Almanac Cricket: Ashley Woodcock

 

Ashley Woodcock, coach of Adelaide University Cricket, taken in 2017. He was then 70.

 

When Ashley Woodcock stepped onto the field for South Australia, his mother Louisa, a constant pillar of support, kept score via a radio perched atop the kitchen bench in their eastern suburbs Adelaide home. Some days, Louisa lingered longer, her heart tied to her son’s fortunes at the crease. The ABC’s ball-by-ball Shield commentary, a lifeline to the games, filled their home, symbolising the profound and emotional role of the family in Ashley’s cricket story.

 

Woodcock, a one-time Australian opener, was a master of precision in his batting. His meticulous preparation and controlled strokes starkly contrasted with the thunderous power of some of his contemporaries. Woodcock’s finesse, rather than flamboyance, was his trademark in the Chappell era, earning him one Test cap and a tour to New Zealand. However, his career eventually faded like a gas light slowly being extinguished, leaving a trail of questions about his untapped potential.

 

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The tennis court at the back of Ashley Woodcock’s family home was the perfect place to practice with his older brother, Stephen. However, seven years separated the two, and Ashley sometimes resorted to training with school friends in a concreted area with a water tank with chalk-drawn stumps. While cricket was not the prime focus, Ashley’s father, Bert, played a pivotal role in his development. He underscored the value of an even temperament, concentration, and the need to capitalise on strengths. He also introduced Ashley to visualising scoring runs, a technique that would prove invaluable in his career. The MCC cricket coaching guide also came in handy when learning the finer aspects of technique.

 

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Ashley moved from Marryatville Primary School to Prince Alfred College (PAC) in the latter stages of junior school. By then, Ian Chappell, who had already made a name for himself at the school, occasionally appeared to coach the younger PAC players. Ashley recalled, ‘Ian was a bit of a hero even then, and I later became friends with Greg when he came to PAC in Year 10, so I went to the Chappell house at Glenelg a lot when I was at school.’

 

Woodcock’s move to open the batting came about through frustration. When PAC under 13’s coach, Bill Leak (a former South Australian player), asked for volunteers, Ashley eagerly raised his hand. He’d spent the previous season watching his teammates Brian Dixon and Ian Rudd bat all day and wanted the chance to bat.

 

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Despite the beauty of the manicured ovals at Prince Alfred College, Kensington and later Parkinson Ovals became Ashley’s spiritual home. On Monday and Wednesday nights, he’d train at PAC and, on Tuesday, watch the senior players at the local club, admiring the skills of Neil Dansie, ‘Chops’ Mutton, Bob Lloyd, and one Test player Rex Sellers. Ashley often positioned himself behind the nets and helped Stan Brine, the equipment manager, pack up when practice ended. During these moments of observation and admiration, an ambition to play for Kensington A-grade was born.

 

Kensington appearances were restricted to school holidays, and PAC commitments held sway. He first wore the Browns cap during the annual under-16 schoolboys’ championship in 1961 and appeared in three carnivals to 1963. Former South Adelaide footballer and Kensington A-grade wicketkeeper Joe Tyney coached the side, then later Graham Horlin-Smith. Ashley’s senior cricket career at Kensington began against Salisbury under the watchful gaze of C-grade captain Keith Hodder and future club president Jim Gross opening the bowling.

 

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The former  South Australian Shield captain Chester Bennett coached PAC’s first eleven, who played in the B-grade district competition. Bennett was an ideal shaper of young minds. His intelligence, gentle manner, technical know-how, and cut-through style were perfect for players like Ashley, who were deep thinkers about the game. Bennett sometimes bowled to the players in the nets, adding a less formal approach as he imbued a more sophisticated layer of understanding and knowledge of technique and the game.

 

Four years in the PAC first eleven (1962, 63, 64, and 65) followed; however, Ashley debuted for Kensington A-grade against a ‘yapping’ Glenelg in Year 11 during the school holidays in the summer of 1963/64. Senior teammate Brian Pittman’s reassuring words helped the youngster to settle. Always curious, Woodcock finished Year 12 and worked as a clerk at the Reserve Bank in Victoria Square.

 

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Above two images of Ashley Woodcock batting in an A-grade fixture against Glenelg in the late 1960s.

 

 

Having played half of the 1965/66 season in the As, disappointment followed when Woodcock managed a pair in the semi-final against Woodville, snicking off to the keeper in both innings. After a winter of discontent, Woodcock consolidated his place in the Kensington A-grade with a century against Salisbury in November 1966. As milestones passed, Bob Lloyd egged the 18-year-old onto three figures; then another hundred followed against Adelaide. The following year, Woodcock was selected in a state Under-23 squad under former County professional Ernie Clifton and the State coach (who represented the SACA at coaching clinics around the state). The team trained at the nets at the back of the Member’s stand at Adelaide Oval. Batting on flat, hard pitches in front of the state selectors, Cec Starr, Phil Ridings, and Sir Donald Bradman, was sometimes intimidating.

