test which was held just prior to Christmas 1979 was regarded as the ‘Aluminium bat’ test. On the 2nd morning of the match Dennis Lillee brought out a recently developed aluminium bat which he was trying to market to schools and junior clubs at the time. It soon became apparent that the bat was not up to the rigours of test cricket as Lillee didnt appear to be able to get much timing in his shots and the bat made a strange tinny noise when the ball hit it. Greg Chappell sent out the 12th man with some wooden replacements but Lillee refused to change the bat. England captain Mike Brearley also complained to the umpire and there was a 10 minute stand off when the game came to a halt. The impasse was resolved when Chappell came out of the pavilion with the bats and demanded that Lillee take one of them. Lillee then hurled the aluminium bat towards the boundary in a fit of temper.
A lot of people thought that Chappell used this incident to get Dennis going because Australia had made a poor first innings score (244). Lillee did in fact reduce England to 4 -41 before a partial recovery got them back to 228.
Australia then took control of the game in the second innings with Allan Border starring with 115 despite having to temporarily retire hurt at one stage after having been hit on the head.
Chasing an impossible 354 for victory, England held on well into the last session of the match , mainly due to Geoff Boycott who was left stranded on 99 not out when the last wicket fell, but they were denied by an outstanding performance by Geoff Dymock ( a very underrated bowler) who took 6 -34.
Like the previous year at the WACA, the man of the match came from the losing team.On this occasion it was Ian Botham who took 11 wickets in the match.
The Australians ended up winning the series 3 - 0, but were also playing a parallel series that summer against the West Indies and they were thumped by the calypso champions.
Aluminium bats were just starting to make their mark in the round (baseball) form around that time, and they certainly revolutionised that game.
Wooden bats - pretty much exclusively imported from the USA (Hillerich & Bradsby) were bloody expensive, and very prone to breaking. In the mid 70s, laminated wooden bats crept into the market, and they lasted longer, but were heavy, and had no “pop”.
The metal ones had pop-a-plenty, and turned average batters (such as myself) into reasonable ones. But as they developed technologically, they became bloody dangerous (for the pitcher) in the hands of the very powerful hitters. This they were banned at the higher levels of baseball - they were never used in major leagues.
I wonder what would have happened had the cricket bat followed a similar trajectory as the baseball cousin? Although probably a moot point now with the way the wood (cricket) bats have developed, with restrictions now in place.
Just to stay on topic - I was at both the first 2 tests at the WACA, but my memories are dim to say the least, other than Cowdrey’s recall, G Chappell’s maiden ton, and Dougie’s ton in a session.
jack: I can understand that it became a safety issue for the pitchers in rounders. I think they should restrict bat sizes further in cricket, bowllers and umpires have a hard time getting out of the way these days. It is not just the bigger bats, as you know, batsmen charge down the wicket meanning there is a shorter distance to hit the bowller and umpire at the non-striker’s end.
The 1982-83 Perth ashes test was memorable for only one thing really. As BH has already said there was a ground invasion by a number of supporters on the 2nd afternoon when England had raised their 400. One of the “invaders” was an 18 year old skinhead who proceeded to hit Terry Alderman on the back of the head. Alderman then chased this idiot and tackled him to the ground rugby style but in doing so dislocated his shoulder as he crashed to the ground. Many people at the ground thought that he had been stabbed such was the pained look on his face as he was carted off to hospital. There were 26 people arrested and it was a very unsavoury look for the WACA which was televised around the world. It beggars belief really that the players in those days were so accessible and vulnerable to the actions of drunken louts when you consider the stringent security measures in place these days.
England had crawled through the first day and three quarters to 411 from nearly 160 overs. Chris Tavare was the epitome of a becalmed batsman who at one stage failed to score a single run for 90 minutes!
Australia were a bit more enterprising and managed at least to get their run rate over 3. Greg Chappell led the way with a century and there were also contributions from most of the other batsmen to the extent that the Aussies declared with a very small lead.
By the time England started their 2nd innings it was well into day 4 and despite a brief glimmer of hope for Australia with the score at a parlous 4 - 80 with Botham’s dismissal, Derek Randall then dug in and snuffed out any chance of a shock result.
Overall a forgettable match although there were a few memorable individual performances including Bruce Yardley who bowled 83.4 overs in the game for a return of 8 wickets for 208 runs! Bet he slept well after that!
Just as a postscript to the ground invasion, I saw an interview with Alderman by ‘Crash’ Craddock on Fox Sports a little while ago where he talked about the incident and Terry said that he bore no malice towards the bloke that hit him. In fact he had found out that the guy had eventually sorted himself out and became a useful member of society.
