Bradman,+Sir+Donald

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 * **Orientation: ** Establishes the name of the person, when and where they were born, their early family life and made them a famous person. ||  Sir Donald Bradman is an Australian sporting hero.

His achievements on the cricket field from 1928 to 1948 are still among the world's best.

He's the only Australian ever knighted for services to the game of cricket.

//"I am quite certain he was the best cricketer ever to walk onto a cricket ground in any part of the whole wide world." (Bill O'Reilly - former Test Cricketer)//

The boy who became a cricket legend was born in 1908. His family lived in the country, not far from Sydney.

Don Bradman was a small boy who was very quick on his feet. || Donald George Bradman was born on 27 August 1908 in the NSW country town of Cootamundra, moving to Bowral in the Southern Highlands of NSW two and a half years later with his family. He attended Bowral Public School and spent many hours during his childhood playing backyard cricket with a golf ball and a cricket stump. As a teenager Bradman played cricket for his school and county, coming to the attention of state and national selectors. In 1928 Bradman made his Test cricket debut for Australia, which was the beginning of his celebrated and record-breaking career. ||
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 * ^  ||  Sir Donald Bradman of Australia was, beyond any argument, the greatest batsman who ever lived and the greatest cricketer of the 20th century. Only WG Grace, in the formative years of the game, even remotely matched his status as a player. And The Don lived on into the 21st century, more than half-a-century after he retired. In that time, his reputation not merely as a player but as an administrator, selector, sage and cricketing statesman only increased. His contribution transcended sport; his exploits changed Australia's relationship to what used to be called the "mother country". Throughout the 1930s and '40s Bradman was the world's master cricketer, so far ahead of everyone else that comparisons became pointless. In 1930, he scored 974 runs in the series, 309 of them in one amazing day at Headingley, and in seven Test series against England he remained a figure of utter dominance; Australia lost the Ashes only once, in 1932-33, when England were so spooked by Bradman that they devised a system of bowling, Bodyline, that history has damned as brutal and unfair, simply to thwart him. He still averaged 56 in the series. In all, he went to the crease 80 times in Tests, and scored 29 centuries. He needed just four in his last Test innings, at The Oval in 1948, to ensure an average of 100 ­- but was out second ball for 0, a rare moment of human failing that only added to his everlasting appeal. Bradman made all those runs at high speed in a manner that bewildered opponents and entranced spectators. Though his batting was not classically beautiful, it was always awesome. As Neville Cardus put it, he was a devastating rarity: "A genius with an eye for business." **Matthew Engel**