 

Woodcock’s main takeaway was, ‘If Bradman thinks I can play, then maybe I can.’

 

News of his selection for South Australia to play the touring Indians in 1967/68 came via a letter from the SACA. The presence of three other PAC alma mater – Ian and Greg Chappell, and Brian Hurn – provided reassurance as he walked into the Adelaide Oval dressing room on the first morning.

 

Woodcock’s maiden run in first-class cricket came via an overthrow, having played the ball into the gully. He was on his way to 56 on debut. A valuable lesson was learned at the start of the following summer when he was unavailable because of exams (Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Physical Education at Adelaide University). Paul Galloway played and consolidated his position as an opening batsman with John Causby. Woodcock sat on the Adelaide Oval hill and watched, thinking he’d blown his chances.  He worked his way back into the side in the middle order, but a lesson had been learned. It was reinforced when South Australia’s captain Les Favell took him aside, ‘Never allow anyone a chance to take your place in the team’. The summer of 1969/70 proved a breakthrough. Woodcock appeared in the leading batting aggregates for the first time, scoring  531 runs at 35. A first-class century against New South Wales took 243 minutes, with fifteen boundaries. Three figures hadn’t come easily, with chances given at 18 and 25 as South Australia waltzed to a 195-run win. Starts were finally being converted. Having played first-class cricket for a few seasons, Woodcock was getting to know the bowlers on the domestic circuit and how best to play them. During the long, hot, drawn-out summer of 1970/71, the MCC traversed Australia under Ray Illingworth’s canny guidance. By then, Les Favell had retired, and Australia’s number three, Ian Chappell, was captain of the state side. Chappell inherited Favell’s aggressive approach to the game, leading from the front and backing his players to the hilt. Woodcock loved playing under Chappell, as it gave him a license to play his natural game. Under Chappell, the side became even more unified, spending hours after stumps sitting in the dressing room sharing beers and lessons learned. Woodcock scored six half-centuries, including a ton against the MCC, where he matched Barry Richards run-for-run in an opening stand of 250 before retiring hurt. Exams meant that Woodcock missed Richards’ 356 at the WACA.

 

Selected to play for Australia for the Fifth Test against the Rest of the World in 1971/72, Woodcock managed just 5 and 16 (caught off the buckle of his pad in the second innings). Even so, he had tasted international cricket and walked away knowing he could play Test cricket. The main memory of the match?

 

‘Standing at cover watching Graeme Pollock’s cover drives effortlessly pierce the field.’

 

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As Christmas 1973 approached, scores of 67 against New Zealand and 141 against Western Australia in the New Year helped earn baggy green honours for the Third Test against the tourists at Adelaide Oval.  The memories arrive in snatches. A letter from Alan Barnes, the Australian Cricket Board secretary, inviting him to play for Australia and picking up his cap, blazer, jumper, and tie at the SACA office at the Adelaide Oval.

 

The thermometer tipped 37.4 degrees as a small crowd, eventually reaching 9,682, wandered into the Adelaide Oval. There was a ripple of applause when Woodcock and Keith Stackpole appeared through the gate, quickly adjusting their eyes to the sun sneaking through the clouds.

 

The first ball from New Zealand, Dayle Hadlee, struck the debutante on the pad.

 

Luckily the umpire,  Jack Collins, stood motionless

 

‘My heart was in my mouth,’ Woodcock recalled.

 

Having comfortably reached 27, he tried to punch Lance Cairns off the back foot. The ball moved back off a length, and he edged to Coney at slip.

 

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At the end of that long, nervous day, Woodcock sat in the Australian dressing room with the windows open, beer in hand, his bare feet on the ledge, enjoying the cooling breeze. He wondered what might have been as the pressmen nearby clattered on typewriters on hard wooden desks, filing reports while the crowd ambled out. The sound of cans being crunched echoed from the hill as a smoky haze from the members dissipated.

 

Australia’s eventual total of 477 (including Rod  Marsh’s 132 and Kerry Okeeffe’s 85) outflanked New Zealand’s scores of 218 and 202 despite the fourth day being washed out and 95 minutes lost from the final day’s play.

 

Woodcock had shown enough to be selected for Australia’s forty-day three-Test tour of New Zealand.

 

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Across the Tasman, the seaming wickets were testing. Woodcock often edged to slips, troubled by the ball moving off damp pitches. Starts were achieved, but not much more.  His highlights were a half-century in a one-day international and rooming with the Victorian opener Ian Redpath. Australia drew the series 1-1, although New Zealand won its first Test since 1969, courtesy of Glenn Turner’s dual centuries at Lancaster Park, Christchurch.

