“Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way.” Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
Stumps Day 1, Adelaide. Australia 8/326 (AT Carey 106, UT Khawaja 82) v England (JC Archer 3/29)
Wednesday. Five days out from the summer solstice and I’m woken under a blazing sky by a nudge at my back and a nudge at my head and I know that this is my old imaginary horse and I now know that today will be a big day. It has been some time since I saw my old imaginary horse that I named Clarrie Grimmett after the former Australian leg spin bowler name Clarrie Grimmett and I know that whenever he turns up that something big is going down. Test match day.
800 km to the north west a Test match starts today in free settler Adelaide and the team from England are here to play the team from Australia and they have lost the first two of a five Test series and though it can be said that with better catching from England the score could easily be reversed it can also be said that with better batting from any one of us that any one of us could be a star international player.
My imaginary horse called Clarrie Grimmett wakes me and I see that I am beside the creek and beside a fire and beside a billy that boils and I take the billy from the flame and I pour hot water into an enamel mug through a strainer of tea that has been set and arranged and prepared by Clarrie Grimmett. I am thankful.
He nudges me and he stamps his foot and I know it is time to go and he scoops me up and we canter down the street and past a man who pulls his low wrought iron gate closed and past a woman with her shopping jeep who waits on the shade of a liquidambar and past a man in striped shorts who waters his garden and at the end of the street, Clarrie Grimmett nods once and leaps into the air. We are up. We are away.
My imaginary flying horse called Clarrie Grimmett flies us now across the sun-kissed drought lands west of Melbourne and flies us over Gariwerd and flies us over the River Murray and lands us by the Moreton Bay fig trees at the Adelaide Oval.
Adelaide. Australia brings in PC Cummins and NM Lyon and UT Khawaja and omits MG Neser and B Doggett and SPD Smith (vertigo) and wins the toss and elects to bat and with Adelaide-summer-heat forecast for Days 1 and 2 and it is a very good toss to win. Clarrie Grimmett steps his foot.
The first 8 overs from England are a dog’s breakfast and after 8 overs Australia is 0/33 and playing without any difficulty whatsoever as BA Carse bowls too erratically to benefit from his rare moments of excellent swing and it appears to be a day for Australian batsmen to pile on the runs. Clarrie Grimmett swallows.
In the next over JB Weatherald simply gets himself out as he spars at an unthreatening short ball from JC Archer that perhaps surprises him with pace but ends in the easiest of catches to wicketkeeper JL Smith. It is wicket out of the blue. 1/33. Doors open, doors close.
In the next over another wicket falls from the sky for England when latter-day run machine and home-town boy TM Head pushes his bottom hand through a speculative reach-for-it drive against BA Carse only for Z Crawley to take an excellent diving catch at point. 2/33. Clarrie Grimmett shivers. Both openers gone.
M Labuschagne and the recalled UT Khawaja are at the crease for Australia with work to be done and though the English bowling is not threatening much batting takes place between the ears.
At 2/50 the sixteenth over is bowled by JC Tongue to UT Khawaja and the third ball catches UT Khawaja in two minds and he toe-ends the ball and the fouth ball is a juicy half-volley that UT Khawaja bizarrely defends and so when the next ball comes full-ish then UT Khawaja throws everything at it but the ball is too short and too wide for the drive and UT Khawaja on 3 gets only a thick edge that flies at waist height to the slips where so-called generational talent HC Brook drops a sitter. One door opens, another door closes.
At 2/61 England’s talismanic captain BA Stokes traps Labuschagne right in front but the appeal and DRS review for lbw are denied by the merest edge onto pad. Another door opens, another door closes.
WG Jacks is brought into the attack before lunch on day one to bowl his part time offbreaks and he goes for 17 off two. Australia 2/94 at lunch (M Labuschagne 19* UT Khawaja 41*). Pretty even. Clarrie Grimmett leads me to the shade.
First ball after lunch with the hot day ahead and the sting out of the wicket and all the time in the world to knuckle down under bright blue skies and M Labuschagne receives a short-ish one from JC Archer and inexplicably he gifts the softest catch imaginable to BC Carse at mid wicket. 3/94. Clarrie Grimmett shakes his mane.
