As physiotherapist to the England cricket team, Bernard Thomas was required to do rather more than tend to groin strains and pulled muscles. During the 1974-75 tour to New Zealand he saved the life of a young opponent who was making his Test debut. Ewen Chatfield, who was hit by a bouncer, could not be revived by St John Ambulance staff after he collapsed and swallowed his tongue.
Thomas had been unwell that morning and had contemplated not leaving the team’s hotel in Auckland — fortunately he did go, for there was no doctor at the ground. According to Dennis Amiss, who had been fielding in the slips, Chatfield “was going bluer and bluer in the face”. When the players spotted Thomas, they called him and “he ran on to the pitch and gave Ewen the kiss of life”. He then asked for resuscitation equipment, only to be told there was none. “It was the worst case I have seen and I never want to see another,” he said. “Ewen’s heart had stopped beating.”
Peter Lever, the paceman who should not have been bowling bouncers at New Zealand’s unprotected tail-end batsmen, was so upset that he found it difficult to play on. Weak umpiring in Australia on the initial leg of England’s tour had resulted in unchecked short-pitched bowling, with the upshot that helmets, patented by Amiss himself, were introduced not long afterwards.
Chatfield stabilised and was carried off on a stretcher. On the way to hospital, accompanied by Thomas, he opened his eyes and asked what was happening. “Don’t worry,” Thomas assured him. Chatfield suffered a hairline fracture of the skull, but recovered.
A few years later, at the Hilton in Barbados, Thomas was called in the middle of the night to try to revive Ken Barrington, the England tour manager and former batsman who had suffered a heart attack. Thomas unsuccessfully tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and a heart massage. The Test match against West Indies went ahead in the most difficult of circumstances.
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Bernard William Thomas was born in Birmingham in 1925, the son of Joe Thomas, who worked in the jewellery trade, and his wife, Gwenfron. He was the youngest of three brothers who were brought up as Methodists. They travelled all over the country to train and compete in gymnastics competitions. Bernard represented the Great Britain team at the World Gymnastics Festival in Sweden in 1949 and coached the sport — he was more attuned to gymnastics than cricket — before he became an international judge.
After Thomas left George Dixon School in Birmingham, he became an apprentice in the bookbinding trade. He was called up for National Service and joined the PT School in Germany. He was given the task of training soldiers to be mounted clowns for military tattoos, demonstrating how to vault from one side of a horse to the other. He was commended for producing the army’s “finest ever team of clowns”.
On returning to Britain he qualified as a physiotherapist and set up the Edgbaston Health Clinic in 1957 — one of the first of its kind — with his wife, Joan (née Cox), who was a physical education and dance teacher. He made sufficient money to buy a Rolls-Royce with the distinctive numberplate EHC7 — after his practice — and he ferried cricketers to matches in it. He also opened clinics in Solihull and Sutton Coldfield.
Thomas sold the clinics to pay for the care of his wife, who died from the effects of dementia in 2001. His second wife was Barbara (née Nunn), who had joined his team in 1963.
In 1965 Thomas was asked to look after Warwickshire’s players, which led to him being invited by Marylebone Cricket Club to become the physio on their tour to South Africa in 1968-69. The tour didn’t take place because of political difficulties over apartheid, but he travelled with England teams thereafter almost every year until 1985, which was made easier because he had no children to worry about. He became a friend and mentor to many players.
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Nothing fazed him and he was full of bonhomie. He also wielded a deft touch as a diplomat and acted as an intermediary when Ray Illingworth, the England captain, and David Clark, the manager, fell out during the 1970-71 tour to Australia.
In India in 1976-77 Thomas had to convince the umpires that Vaseline smeared under strips of gauze had not helped England’s bowlers to polish the ball. “It was hot and humid in Madras and Bernard thought Vaseline on the eyebrows would stop sweat running into our eyes,” said Bob Willis, the fast bowler. “Mine lasted 12 seconds and John Lever’s not a lot longer. There was nothing underhand. The Indians wanted the ball sent to a laboratory . . . but the umpires accepted Bernard’s explanation.”
Thomas maintained a high level of fitness all his life. Amiss recalls him doing a handstand on the railing of the first-floor balcony at Lord’s after Warwickshire had won the Gillette Cup in 1968. Among the fast bowlers whose careers he had extended was David Brown. “There were a lot of robber masseurs at the time who messed about,” said Brown. “The players respected Bernard because he was so fit himself.”
Bernard Thomas, physiotherapist, was born on December 19, 1925. He died on January 12, 2018, aged 92