Sir Donald George Bradman was, without any question, the greatest phenomenon in the history of cricket, indeed in the history of all ball games. To start with, he had a deep and undying love of cricket, as well, of course, as exceptional natural ability. It was always said he could have become a champion at squash or tennis or golf or billiards, had he preferred them to cricket. The fact that, as a boy, he sharpened his reflexes and developed his strokes by hitting golf ball with a cricket stump as it rebounded off a water tank attests to his eye, fleetness of foot and, even when young, his rare powers of concentration. Bradman himself was of the opinion that there were other batsmen, contemporaries of his, who had the talent to be just as prolific as he was but lacked the concentration. Stan McCabe, who needed a particular challenge to bring the best of him, was no doubt one of them. "I wish I could bat like that", Bradman's assessment of McCabe's 232 in the Trent Bridge Test of 1938, must stand with W.G.'s "Give me Arthur" [Shrewsbury], when asked to name the best batsman he had played with, as the grandest tribute ever paid by one great cricketer to another. So, with the concentration and the commitment and the calculation and the certainty that were synonymous with Bradman, went a less obvious but no less telling humility. He sought privacy and attracted adulation. How did anyone ever get him out? The two bowlers to do it most often, if sometimes at horrendous cost, were both spinners--Clarrie Grimmett, who had ten such coups to his credit with leg-breaks and googlies, and Hedley Verity, who also had ten, eight of them for England. Is there anything, I wonder, to be deduced from this? Both, for example, had a flattish trajectory, which may have deterred Bradman from jumping out to drive, something he was always looking to do. Grimmett was not, in fact, the only wrist-spinner to make the great man seem, at times, almost mortal. Bill O'Reilly was another--Bradman called him the finest and therefore, presumably, the most testing bowler he played against--as were Ian Peebles and Walter Robins; and it was with a googly that Eric Hollies bowled him for a duck in his last Test innings, at The Oval in 1948, when he was within four runs of averaging 100 in Test cricket. Perhaps, very occasionally, he did have trouble reading wrist-spin; but that, after all, is its devious purpose. By his own unique standards, Bradman was discomfited by Bodyline, the shameless method of attack which Douglas Jardine employed to depose him in Australia in 1932-33. Discomfited, yes--but he still averaged 56.57 in the Test series. If there really is a blemish on his amazing record it is, I suppose, the absence of a significant innings on one of those "sticky dogs" of old, when the ball was hissing and cavorting under a hot sun following heavy rain. This is not to say he couldn't have played one, but that on the big occasion, when the chance arose, he never did. His dominance on all other occasions was absolute. R. C. Robertson-Glasgow called the Don "that rarest of Nature's creatures, a genius with an eye for business." He could be 250 not out and yet still scampering the first run to third man or long leg with a view to inducing a fielding error. Batsmen of today would be amazed had they seen it, and better cricketers for having done so. It may be apocryphal, but if, to a well-wisher, he did desire his 309 not out on the first day of the Headingley Test of 1930 as a nice bit of practice for tomorrow, he could easily have meant it. He knows as well as anyone, though, that with so much more emphasis being placed on containment and so many fewer overs being bowled, his 309 of 70 years ago would be nearer 209 today. Which makes it all the more fortuitous that he played when he did, by doing so, he had the chance to renew a nation and reinvent a game. His fame, like W.G.'s, will never fade. || Chronological reference to people and experiences that influenced the person explaining how they influenced them. ||  In 1927, now aged 19 years, Don was selected to play Sheffield Shield for the NSW team, touring the southern states. For his first trip interstate and his first match for NSW, Don travelled by train on the new railway line to Broken Hill, before going on to Adelaide. The players wore sandshoes in the match against Broken Hill which was played on a hard sun-baked red dirt pitch. To add to the challenge, a dust storm hit the game. From here, Don travelled on to Adelaide for his first-class debut for NSW against South Australia, scoring 118 runs. Now known as **'The Boy from Bowral'**, he became the 20th Australian to score a century in his first-class debut. The young cricketer returned home to Bowral after playing in Melbourne to a proud welcome. The Bowral community loved their hero, now affectionately calling him 'Our Don'.
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Playing For Australia
In 1928, the young Bowral batsman now one of the most talked about cricketers in Australia, was selected to play Test cricket for Australia. Don played in the first Test match ever held in Brisbane where the Queenslanders were delighted to see 'the baby' of the Australian team bat. However, the Australians did not bat well. The hot humid and rainy weather produced what is known as a wet or sticky wicket making batting very difficult. This resulted in poor batting scores and they lost the first Test. Don Bradman later wrote, ..."it was a great disappointment to bat on a sticky wicket in our second innings, (the first time I had ever seen one), and find I knew absolutely nothing about that kind of wicket. Due to Don's poor batting score he was not included as a batsman in the second Test to be played in Sydney, but he was included as 12th man. This was the first and only time that Bradman was ‘dropped’ from any cricket team due to poor form. Don was then included in the Third Test in Melbourne, where he played brilliantly, becoming the youngest player to score a Test century with 112 in the second innings.

Coaching the Young Ones
Don was now working very hard keeping up both work commitments and cricket engagements. Despite this he also found the time to devote his skills to coaching hundreds of young schoolboys from all over Australia.

