Brick by Brick: The Australian Cricketers in England 1964
Published: 2025
Pages: 209
Author: Bonnell, Max
https://www.cricketweb.net/books/brick-by-brick/
There have been some excellent books about past tours published in recent years, and Max Bonnell was, last year, responsible for one of the very best of them. He chose a good subject then, the first ever visit of a West Indian team to Australia back in 1930/31. A ground breaking series it had the benefit of not having been written about at great length before and the absence of any contemporary account. Social, political and economic conditions were also very different in the 1930s from those anyone alive now is familiar with.
But the 1964 Ashes? In some ways I suppose it was the same, but to call it ground breaking would be a stretch, although Bob Simpson’s Aussie’s were the first to fly into England. That said it sounds like their 16 hour flight from India wasn’t much fun. Sixty years ago the world was again a very different place, but this time there are plenty of us with some memory of the time, and for this tour there were four accounts of the series published in the months after it concluded although, perhaps understandably in light of the way it unfolded very little has been written about it since.
The 1930/31 series was, predictably, largely one sided. Bill Woodfull’s Australian were far too good for their visitors and recorded thumping victories in each of the first four Tests before, as dominant Australian teams have been wont to do on occasion subsequently, they allowed West Indies to regroup and secure an unexpected consolation win in the final Test.
In 1964 though the first, second and fifth Tests were all rain affected draws, and the fourth Test at Old Trafford one of the most boring Tests that has ever been played. This was the one where Australia spent 255.5 overs piling up a score of 656, led by their skipper’s maiden Test century, 311, before England took 38 overs more to score 45 runs less, their reply built around an innings of 256 from Kenny Barrington that occupied more than 11 hours.