Neil Manthorp in Nottingham Cricket
Napoleon may have been a great general but it doesn’t mean to say he would have been as successful today as he was then. Nonetheless, the study of Napoleon remains as intrinsic to the modern soldier as it is to the student of European history. The same applies in sport and life because there is always something to be learned from the past. Inspiration is as likely to be sought and found from Napoleon’s achievements today as it was then.
In South African cricket terms, Nottingham’s Trent Bridge in 1965 provided the Waterloo and there were two Napoleons. Two Pollocks, actually. Graeme and Peter. The victory, in the second Test of three, was instrumental in shaping the future success of the game at home.
Peter’s fast away swingers earned him match figures of 10-87 and Graeme scored a century so dazzling, so lithe yet lethal, that it is still talked about today as though it was scored last year. South Africa won the Test by 94 runs and then held off an extraordinary run chase from England in the third Test at the Oval to win the series 1-0.
“It marked a turning point in South African cricket because the guys who played from 1965 until we were isolated became a very, very good team,” Peter recalls. “We arrived without Trevor Goddard and Tony Pithey from our first choice line-up but we overcame that. The fact that we won here, and then held on in the last Test, meant so much to South African cricket. The England side was an especially strong one and we hadn’t won a series here since 1935. It really was quite a match, too.”
It certainly was. South Africa batted first and were soon in terrible trouble before the country’s greatest left- hander brutalised the home side’s bowlers to score 125 at almost a run a minute to help the total to a respectable 269 all out.
England replied with 240, thanks to 105 from Colin Cowdrey and 5-53 from the bowling Pollock.
Runs were again hard to come by in the second innings but the tourists managed to add another 289 to their first innings lead of 29; Ali Bacher (67), Eddie Barlow (76) and Graeme Pollock (59) did the bulk of the work.
England needed 319 to win but Peter Pollock was having none of it and figures of 5-34 won the game and gave him his career-best match analysis. So what are his immediate memories?
“We were 43-4 in our first innings. In those days I was very superstitious about watching Graeme so I sat in the back of the dressing room and kept hearing the wickets fall. The team used to take it in turns to entertain me, play cards with me, that sort of thing. Peter van der Merwe then got together with Graeme and braved it out.”
“Graeme was so important to the side and for some reason we had come to think I was a jinx on him. Anyway, after he got his century I finally allowed myself on to the balcony and he was promptly out. Needless to say it was back to Siberia for me for the next few years!”
Peter Pollock also remembers vividly England’s use of a nightwatchman (Fred Titmus) in the first innings and two nightwatchmen (Titmus and John Snow) in the second. “We had them 50 for five second time around and they still had all their batsmen to come!” he laughs. Of his own performance, Peter remembers dismissing Ken Barrington and Geoff Boycott before the close of play on the first day – two fine scalps in any circumstances but made more special because the match started on August 5, birthday of Graeme and Peter’s mother.
Being national selection convenor is a job that requires plenty of harsh realism from Peter these days, and not much room for romanticism. But he is a father, for goodness sake, and it is his own son playing .
“If you’d said to me in 1965 that I’d be here 33 years later watching my own son play for South Africa I, err, it is very, special . he said it’d be nice to bowl first and get seven wickets and then four in the second innings so he could beat me. I said `well, you might as well score a hundred as well and beat your uncle at the same time!'”
Shaun Pollock, as always, is keeping his feet firmly attached to the outfield and trying not to let the family hype affect him. But it’s not that simple.
“I’d heard about the Trent Bridge Test while I was growing up at home but it wasn’t that much of an issue. It became an enormous issue when we came here earlier in the tour, though. Everybody in the ground seemed to have been here in 1965, too. There were hundreds of people telling me what an incredible performance it was from both of them. They all wished me well, which was kind of them!”
There is, fortunately, no need to worry about Pollock Jnr suffering under the weight of expectation. He is able to laugh at the prospect of attempting to emulate one, or both of the 1965 Pollock performances. Even more reassuringly, he isn’t silly enough to say it can’t be done. He has the confidence and, as we have said for a year or more now, he has the talent. Asked which performance he would prefer to repeat, he flashes his white-toothed grin and laughs: “Well, if you’re giving me a choice then I’ll take both, thanks!”
A moment’s consideration prompts a rethink: “Actually, I’d take the century to get [Pat] Symcox off my back . the members of `Test Century Club’ are really giving me a hard time these days!”
Conditions in 1998 will be different – inevitably – from 1965. Shaun Pollock is the first to recognise that but remains optimistic that the playing surface will offer something to him in both roles.
“I expect England will ask for a bit of grass to be left on the track because they need a result. It wouldn’t make any sense for them to prepare a `main road’ (batsman’s wicket) but it is one of the better batting surfaces around the country so the bowlers will have to work hard. But I’m feeling very strong and there has been no recurrence of my thigh strain. I’m quite prepared to work hard!”
Finally, just in case you were wondering, Peter did finally overcome his superstitions and was able, years later, to watch Graeme bat. “I watched him score his 274 against Australia at Kingsmead in 1970, so I know he could bat a bit .”