Sheffield Shield ~ Bradman’s Highest Score
Don Bradman reached the scoring peak of his career in a Sheffield Shield match between NSW and QLD at the SCG in January 1930. It was during this match that the 21 year old broke the world's batting record for the highest score in first-class cricket by smashing the previous record of 437 held by Bill Ponsford. Don scored 452 not out in just 415 minutes. He reached this score in just under a run a minute. Ponsford took 621 minutes to reach his score of 437. At the same time he also made a total of one thousand runs for the season. Don was now called the 'run-making machine' and was carried from the field by some of the Queensland players.

The 1930's England Tour - Bradman's debut overseas
When Don Bradman first travelled overseas with the Australian Team he was just 21. The Berrima District Cricket Association held a special evening in Bowral’s Empire Theatre to farewell him with the local community turning out to wish him well. He described the occasion as //‘the proudest evening of my life’.// There was little money in cricket in the early 1930s and so a local gymkhana and sports day was held to help Don raise the required funds for the trip. It must have been an exciting time for the young batsman who remarked about the trip, //‘What an education for a young country lad and how wonderful that cricket could make it all possible.’// Bradman was an instant sensation in England making a double-century in the first match at Worcester which set the scene for his record-breaking summer to follow. He scored no less than six double-centuries, ten centuries and fifteen half-centuries. The giant world record score of 334 made during the Third Test at Headingley proved beyond doubt that here was an exceptional Test player. Throughout this success his unwavering modesty and bright personality made him a favourite with the people of England despite the flogging he was giving their bowlers. He became a pin-up boy and his successes were eagerly received back in Australia. At the end of the tour he had played 36 innings, the most of any Australian player, and had amassed a total of 2,960 runs, which was more than twice the number of runs of Alan Kippax, the player who completed the second most number of innings. Bradman’s tour batting average was 98.66. Bradman was both surprised and uncomfortable with the attention that came with his success but he managed the ever-pressing demands with a maturity well beyond his age. Crowds mobbed him wherever he went and he was frequently asked to speak at functions or attend dinners despite being a junior member of the Australian Cricket Team. Upon his return to Australia after the 1930's tour, Bradman was showered in publicity. He was subjected to an almost frenzied series of public engagements that took him away from his shipboard team-mates steaming around the coast, as he caught trains and even an aircraft to fulfil his civic obligations. Traveling from Fremantle to Adelaide by train, passing through deserted country such as the Nullarbor, crowds were there to greet Bradman at every stop the train made! Finally on the 4th of November, 1930 he arrived back in Bowral to be re-united with his parents and family and attended a civic reception in the town’s Corbett Gardens. He was escorted to the dais with strains of the tune ‘Our Don Bradman’ filling the air. This recently released fox-trot song by Jack O’Hagan was a huge hit of the day and was eagerly sung by thousands of Australians celebrating the triumph of the young man over England’s finest Test players. || On the 30th of April 1932 Don Bradman married Jessie Menzies. The two met many years earlier when Jessie came to stay with the Bradman family while they both attended the Bowral school. Sir Donald would later describe their union as the greatest partnership of his life. (Their marriage remained a strong union until Lady Jessie Bradman died in September 1997 after a battle with cancer. Sir Donald survived her until February 2001).
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Bradman and Bodyline
The term **//'Bodyline'//** was first used by the Australian media during the England cricket tour to Australia in 1932-33. Essentially, it was a tactic used by fast bowlers to take wickets by intimidating batsmen with the ball. Quick bowlers, and they had to be very swift for the tactic to work, would bowl short, rising deliveries aimed at the batsman's body. The batsman would be forced to fend the ball off defensively to a packed, close, leg-side field who would snap up the catches commonly offered. Don Bradman's phenomenal success in the 1930 Ashes series sewed the seeds for Bodyline. England were widely expected to easily beat Australia but Bradman's Test scores of 131, 254, 334 & 232 saw Australia win the series 2-1. Bradman's series Test average was 98.66. The 1932-33 England Captain Douglas Jardine recorded that he saw Bradman flinch once or twice at short deliveries during the 1930 series. He instructed his two opening bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce (both from Nottinghamshire) to bowl what he called 'leg-theory' (later Bodyline). Larwood, though small in stature, was a phenomenal athlete and had the ability to bowl very quickly and get the ball to lift. Voce was similarly quick and a left-hander which made him difficult to play off the body. During the 1932-33 series this bowling partnership, under instruction from Jardine, bowled Bodyline at regular intervals in games. It was not a popular decision with Australian crowds who loudly heckled the Englishmen. Australian batsmen, especially the openers, Fingleton, Ponsford and Richardson were struck many painful blows much to the crowds' displeasure. Bradman was only hit once in the series, on the upper arm, but spent much of his time avoiding the ball at the expense of making runs. The tactic was working. Feelings came to crisis point during the third Test in Adelaide in January 1933. Australian Captain Bill Woodfull was struck a painful blow by Larwood over the heart. His wicket-keeper, Bert Oldfield, was hit in the head also by Larwood fracturing his skull. The crowd threatened to invade the pitch and mounted police were ready to quell any violence. At the end of the day's play the England Manager Sir Pelham 'Plum' Warner visited the Australian dressing room to commiserate with the injured. The Australian Captain Bill Woodfull is reputed to have received him icily with the words; 'I don't want to see you Mr Warner. There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket, the other is not.' The depth of ill-feeling between the two teams led to Australian Cricket Board of Control to write by cable to its England counterpart, the Marylebone Cricket Club on January 18 1933;