The 1986 test in Perth(2nd Test) was another draw played on a lifeless pitch. Australia were not in a good place in that series and England were a more settled combination, having gained a lot of confidence from a rare win in Brisbane in the first test. They batted first and started with an opening partnership of 223 between Broad and Athey. The run feast continued into the second day with Broad,Gower and even their wicket keeper Jack Richards (Jack who? ) gorging themselves with centuries. Richards nearly scored half his total test runs in this one innings,so his other 12 knocks were nothing to write home about. All the Aussie bowlers took some serious tap, poor old Chris Matthews was all over the shop. He was an excellent bowler at shield level for WA but he never quite got to grips with test cricket (nerves perhaps)
After England called an end to the misery at 8 - 592, the Aussies main goal was to get 400 to avoid the follow on which they duly achieved thanks mainly to another epic innings by Allan Border who must have felt he was carrying the batting burden of the team. Steve Waugh gave him some support with 71.
England then scored some quick runs and set Australia a nominal target of 391 on the last day. The pitch was too flat though and the Aussies comfortably held out for a draw.
Not the most memorable contest.
Had a bit of a break to this topic because I have been in Adelaide watching the test. I thought I would resurrect it on the day we will know whether the series will be 2-0 or 1-1 going into the WACA test next week. We are up to the 1990-91 test played in February 1991. It was the final test of a series that had already been decided.
1990 -91 was the start of Australia’s dominance over England at the WACA which has continued to this day. Only West Indies in their heyday and more recently South Africa have enjoyed a reasonable amount of success against the Australians in Perth.
England started the 1991 test in fine style, Robin Smith and Allan Lamb played excellent knocks and the Lions had raced to 2 – 191 by close to tea. Then Craig McDermott stepped in and destroyed the innings. In 90 crazy minutes England lost 8 – 53 with McDermott taking 8-97. Did anyone from Ozfooty witness this performance? Would be interested to know if it was unplayable stuff from Craig or just abysmal batting.
Geoff Marsh was gone before stumps on day 1 and the Aussies lost wickets steadily on day 2. For a while it looked like there may be parity on the first innings but Australia eventually managed what ended up being a crucial lead of 63 thanks to a solid 60 not out from Greg Matthews in which he engineered some vital tail end partnerships.
The Aussie bowling attack of McDermott, Terry Alderman and Merv Hughes were all over the Englishmen in the 2nd innings. Hughes took the honours with 4 wickets.
Australia only lost 1 wicket in getting the 120 required for victory. One of the more lop sided ashes tests played at the WACA.
When the 1994 - 95 test was played in Perth,Australia had already retained the ashes but England still had a chance of squaring the series. Instead they were comprehensively outplayed by an Australian team that was just about to start a decade long stint as the number one team in the world.
Australia batted first and the first day was dominated by an innings of 124 by Michael Slater.He was supported very well by Mark Waugh who made 88. Steve Waugh then took over on the 2nd day and was eventually stranded on 99 when Australias last wicket fell at 402.
England lost Atherton and Gatting early but were steadied by Gooch first and then Graeme Thorpe who made a fine century, supported by Mark Rampakash who scored 72. After Thorpes dismissal England lost 6 - 60 to concede a first innings lead of 107 to the Aussies. Jo Angel played in this game and took the bowling honours with 3-65.
Taylor and Slater put on 75 for the first wicket to strengthen Australia’s position but they then lost 5 - 48 to give England a glimmer of hope. The door was totally shut by Steve Waugh and a young Greg Blewett who put on a 200 partnership for the 6th wicket. Blewett became only the 5th batsman to score centuries in his first two tests.
Australia were able to declare late on the fourth day and set England a massive 453 to win. By stumps on day 4 England top order had been blown away by Mcdermott and Mcgrath and were 5 -27.
Even though the remaining batsmen showed some fight on day 5, the final margin was still an embarrassing 329 runs. Craig Mcdermott had the figures of 6 -38 to reiterate his liking of the WACA. Steve Waugh won the man of the match for his two near centuries and Australia won the series 3-1.
1994-95 was also the first appearance of the now famous barmy army at the WACA. They were certainly a small group back them compared with the masses of people that tour with them now. They still made lots of noise though as I remember.
The 1998-9 ashes series was again won comfortably by Australia, but the England team had its moments, the highlight being a hat trick by Darren Gough in Sydney.
The test in Perth was the 2nd in the series and it wasn’t on the tourists highlights reel. On a spicy pitch the game was all over in 2 and a half days with the fast bowlers on both sides dominating the match.
