Duck into the bouncer, Doug!
In 1993 I was on the beach at Bridgetown Barbados facing a skinny 11 year old with a mean bouncer.
At the other end was my friend Wayne Daniel who advised me to “duck into the bouncer”.
The young tyro must have heard him as the next ball kept low and struck me amidships.
Cue forward 21 years and your correspondent was at a leafy hotel in Surrey at a dinner honouring Sir Garfield Sobers.
I asked the greatest all rounder of them all about the bouncer from Wes Hall that struck Indian batter Nari Contractor on the head after which the latter had to have a metal plate inserted.
Sobers replied that the batter was so low that they might even have appealed had the ball struck his legs.
I mention this in the context of the recent sad news that Ray Illingworth has advanced cancer.
In the various tributes to the wily captain – in my view only Mike Brearley skippered England better – reference was made to his successful Ashes Tour of 1970-71.
On that tour John Snow, who took 31 wickets, bounced Terry Jenner.
After felling him he was sent to field in front of the section with the most volatile Aussies who pelted him with bottles and cans.
Illingworth took his team off.
The crucial point is again Jenner had ducked low into the bouncer and again England were tempted to appeal. All these incidents were pre-helmets so it’s easy to say, less easy to do, that a batter should face up to a bouncer, not duck into it.