 

The weather in Otago for the provincial match was so cold that the Australians fielded with their hands in their pockets, hoping the batsmen wouldn’t get a nick. One day, they wore tracksuits under their whites.

 

Australia’s vice-captain Stackpole, struggling with his form and injury, offered to step down for the final Test to allow Woodcock to open. Ian Chappell could have gone either way, but third selector, Rod Marsh, was adamant that Stackpole play – which he did, scoring a pair in his final Test match.

 

A pall hung over the Australian Test squad when they heard that young Victorian opener and VFL player Robert Rose was paralysed after a car accident in country Victoria. The team manager, Frank Bryant, broke the news.

 

Returning to Australia, Woodcock vowed to tighten his technique, become mentally resilient, and learn to temper his attacking strokes until he settled at the crease.

 

‘In hindsight, I should have asked my teammates for advice.’

 

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Having finished an Arts degree (majoring in Asian history — Chinese and Japanese) and a Physical Education diploma, Woodcock returned to a new full-time job at St Peters College in Adelaide. Despite high hopes of playing against the visiting England team in 1974/75, scores of 34, 26, 0, 12, 66, and 99 leading into the First Test saw the attacking Western Australian Wally Edwards preferred. Edwards’s 153 against New South Wales has swayed the selectors.

 

After scoring an avalanche of runs for New South Wales, Rick McCosker eventually replaced Wally Edwards and consolidated the opening spot alongside Ian Redpath. A season after opening the batting for Australia, Test cricket seemed a long way away.

 

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On a cracked WACA pitch in 1975/76, a blow to the elbow from a riled-up Dennis Lillee saw Woodcock retire hurt after six balls in the second innings; the injury would cause problems for several years.

 

A  season later, promotion to the South Australian captaincy revealed his value in the state set-up, if only briefly (Woodcock’s summer was abridged by injury to four games). When Terry Jenner decided to play for Kilburn in the suburban competition, and Ashley Mallett retired to concentrate on journalism after the Eastern States tour in November, the squad was significantly depleted (all following Ian Chappell’s departure to play district cricket for North Melbourne).

 

Ironically, Woodcock attended a meeting with senior cricket administrators, Australian Cricket Board Chairman Bob Parish, Deputy Tim Caldwell and Treasurer Ray Steele, as well as other state captains, at the ACB headquarters at Jolimont on March 10 1977, just two days before the Centenary Test. Items on the agenda included sponsorship, playing conditions and future tours. Woodcock was the only captain whom Kerry Packer hadn’t approached to play World Series Cricket. It must have been hard for the other state leaders, Greg Chappell (Queensland),  Rod Marsh – filling in for John Inverarity (Western Australia), Doug Walters ( New South Wales) and Richie Robinson (Victoria), to keep straight faces during the meeting.

 

During the summer of 1977/78, and despite having surgery on his left elbow, Woodcock was restricted to two first-class appearances, one against New South Wales and one against the touring Indians. Tony Shinkfield, the first layperson to become the headmaster at St Peter’s, encouraged study overseas. Woodcock played three games for South Australia when England toured Australia in 1978/79—a double century for Kensington in the district semi-final, a reminder of what he could produce. However, he was dropped from the state squad for 1979/80. By then, at 32, and with his first-class career stalling, coaching and study opportunities overseas looked even more appealing.

 

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By today’s standards, Woodcock’s first-class average of 31 is modest (down from the low 40s before Test selection). Did he struggle against spin bowling, as once suggested? There’s no evidence to suggest so. Woodcock recalled, ‘I had trouble picking up Jim Higgs, who had this habit of placing his arm behind his back just before he delivered the ball. But aside from that, I  was never worried that playing spin bowlers would be my downfall.’

 

In 1981, Woodcock studied exercise and sports psychology at Kansas State University. A PhD in decision-making and motivation at Arizona State University followed his marriage to Frances (whom he met through an old teammate’s sister in Adelaide in 1982). In 1988, after returning from the US, he coached basketball and cricket at Westminster College before becoming head of Phys Ed at Pultney Grammar School. When a position to teach at the University of Newcastle arrived in 1991, Woodcock jumped at the opportunity, where he also played a role in assisting in coaching the Newcastle Falcons basketball side in the NBL. He returned to South Australia in 1994 to take up the  Head of PE at Woodlands Girls School. Eighteen months later, he moved to the University of South Australia, Underdale campus, to lecture before heading to La Trobe University in Bendigo in 1998, where he stayed for 13 years.  He moved back to Adelaide in 2010 and took on stints coaching Adelaide University and Kensington, as well as at the Darren Lehmann and Jason Gillespie Academies.

 

Ashley, aged 77, now lives in Alberton and coaches the PAC development program. His daughters, Kristen, a teacher, and Caitlyn, a social worker, have followed Ashley and Fran (a former nurse) into careers involving caring for and educating people.

 

All images are from private sources.

 

 

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