David Tossell
Grovel!
By the final Saturday of the series, with the temperature topping out at 82 degrees, the great British drought was biting so badly that the Queen had ordered her gardeners to stop watering the grounds at all Royal households. Industry bosses called on the public to use less water, leaving more for factories. Martin Trowbridge of the Chemical Industries Association said, ‘Jobs are at stake. Is it better to have a well-watered flower bed or a pay packet?’
Such concerns were far from the minds of a cheerful crowd, some of whom took time to settle into their seats behind the bowler’s arm. Once they had, Daniel sent the first ball of the day down the leg side for four byes. The first four off the bat was all-run after Amiss clipped Daniel through mid-on. Woolmer again started carefully, but in Holding’s second over he shuffled across his crease and was beaten by speed, giving Dickie Bird an easy lbw decision.
Amiss drove well and played confidently off his legs, recalling that ‘they were bowling at leg stump and feeding me’. One square cut looked a little edgy and Holding, generating fearsome pace through the air and off the most docile of wickets, had him groping outside off stump. But then Amiss whipped the ball past leg slip to move to 52.
David Steele remembers, ‘I had been in about a quarter of an hour when I went down to Dennis and he said, “How am I doing?” I said, “What do you mean, how are you doing? You have got 70 on the board. How am I doing?” He said, “Oh, you are all right.” He had no confidence in himself. He was a man of theory, a man of doubt, but a wonderful player. He was a lovely timer of the ball and when he got in he kept going. He got big scores. With that big step to the off side, he just flicked everything.’
Amiss and Steele offered an interesting contrast in styles. In comparison to Amiss’s back-foot shuffle, Steele continued to commit to the front foot, leaving him vulnerable when Holding moved the ball away. Steele punished a couple of loose deliveries off the experimental spin of Roy Fredericks and England, having made good progress throughout the morning, took lunch at 137 for 1.
Confident in his new technique, Amiss, 80 at lunch, felt clear-headed. Instead of the lethargic thoughts he’d harboured at Lord’s, here he occupied the time during Holding’s extended approach to the wicket by reinforcing his action plan. ‘You talk to yourself. You say, “Keep your head still, watch the ball, watch the ball, watch the hand.” You are just devising in your mind what you are going to play. Is it swinging, is it bouncing? Once you have got used to the bounce and pace of the wicket it helps you to mentally prepare for any shot. If you have fast bowlers coming at you from both ends you have not got much time to switch off. You are always under pressure and you have no time to get away from it. You do go through periods when facing fast bowlers can get on top of you, but the better batsmen come through it. I felt mentally strong and my technique was working.’
Steele began the afternoon by helping a climbing ball from Holding over backward point, repeating the shot next ball. It moved him to 44, but Holding, having switched to the Vauxhall End, pinned him lbw with a ball that broke back. New batsman Chris Balderstone was soon treading Steele’s path back to the pavilion. Holding twice struck him on the pads and induced a rash shot outside the off stump, before putting him out of his misery with a yorker that brushed the inside edge before dismantling the stumps.
Amiss was undeterred, twice dispatching Roberts through mid-wicket with a circular flourish of the bat. On 96, and after 209 minutes’ batting, he stood one stroke from a century that would complete his courageous return from the precipice of his Test career. He stabbed at a Holding half-volley and the ball shot past the bowler for four. It was one of England’s feel-good moments in a summer that had offered precious few. Recognising the journey Amiss had undertaken since they had seen him in distress at Lord’s three months earlier, the West Indies players joined the crowd in applause. A few fans bounded out to offer personal congratulation, one of them handing Amiss a ten-pound note, which was given to umpire Bird for safe-keeping. ‘It was a good feeling,’ says Amiss. ‘I have always thought that the 262 at Sabina Park was the better innings, but there was more pressure on me at The Oval. My international career and my ability against fast bowling were at stake.’
Amiss was never one to consider that the job had been done once he had three figures against his name. Of the eleven Test centuries he would make in his career, eight ended in scores of more than 150. On such a good wicket he was determined to continue batting. ‘An old coach of mine used to say to me, “Den, if you get a hundred, get another – because it makes up for all the noughts and ones. That is the way my confidence was. If I got a hundred I often got 150-plus. Also, I tell these lads now at Warwickshire, that if you get a hundred then you can really learn all about your technique and batting. You are seeing the ball early and that is when you learn shots you never thought you had.’
Settling in again, Amiss escaped when he was caught by Murray off a Daniel no-ball. Then Peter Willey slashed hard and was dropped at first slip, Daniel again the unlucky bowler. Amiss responded by caressing Holder twice past backward square leg and driving square to take the score beyond 200. Richards and Fredericks, bowling in tandem either side of tea, served up enough bad balls to allow Amiss to move relentlessly past 150. Willey, never showing the fluency he had exhibited in the fourth Test, had contributed 33 to a 128-run stand when he got an inside edge to King and saw the ball fly off his pad to Fredericks at gully. Clearly not believing that contact had been made by his bat, Willey departed in despond.
Greig was greeted by an ovation to rival that of Amiss’s century, much of it directed ironically by the West Indies fans. To add to the drama, the new ball became available almost immediately and Roberts and Holding rejoined the attack. Greig hurled himself into cover-driven fours off both bowlers and Amiss had to jerk away from a rearing Roberts delivery before waiting on a back-foot drive to raise the 300.
‘They had been bowling at about 85 miles an hour, with one bouncer an over,’ Amiss explains. ‘That was fine and we were picking up ones and twos. But as soon as Greig came to the wicket he was all, “Come on, let’s get this fired up. We are going to smash these buggers out of sight.” I was saying, “Look, it’s nice out here, don’t upset them.” Now, because it was Greig batting, suddenly it was 95 miles an hour and three bouncers an over.’
Amiss’s concerns were quickly resolved. The Oval erupted as Holding pitched on a full length and Greig, playing slightly across the line as he fell towards the off side, was bowled middle and leg. ‘It was the first time I have ever been pleased to see the England captain get his leg stump knocked out of the ground,’ laughs Amiss.
There was no containing the elation of the West Indies fans, who raced to the square from their places around the boundary. One fan even offered Greig a copy of ‘Who’s Grovelling Now’, a record that had recently been released by reggae artist Ezeike. ‘Everyone had a copy,’ recalls Trevor Nelson. ‘I remember learning all the words from my dad.’ Neither police nor ground-staff were able to clear the field of spectators who seemed reluctant to leave even after Greig was long gone. Alley and Bird took the players to the pavilion in response to what commentator Richie Benaud was calling ‘one of the lousiest crowd performances I have ever seen’. He suggested that the authorities should ‘should stick those fellows in jail and fine them’. After a nine-minute delay, the last few balls of the day were completed, with night-watchman Underwood at the crease and Amiss on 176 not out from a score of 304 for 5.
As far as anyone could remember, the pitch invasion represented the first time a Test match in England had been halted by the crowd. There had been 80 policemen on duty and Surrey secretary Warren Sillitoe estimated it would take 200 to ring the entire boundary effectively. The priority, he said, was to protect sensitive areas, such as the square and the entrance to the pavilion. Meanwhile,
