DISTANT MEMORY
AT the recent Boxing Day test at a packed MCG, I met up with a schooldays pal from my early hometown, Mortlake. I hadn’t seen him for many years, but a particular memory was still vivid. As 16-year-olds in the mid-50s, we came by train to Melbourne for the Ashes test. Neither of us had ever been to the city, and as the train approached Spencer Street, we gazed in awe at the ‘skyscrapers’—then about 20 floors high, not like the hundreds of today. We stayed at an old but clean pub in Spencer Street for a pound a day, including meals. The Flinders Street trains to the test were just around the corner. It was a hard fought, thrilling test with some of the immortals of the game: Miller, Lindwall, and Harvey for Australia, and Hutton, Tyson, and Statham for England. The MCG capacity was limited to 60,000 as the northern stand was being built. It was packed each day with a total attendance of just over 300,000 (the recent boxing day test attracted a new record of 375,000). The game was played in extreme temperatures of the high 30s each day. Frank Tyson, one of the fastest bowlers ever, wrecked the Aussies on the final day to push England towards Ashes victory.
***
Walking through Yarra Park with teeming throng on day two, we realised we were just behind Len Hutton, the English captain and WWII hero, and the legendary cricket and music writer of the Manchester Guardian Neville Cardus. It was like walking with the gods. Just before reaching the turnstiles, I was game enough to ask for their autographs and they obliged. Hutton and teammate Denis Compton were great friends of Australia’s greatest ever all-rounder Keith Miller who was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain. Hutton and Miller were my boyhood cricket idols. At The Oval in London in 1938, Hutton scored 364 against Bradman’s Australians—a record that still stands. Overall, that visit to the big city all those years ago was a remarkable experience for a couple of naive bush kids.
***
SON OF A GUN

Michael Vaughan was a fine batsman and one of England’s great modern era captains. He led his country to a historic Ashes victory in 2005 in one of the best series ever. Now, son Archie is making his own name in country cricket with the teenager to lead England in the next Under 19 World Cup. A teammate will be 16-year-old Rocky Flintoff, son of Andrew (Freddie) Flintoff, the dashing all-rounder.

Rocky Flintoff may be young, but he is already built like his famous dad. He is the youngest player ever to debut for Lancashire in the English championship.
***
VARIA

Kilmore resident George Galea and his wife Denise recently made a road trip by car to Perth and back. One of many highlights was a visit to the Sir Reginald Ansett Transport Museum in Hamilton in Western Victoria. George was a bus driver with Seymour Coaches, a career that saw him travel up and down the east coast on Charter Tours and 18 Day Cairns Tours. He also drove school buses for a number of years. During the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, he drove the ‘media’ from A to B around various Darling Harbour venues and to the main Olympic Stadium at Homebush. George commented that his bus and coach driving career commenced in 1989 until his retirement in 2020. On many occasions, George drove ACK cricket and footy teams to away venues and was often called on to act as an official.
***

Ken and Rosemary McDonald of Wallan East are fine people. Both have led interesting and fulfilling lives and are rightly proud of their family. A son, now successful in business in Perth, attended ACK and was a very good tennis player. A daughter, now residing in Hidden Valley, worked for the Royal Family in the UAE. She met many celebrities, including the late Michael Jackson.
***
Frank Ryan was a highly respected doctor in Kilmore for many years. He and wife Ana and their family impacted on the life and times of Kilmore. Now residents of Torquay, where Frank is a keen surfer at Jan Juc, the proud parents sent me a family photograph of children, spouses and grandchildren.
