+14.AUGUST 1981
“NOURSE DIES AT 70 ”: This headline bleak
Arrested my bored eyes which idly scanned
The Cricket Page. Nourse, lion-heart unique,
My hero thirty years ago, whose hand, *
Injured beyond repair, defied the field.
The years roll back. I see him as he stood,
Churchillian, scorning fierce calls to yield.
It seemed he smote with battle-axe of wood.
Unbowed by lost campaigns his massive back
Bore burdens he seemed Atlas-like to hold;
Resolute in defence, swift in attack.
My hero-hungry fancy saw unfold
A Paladin, a ‘very perfect Knight’.
The boy of thirty years ago was right.
(published in A BREATHLESS HUSH…
THE MCC ANTHOLOGY OF CRICKET VERSE. METHUEN. 2004)
When we first start to follow cricket many of us latch on to great players of the day whom we adopt as 'heroes' and whose careers we follow with particular devotion. My first 'hero' was the South African captain, Dudly Nourse (1910-1981), one of the small band who have averaged over 50 for both Tests and all first class cricket. When I read of his death in The Daily Telegraph in August 1981, I briefly reverted to being a twelve-year- old, seeing Nourse through the eyes of a hero-hungry schoolboy. Nourse bestrode the cricketing world like a Colossus from 1935-1951, heading the country's batting averages for five successive series, a feat not managed by Bradman or Hammond. Nourse was the only player to have scored a double century against the formidable Australian spin combination of Grimmett and O'Reilly. He scored a heroic 208 in the Nottingham Test in 1951, batting with a broken thumb, frequently one-handed, for over nine hours. This injury refused to heal, forcing Nourse into retirement at the end of a series in which he was plainly unit to play. Dudley Nourse sacrificed the end of his career for his country. A cricketer of true hero status. I indeed chose my hero well.
* It is now almost sixty one years since Nourse scored his great career-wrecking innings.
The boy of sixty years ago still finds time does not dim the stature of his 'hero'. HMD.
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