Lord’s prayer

It is astonishing that England have not won an Ashes Test match at Lord’s since 1934 — and that one only because Hedley Verity cornered the Aussies on a wicked, fast-drying pitch. The Yorkie left-armer’s eight for 43 dismantled Australia on the third evening as he took the last six wickets in less than an hour, a collapse which had the one-man BBC wireless commentator Howard Marshall in such a tizz of comings and goings in his makeshift eyrie on the roof of the old Tavern that for the next Test at Old Trafford he was provided with a scorer (Arthur Wrigley, a Lancashire groundstaff player who was studying accountancy in his winters). Even more improbable is the fact that ‘Verity’s match’ was England’s solitary Ashes victory on the fabled St John’s Wood acres throughout the 20th century. It was not a very smart move to nominate Lord’s for this opening Test of 2005, and by the time you read this you will know whether the dreaded jinx is holding up. I fear the worst for England, and fancy a smug Australia will have a further reason to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Don Bradman’s first visit in 1930 and the 21-year-old’s wondrous 254 which, to the end, he reckoned the most technically perfect innings he ever played. I looked up the greenhorn whizz’s post-knock quote: ‘Practically without exception every ball went where it was intended to go.’ England’s Percy Fender called it ‘as perfect an example of real batting, in its best sense, as anyone could wish to see’, and the Don remains Lord’s youngest Test match double-centurion.

That innings was not described ‘ball by ball’ by the BBC radio pioneers, but as occasional ‘eye-witness reports’ — short updates through the day from a cupboard in the net-bowlers’ room in the Nursery clock tower.