this is the first time the screen has been used for cricket.This was something of a dress rehearsal for the Boxing Day Test match. It was a novelty for the players, too, of course, and I do remember on the second day that Vic Marks took a sharp catch at square leg and turned to watch the replay on the big screen, only to find at the vital moment two enormous hands coming over his eyes to block his vision. Ian Botham had crept up behind him.
On Boxing Day I see I made another comment on the screen.
Sunday 26 December 1982
We gradually got used to the fact that every event produced a double reaction from the crowd â first to the happening itself, then, a few seconds later, to the replay. Also the trick for commentators and reporters was to make a very quick note of the score at the fall of a wicket, before the scoreboard was wiped for the replay.
That latter comment was particularly pertinent for me, doing the telephone reports for Radios 2 and 4. I had a position for the Test match on a bench in front of the enclosure in the stand which was our commentary position and with the crowd noise and public address often deafening under the roof it was next to impossible to hear the cue from London. Our ABC engineer, seeing the problem, came up with a big leather equipment case into which I could thrust my head to cut out most of the noise. The obvious drawback was that in the dark inside it I could see neither play, nor scoreboard, nor notebook, so, as I made my opening remarks, I had to be getting my head out again pretty quickly.
I remember on the last morning of that 1982 Test finding everysplinter in that old bench, as I shuffled around anxiously, witnessing the tensest of finishes. It had been my first experience of the Melbourne Boxing Day Test.
Sunday 26 December 1982
Outside the huge MCG stands the queues had formed, even when I arrived two hours before the start. Later in the morning they got so long that some of the commentary team â along with many others â had difficulty getting in. The crowd was given as seventy thousand, amazingly still fifty thousand below capacity for football, but still an incredible sight.
There was a neatness about proceedings over the first three days. Each day contained one completed innings. England were put in and bowled out for 284 on the first day.
After Norman Cowans had shocked Australians by removing John Dyson and Greg Chappell with successive balls, a couple of decent partnerships saw Australia take a first innings lead on the second day. But it was a slender one â just three runs.
England fared only a little better on the third day. Again their innings occupied just the full day, making 294, with Graeme Fowler, the top scorer with 65, having his toe broken by a Thomson yorker along the way.
The fourth day, like the previous three, started with a fresh innings. Australia set off to make 292 to win.
Wednesday 29 December 1982
With the match so delicately poised, we decided to take
Test Match Special
through the night, when we had previously onlybeen doing the last two hours. The greatest fillip was given to night-owls in England by Norman Cowans, snapping up the first two wickets â Wessells and Chappell.
Cowans ended the day with six wickets, having all but bowled England to victory. When Jeff Thomson, the number eleven, came out to join Allan Border, who had been in poor form in the series thus far, Australia still needed 74 to win.
England pushed the field back for Border, despite that form, and concentrated on attacking Thomson â without success on the fourth evening. We would have to come back on the fifth morning, with Australiaâs last pair now needing 37.
It could have ended with one ball, but ten thousand took advantage of free admission to see a possible miracle on the fifth day.
Thursday 30 December 1982
Far from being one ball, the action went on for an hour and a half, as Border and Thomson played with complete confidence.
On Boxing Day I see I made another comment on the screen.
Sunday 26 December 1982
We gradually got used to the fact that every event produced a double reaction from the crowd â first to the happening itself, then, a few seconds later, to the replay. Also the trick for commentators and reporters was to make a very quick note of the score at the fall of a wicket, before the scoreboard was wiped for the replay.
That latter comment was particularly pertinent for me, doing the telephone reports for Radios 2 and 4. I had a position for the Test match on a bench in front of the enclosure in the stand which was our commentary position and with the crowd noise and public address often deafening under the roof it was next to impossible to hear the cue from London. Our ABC engineer, seeing the problem, came up with a big leather equipment case into which I could thrust my head to cut out most of the noise. The obvious drawback was that in the dark inside it I could see neither play, nor scoreboard, nor notebook, so, as I made my opening remarks, I had to be getting my head out again pretty quickly.
I remember on the last morning of that 1982 Test finding everysplinter in that old bench, as I shuffled around anxiously, witnessing the tensest of finishes. It had been my first experience of the Melbourne Boxing Day Test.
Sunday 26 December 1982
Outside the huge MCG stands the queues had formed, even when I arrived two hours before the start. Later in the morning they got so long that some of the commentary team â along with many others â had difficulty getting in. The crowd was given as seventy thousand, amazingly still fifty thousand below capacity for football, but still an incredible sight.
There was a neatness about proceedings over the first three days. Each day contained one completed innings. England were put in and bowled out for 284 on the first day.
After Norman Cowans had shocked Australians by removing John Dyson and Greg Chappell with successive balls, a couple of decent partnerships saw Australia take a first innings lead on the second day. But it was a slender one â just three runs.
England fared only a little better on the third day. Again their innings occupied just the full day, making 294, with Graeme Fowler, the top scorer with 65, having his toe broken by a Thomson yorker along the way.
The fourth day, like the previous three, started with a fresh innings. Australia set off to make 292 to win.
Wednesday 29 December 1982
With the match so delicately poised, we decided to take
Test Match Special
through the night, when we had previously onlybeen doing the last two hours. The greatest fillip was given to night-owls in England by Norman Cowans, snapping up the first two wickets â Wessells and Chappell.
Cowans ended the day with six wickets, having all but bowled England to victory. When Jeff Thomson, the number eleven, came out to join Allan Border, who had been in poor form in the series thus far, Australia still needed 74 to win.
England pushed the field back for Border, despite that form, and concentrated on attacking Thomson â without success on the fourth evening. We would have to come back on the fifth morning, with Australiaâs last pair now needing 37.
It could have ended with one ball, but ten thousand took advantage of free admission to see a possible miracle on the fifth day.
Thursday 30 December 1982
Far from being one ball, the action went on for an hour and a half, as Border and Thomson played with complete confidence.
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