Arthur Morris played the innings of his life to score 196 out of Australia’s 389 on a “sticky wicket” to help them to victory against England at the Oval in 1948. The tragedy of it was that the innings coincided with Don Bradman being bowled out for nought in his final test innings. “If I’d got 450 I don’t think people would have realised I was playing,” laughed the stylish left-hander.
Morris was already wreaking havoc when Bradman joined him, and he had the best view of all as Bradman trudged back to the pavilion after the most famous “duck” in Test cricket — one that prevented him from finishing his illustrious career with an average of 100. He recalled that when “the Don” arrived at the crease England players gathered round and sang For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow. When he was bowled out shortly afterwards by a “wrong ‘un” from Eric Hollies, Morris remembered “complete silence” before a lone voice piped up: “Jolly well bowled, Eric”.
Morris’s brilliance that day was not lost on Bradman. “Considering the situation and the state of the wicket, I doubt it a more valuable innings has ever been played,” he said.
On that first Ashes series in England after the war, watched by record-breaking crowds, Morris also distinguished himself when batting with Bradman in the third Test at Headingley. Australia had been set 404 to win with less than a day to get them. Morris scored a 182 (Bradman made 173 not out) to win the game for Australia, breaking the record for the biggest run chase to win a Test match in England. The record still stands today. The achievement was all the more impressive given that Morris had to contend with Jim Laker on a dusty and deteriorating wicket.
Morris led the counter attack by scoring many of his runs with backfoot lofted drives off the bowling of Denis Compton. It was a key moment in the legend-building of a side that came away from England with a 4-0 victory earning them the tag, the “Invincibles”. By the end of the tour, Morris had outscored even Bradman, with 696 runs at an average of 87.
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Morris and Bradman were close friends. Bradman, the captain, even made Morris a selector for the 1948 tour. They shared similar quiet temperaments that were ideal for Test cricket and averaged 108 as a partnership. Like Bradman, Morris was short and compact with powerful forearms, but unlike Bradman, he was unorthodox, playing the ball well away from his pads and shuffling across his stumps to gain leverage for leg side shots. “Technically, it is wrong but he seldom makes an error,” Bradman said of him.
During the Ashes in Australia in 1951, England’s medium pace swing bowler Alec Bedser got Morris out four times, and the press gave Morris the nickname “Bedser’s Bunny”. Morris delivered the perfect riposte to his critics by scoring 206 in the fourth Test match in Adelaide.
He was loved for his genial sportsmanship and dry wit. Once asked what cricket had given him, he replied instantly: “poverty”. Not everyone appreciated his slightly off-beat demeanour. Morris was sacked as captain of New South Wales because the committee disapproved of his brightly coloured suede shoes and the rather jaunty cut of his jacket.
Another Australian great, Neil Harvey, recalled a Test match against South Africa when Morris sacrificed his wicket when on 99 during a mix up that led to a run out. “It was one of his great acts as a gentleman. He didn’t have to do it. And it was my fault.”
On tour to England in 1953 the Ashes were lost, but Morris gained a wife. He met the showgirl Valerie Hudson, who was appearing in the Crazy Gang revue at the Victoria Palace Theatre. After a short courtship, the couple married. On his final Australian tour to the West Indies in 1954-55 she discovered that she had breast cancer, but did not tell her husband because she did not want to distract him. Realising that she was dying, he retired from Test cricket and brought his wife back to Britain, with the financial help of the Australian captain Lindsay Hasset, so that she could say goodbye to her family. He took a job as a cricket reporter for the Daily Express. She died soon afterwards. He married a second time in 1968 to Judith Menmuir. She survives him.
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His good natured rivalry with Bedser, who became a close friend, typified a more corinthian age. Once after bowling him out, Bedser presented Morris with the book, Better Cricket: “I hope this will help you,” he said. Morris exacted revenge by clean bowling Bedser in the third Test at Old Trafford in 1953 — one of only two Test wickets he ever took. As they walked off arm in arm, Morris proclaimed “I have to look after my bunny”.
Arthur Morris, Australian cricketer, was born on January 19, 1922. He died on August 22, 2015, aged 93