//Bodyline bowling has assumed such proportions as to menace the best interests of the game, making protection of the body by batsmen the main consideration. Causing intensely bitter feeling between players as well as injury. In our opinion it is unsportsmanlike. Unless stopped at once likely to upset friendly relations existing between Australia and England.//

The MCC took offense and a series of bitter exchanges ensued, at one point involving both countries governments. In the end, England won the series and blunted Bradman to a Test series average of 'only' 56.57 runs per innings. There was never a formal acknowledgement from the England authorities that Bodyline bowling was unsportsmanlike but subsequent actions indicated a recognised culpability. Douglas Jardine would never again captain England against Australia while Harold Larwood never played Test cricket again, despite topping the England 1st class bowling averages in 1937. Another legacy of the tactic was a change in the cricket rules. Bodyline was banned and a law was introduced to prevent no more than two fieldsmen gathering between square-leg and the wicket-keeper. Consequently, the 1934 Australian tour to England featured no Bodyline bowling and relations between the two teams quickly healed.

A Test Captain
Bradman was appointed an Australian Test selector in 1936 upon the death of Dr Dolling, a previous selector. He was also, in the same year, appointed for the first time Australian Test cricket captain against the visiting England Team led by George 'Gubby' Allen. The two team's met in the First Test on 4 December, 1936 at Brisbane. The Second World War, 1939-1945, intervened in Bradman’s playing career. Post-war Test cricket resumed in 1946 when England toured Australia.