Third ball after lunch with the hot day ahead and the sting out of the wicket and all the time in the world to knuckle down under bright blue skies and CD Green receives a full-ish one from JC Archer and he inexplicably pushes his bottom hand through a needless prod and gifts the softest catch imaginable to BC Carse at mid wicket. Again. 4/94. I close my eyes. At the other end UT Khawaja looks good and he looks good between balls and he looks relaxed and he looks loose and he is joined in the middle by wicketkeeper AT Carey who today bats at number six.
The middle session needs some rebuilding now for Australia and rebuilding is exactly what UT Khawaja and AT Carey set about doing and an edge from UT Khawaja falls well short of the slips and whether that be from soft hands or soft pitch we cannot tell and the fifty partnership comes up and UT Khawaja looks to dominate hapless spinner WG Jacks and clobber him all over the place despite not always getting to the pitch of the ball and despite some shots looking a little premeditated or a little forced and now with just two overs remaining in the session UT Khawaja is beaten by spin as the ball turns past him and next ball UT Khawaja throws everything at a slog-sweep but mis-reads the length and merely pops up a catch to JC Tongue at deep backward square leg. 5/185. My imaginary flying horse called Clarrie Grimmett blinks.
Players come off for tea with Australia 5/194 and AT Carey 48 and JP Inglis 5.
Back after tea and a good long stretch of a hot day ahead and the sting out of the wicket and all the time in the world to knuckle down under bright blue skies and third over back and first ball JC Archer has a big appeal for LBW against AT Carey on 52 and last ball AT Carey cracks it hard into the offside and is dropped by BC Carse. Tough chance. Another door opens, another door closes.
AT Carey and JP Inglis with all the time in the world to bat now start to throw their bats in the modern way not the preferred way of knuckling down and three balls after driving on the up through fourth slip for a boundary JP Inglis is actually dismissed by JC Tongue as the ball deflects from JP Inglis’s bat onto his stumps. 6/244. The first true dismissal of the day.
Next over from JC Tongue and AT Carey on 72 seems to get an edge behind but survives the reviewed decision. 6/245. Doors everywhere open and close in a flurry.
BC Carse is thrown the ball and in his first over back he snares PC Cummins who is caught by OJD Pope at bat pad and remains out even after the Australian skipper seeks a review of the decision. 7/271. AT Carey 85*
Australia’s highest scoring batsmen from Brisbane arrives at the crease to join AT Carey and MA Starc gets to work and runs continue to flow and as AT Carey enters the 90s it is with great theatre that the England captain brings himself back on to bowl and so it is from the bowling of BA Stokes that AT Carey drives through the covers to reach his century. Clarrie Grimmett whinnies.
AT Carey and MA Starc milk runs from a fading England fielding side and then AT Carey top edges a slog sweep and is caught by the keeper JL Smith. 8/321.
NM Lyon joins MA Starc in the middle for Australia and though the new ball is taken and renewed energy brought from England and the day ends without further incident. MA Starc 33*, NM Lyon 0*
I look to my old imaginary flying horse and I shake my head. A confusing day. A day of wasted chances, of many doors, of more things we don’t know than we do. People will seek to explain this day as if it made sense, but it did not. As if it was cause and effect were involved. But no. We will never know. This was simply a wonderful day. Clarrie Grimmett steps his foot. He smiles.
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About David Wilson
David Wilson is a hydrologist, climate reporter and writer of fiction & observational stories. He writes under the name “E.regnans” at The Footy Almanac and has stories in several books. One of his stories was judged as a finalist in the Tasmanian Writers’ Prize 2021. He shares the care of two daughters and likes to walk around feeling generally amazed. Favourite tree: Eucalyptus regnans.
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DW Wonderful days play. And it will be a hard day today in the field today for Oz. Can see Lyon doing the Lions work.
This is brilliant. Thanks David
A lovely read. Being there without listening to the expert commentary, it was hard for me to fathom as well. A confident start, two quick wickets, the debacle after lunch, and the Carey century was a bit of a roller coaster.