You know it, don’t you? First you see the rugged, muscular pace bowler striding in diagonally from the Torrens End, ranks of spectators serried behind him. Then, with an almost imperceptible jump cut, the hooking batter reels from the blow to his temple; his bat flies loose; his body pirouettes daintily to the ground; there, in a kind foetal crouch, he seems almost to doff his cap to no-one, as sympathising players swarm from all parts of the field.
We votaries of cricket almost grew up on this footage - it is Bert Oldfield felled by Harold Larwood at Adelaide Oval, and it has formed part of every documentary about Bodyline since, making up for the overall paucity of footage in the way it seems to condense the whole series to a single delivery.
Such familiarity shouldn’t overshadow its remarkable nature - the first injury of its kind so recorded, and deserving of the darkest ink in RH Campbell’s remarkable pamphlet. It’s also the obvious starting point of Bodyline Casualty, Gavin Gleeson’s new life of Oldfield.
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