Post-War Revival
Bradman was elected to the Australian Board of Control in August 1945. He had not played cricket for five years and did not expect to play for Australia again because of severe muscular spasms from which he regularly suffered. He did however accept the Australian captaincy in 1946 against Wally Hammond's English team in an effort to help a post-war recovery. In 1947-48 India came to Australia for the first Test series between the two countries. While playing for an Australian XI at the Sydney Cricket Ground Bradman scored 172, his 100th first class century. Australia won the series 4-0 with Bradman's batting average 178.75. During the tour Bradman announced that the forthcoming tour to England would be his last. Over fifty years ago in March 1948, captained by the world's greatest batsman Don Bradman, the Australian Test team sailed for England. Their tour was to end some eight months later where the Australian team, not having lost a single match, were dubbed The Invincibles - the greatest Australian side in history to leave our shores. The 1948 team surpassed all records by winning four out of the five Tests and remaining undefeated throughout the tour. They remain the only side not to have lost a match while on tour. In winning they were extremely convincing. In half their matches they won with an innings to spare, two by 10 wickets, one by 9 wickets, two by 8 wickets and one by 409 runs. Seven of the seventeen players completed 1000 runs. Eleven batsmen between them hit 50 centuries while the English batsmen could only manage 7. The Australian bowlers took 89 Test wickets while the English took 50. Clearly the Australians had a very strong side that dominated the entire English summer. Behind Bradman was a phenomenal batting combination, which amassed 15,120 runs for an average at just under 50 per wicket. In addition they scored the runs quickly in their desire to play entertaining cricket. When one batsman failed there was always another to score the runs. Indeed for players down the order, it was common to hear good-humoured complaints that they were not getting a chance to bat! The bowling was outstanding, with eight Australians bowling over 350 overs on the tour. England had no answer to the speed and accuracy of the pace men. Nor were they able to adjust to the spin. In addition to this the Australians rarely dropped a catch and under Bradman and Lindsay Hassett's leadership kept a very tight, competitive and well thought out field. The 1948 tour was a fine finale for Bradman. He enjoyed captaining an undefeated team that many would consider the strongest side to ever take the field. He felt he was leaving the Test arena with Australia in a strong position. Bradman's last Test match appearance has probably become one of the most talked about moments in cricket history. This match, Australia v England (5th Test), 1948, in England, at The Oval is where Bradman was to make a stunning exit from the Test cricket arena. Bradman came out to the crease for his last Test match amidst a thunderous ovation which lasted several minutes. He was bowled a "googly" by Eric Hollies on his second ball, misjudging the ball and thus getting 'out for a duck'. Hollies was to write later, //"I don't think Don saw it properly. He seemed to have tears in his eyes".// Bradman missed a Test total of 7000 runs by just 4 runs, (finishing with 6996 total Test runs), which would have given him a Test career average of 100, instead of 99.94. Bradman wrote in Farewell to Cricket, 1950, "I dearly wanted to do so well. It was not to be. That reception had stirred my emotions very deeply and made me anxious - a dangerous state of mind for any batsman to be in. I played the first ball from Hollies, though not sure I really saw it. The second was a perfect length googly which deceived me". Batting with Bradman at the time was Arthur Morris, who went on make 196 runs. Keith Miller was in the dressing room when Bradman returned from the crease, and according to Miller, when Bradman was unbuckling his pads, he simply said "Gee whiz, fancy doing that!".