At the end of day 1 Australia were 3-150, already 38 in front of England’s pathetic 112. Damien Fleming, Glen McGrath and Jason Gillespie dismantled the English batting. In reply Australia passed Englands score with only 1 wicket down and seemed set for a huge lead, however on the 2nd day their innings lost its way somewhat and the last 5 wickets fell for 31 to restrict the lead to 128. This looked more than enough when England slumped to 5 – 67 in their 2nd innings, however Graeme Hick with 68 along with support from Mark Ramprakash at least ensured that Australia would have to bat again. Once Hick was out though there was another collapse of 4 wickets for 2 runs which ensured that Australia would be chasing under 100. Fleming took another 4 wickets in the 2nd innings to go with his 5 in the first.
Australia scored the 64 runs required for the loss of 3 wickets which completed a match totally dominated by the ball which contained only 2 scores above 50
2002-3 was another familiar tale in the WACA ashes history. Even though England were showing some more resistance in games which culminated in them winning the final test in Sydney, they were still no match for the Aussies at the WACA fortress.
England batted first and after a solid opening partnership of 47 between Vaughan and Trescothick, they lost regular wickets to be bowled out for 185. The wickets were shared around by a star studded Aussie attack of McGrath, Gillespie, Lee and Warne. Damien Martyn even chimed in with the wicket of the top scorer (Robert Key)
In reply Australia made 456 which was a remarkable score given that nobody made a century. The top 10 batsmen all got to double figures with Martyn top scoring with 71 with half centuries to Ricky Ponting (68) and Steve Waugh (53), there were a number or 30’s and 40’s from the other batmen which built up the score. The English bowlers were expensive with the innings run rate being over 4.5 runs per over.
Facing a deficit of 271, England slipped quickly to 4 -34 until a recovery led by captain Nasser Hussain and keeper Alec Stewart (who I always thought was an underrated player), put them back on track to at least threaten the Australian first innings score. Once Hussain was dismissed, there was another clatter of wickets which left England 48 runs short of making Australia bat again. Like the 1998 test the game was done and dusted on the 3rd day which must have been a source of concern to the WACA hierarchy who once again had missed out on valuable crowd revenue for days 4 and 5.
Mention the 2006 ashes test and only one thing readily comes to mind for me. Adam Gilchrist 100 from 57 balls with 12 fours and 4 sixes, the second fastest century in test cricket history. His last 50 came up in 17 balls and all of his sixes were smashed in the one over off the hapless Monty Panesar. It was brutal batting to put an exclamation mark on a dominant Australian batting performance and it was the impetus for Australia to continue its obliteration of the English team on their way to a 5-nil series result. This was a great Australian team desperate to make up for surrendering the ashes to England in 2005 and they took every opportunity to put their foot on the throat of the opposition.
England had started quite well on Day 1 of this third test at the WACA, bowling Australia out for 244 with Steve Harmison and Panesar doing the damage. The Aussies only got over 200 because of the efforts of Mike Hussey who held the innings together with 74 not out. Ironically Gilchrist made a four ball duck on the first day. The match was evenly poised at the end of the first day with England 2 -51 at stumps.
Day 2 found England losing regular wickets and they lost their 7th at 128 when they were still over a hundred behind. However Kevin Pieterson with 70 engineered somewhat of a fight back and when he was dismissed a 10th wicket partnership of 40 between Panesar and Harmison brought England to within 29 of the Australian total. Stuart Clark upstaged his more illustrious colleagues to grab the bowling honours. Hoggard then bowled Langer with the first ball of the 2nd innings and England could see the door ajar.
On a very hot Saturday England gradually wilted under the batting onslaught of Hayden (92), Ponting(75), Hussey (103), Clarke (135) and the icing on top of the cake was provided by Gilchrist. Ponting declared just before stumps on day 3, setting England the nominal target of 557 to win.
Lee removed Strauss in the first over but Cook and Bell batted doggedly into day 4 on a flat pitch. Their partnership reached 170 before Warne found a way though Bell (87), Cook went on to score a century and England finished day 4 with 5 wickets still in hand with Pieterson and Flintoff at the wicket.
They lasted till lunch on day 5,but only just at 9- 349. Warne bowled Panesar 2nd ball after the interval to regain the ashes for the Aussies.
That 3rd day in the 2006/07 Perth Ashes Test was my favourite ever day at the cricket.
It was as hot as hell but watching Gilly take the absolute sword to the soap dodgers after century to another WA boy Hussey as well it was as good as it gets.
In that 2002/03 Test from memory I remember Brett Lee flooring was it Alex Tudor or Chris Lewis with a fearful bouncer that got through the grill on his helmet I dont think he played another Test after that blow!
