Sweeping Willow
‘What sort of bowler is this fellow?’ the young Don Bradman asked the wicketkeeper.
‘Don’t you remember this bloke?’ came the reply. ‘He bowled you out in the exhibition match in Lithgow a few weeks ago, and has been boasting about it ever since.’
With that reminder, a 24-year-old Bradman belted 33 off Bill Black’s first eight-ball over, followed by a brutal 40, and then a judicious 27 off Black’s second effort. All up, a century in 22 deliveries, the world’s fastest century in any form of cricket.
Okay, so Blackheath Oval is not the Sydney Cricket Ground, and Bill Black is hardly Harold Larwood, but the Don confirmed his place in mythology the day he caught the train to Sydney’s Blue Mountains in 1932.
Already a hero, Don had started the game by cutting a ribbon – to open the new bitumen pitch – and finished his day-trip with 256 runs.
[Bradman’s bat, and other relics of the quick-time spectacle, are stored in the Blackheath Bowls Club on Clanwilliam Street, off Govett’s Leap Road. The club shares the block with the very oval.]
August 30th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
There’s got to be a story in Govett’s Leap. Sounds like someone got into some trouble on a holiday. There is some easy bushwalking around there I seem to remember and less crowded than around Katoomba.