Donald Bradman, Australian cricket player
Family history can lead to research about some strange peripheral subjects. In this case it was cricket. I knew that the notes in Harold's travel diary about test and scores somehow referred to the game of cricket but had no idea how. Then I looked further.
One of May's letters helped. From Adelaide on January 28, 1955, she wrote: "As a matter of fact we have also had to move which was a bit upsetting. The hotel Coops booked for us would only keep us for two nights. Most of the London Correspondents covering the Test Match are staying there. We had quite a time getting anywhere at all to stay and have finally ended up in a bungalow - beautiful garden landlady 78. She has converted part of the house into flats and rents out single rooms as well."
Test cricket must have been a big deal if newspapermen travelled all the way to Adelaide from London to cover it. Apparently, the matches were called test because they were played over 5 days thus testing the players (and the audience too, I would imagine). The matches were also international with the winning country ending up with bragging rights. In 1954-55 the Ashes series (don't ask) was played in Australia. The teams were from Australia and England, the test matches were actually 6 days long and there were 5 test matches in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and then back to Sydney. It all began November 26, 1954 in Brisbane.
Information about the third test match in Melbourne explained the note in Harold's travel diary marked January 5 which read in part, "England won 9:30 am" then some numbers I didn't understand, "Tyson shock", next line "Aussie quashed". He was following the test matches while on the ship and even complained at some points of the difficulty of finding the ongoing results.
The cryptic note "Tyson shock" was better explained by reading the write-up after the heading under Third Test of "Australia - second innings" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954%E2%80%9355_Ashes_series. It's so interesting to be able to place the information left behind by one individual into the context of a larger event, almost like walking in their shoes for a moment.
When it came to May and Harold's time in Adelaide, I would imagine that he was less upset to be ousted from the hotel than she was as she wrote to her daughter: "Confidentially up to today Dad has spent a great deal of time going from place to place in Adelaide also on the phone (we don't have one here) trying to get a ticket for today's test. He at last succeeded yesterday and has gone off this morning happily."
Also, it makes me wonder if he had purposely chosen to be in Adelaide at the time the city was hosting the test. I am starting to get a better picture of his character.
Sources:
Chambers, M.C. Letter to Mrs. C.E.B. Cavanagh written
January 28, 1955 from Glenelg near Adelaide
Image:
Donald Bradman, Australian cricket player. photo from 30s
or 40s
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=389513
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