Dear Peter, please keep up your interest in cricket ... Regards Dennis Lillee

PL on a letter that arrived 50 years ago this month, a T-shirt and a forthcoming dinner with his hero

A letter addressed to me arrived at 26 Clarke St, Bendigo, in the month of my 12th birthday. Inside, in the same handwriting as that on the envelope, were 31 words that I have been able to recite from memory for the last half-century.

Dear Peter, I am only too happy to give you my autograph. I hope you keep up your interest in cricket, as it has many rewards in life.

Regards

Dennis Lillee

While the D of Dennis Lillee was written with a rooster flourish whose lines traced a suggestion of the man in the act of delivery, the ‘autograph’ was all billowing shirts and full-throttle follow-through.