Bradman’s Testimonial
In early December over 94,000 people flooded to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch Bradman in his testimonial game. The match finished with the scores level after Don Tallon added 91 in the last hour with nine wickets down. Bradman scored 123 in the first innings. The 1949 New Year's Honours List included Don Bradman as Knight Bachelor recognising his services to cricket and to Commonwealth sporting links. He was invested as Australia's first cricket knight in March 1949. He became the only Australian cricketer ever to be knighted. He remarked on receiving the Award: //"This was an honour that I never sought or dreamt about. If there had been nobody else to please but myself I would have preferred to remain just plain mister. But it was an honour for the game of cricket and in that context I accepted the responsibility of the title conferred by knighthood but one thing I do feel very proud of and that is that few people have ever carried the title of 'Lady' as graciously as my wife has and that if ever a woman deserved to be called a 'Lady', she did".// In 1950 he published his biography, Farewell to Cricket. || Sir Donald Bradman is arguably Australia's greatest ever sportsman, in any sport, having achieved unbelievable feats on the cricket ground at International level and in fact is this country’s only knighted cricketer. Sir Don was born in 1908 and whilst at school used to amuse himself by using a cricket stump to continually hit a golf ball against a water tank, all the time honing a skill that would one day see him as undeniably the greatest batsman of all time. Although Bradman left school at the age of 14 he didn’t commence playing the game of cricket until he was 16 years of age and in 1928 at the age of 20 was selected to play for Australia against our old adversary England and although we lost that Series, Bradman scored a century in his Third Test. It soon became apparent to all good judges that Bradman was an extremely gifted batsman indeed for in one State game he hit a brisk 452 in World Record time. In 1930 Bradman was again selected in the Australian team which took six weeks to sail to England, the Series itself was a most successful one with Bradman scoring 974 test runs. In 1932 at the age of 24 "The Don" as he became known as married Jessie Menzies a girl from his hometown. In 1932 England toured Australia and it was at this time that in an effort to curtail "The Don’s" amazing run scoring, England introduced the savage "bodyline" bowling so named as it was apparent that the bowlers were aiming at the batsman’s body not at the wickets, in an effort to intimidate. In 1936 "The Don" was made captain of the Australian team a fine achievement considering his lack of experience in the job at State level. After the War, Bradman was back in England again playing cricket and soon after retiring with the incredible Test average of 99.94 runs. Donald Bradman was knighted in 1949 and although he has taken on some public roles especially associated with the Australian Cricket Board, he has in the main sought and achieved a very private life. Sir Donald Bradman passed away peacefully in his home on the 25th February 2001, the Nation mourns the loss of this great cricketer and even greater Australian. || In 1911, the Bradman family moved to Bowral NSW, a small town of approximately 3,000 people, 115km south of Sydney. At the time this was predominantly a dairy and beef cattle producing region. Bringing the Bradman family to Bowral was based on several factors. Don’s mother Emily was born in Mittagong, near Bowral, and she still had family ties in the area. She is said to have suffered from the heat and dust on their farm at Yeo Yeo and Bowral offered a cooler climate. There is also the suggestion that the back-breaking rural work in the state's south-west was not yielding as good an income for Don’s father, George, as had been expected. The Bradmans’ purchased a weatherboard house at 52 Shepherd St. Bowral, within walking distance of the Bowral School where the young Don began his schooling two years later, and just one street away from Glebe Oval. This ground was to become Bradman Oval in 1947. George found a job at a local timber-yard, owned by Alf Stevens, where he worked as a carpenter and fencing contractor. Alf Stephens was also the Captain of the Bowral Cricket Club and very soon George was a member of the team. While living at the Shepherd Street residence Don Bradman immersed himself in the simple pleasures of living in a country town. Despite the depressing news from the battlefields of the First World War, he led a carefree existence, walking to and from school, playing with his siblings and becoming involved in sport. He enjoyed tennis, which was very popular, and occasionally accompanied his father to local cricket matches where he would often perform the duties of scorer for the Bowral team. At the Shepherd Street home, the young Don developed a solitary game where he would repeatedly hit a golf ball with a cricket stump against the curved brick base of the family water tank. Using the house wall as one boundary on his off-side, he managed to construct ‘Test’ matches in his head where he, as the batsman, would pit himself against the unpredictable balls ‘delivered’ by the tank stand. His repeated application to this game, using the challenging tools that he’d limited himself to, acutely developed his hand-to-eye co-ordination. Don Bradman wrote//…”Armed with a small stump, which I used as a bat, and throwing a golf ball at the brick part of an old tank a few yards away, I would try to hit the ball on the rebound. I was never satisfied unless I could hit it, say, three times out of four. The small bat made this no easy matter; as the ball came back at great speed and, of course, at widely different angles. I found I had to be pretty quick on my feet and keep my wits about me, and in this way I developed, unconsciously, perhaps, sense of distance and pace”// Sydney Morning Herald, 1930.. In 1924 the Bradman family moved to their next Bowral home in Glebe Street, now directly opposite the cricket field. George Bradman built the house, a brick ‘Californian Bungalow’. It remains today a three bedroom home with little changes to its appearance since 1924. Don was then an increasingly confident youngster of 15 and was already known locally for his cricket prowess as he’d been very successful in the few school games he’d played. While Bradman was living in the Glebe Street home, opposite the sporting ground now named Bradman Oval, his batting ability attracted attention from beyond the confines of the Southern Highlands for the first time. Aside from school and backyard cricket, the young Don was a very busy boy, participating in piano lessons, choir practice, acting as a golf caddie and helping his father with odd jobs. At this stage, Don believed his career would lead him to become a house painter. Don was also a good musician, and it was his sister Lilian who taught him to play the piano, and also helped to instill in him a great love of music. As a young boy Don used to walk across the Glebe wicket (which was renamed Bradman Oval in 1947) to his school, Bowral Public which is located just a block away from the Bradman Museum.
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 * **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Education: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Where and when they studied. Well ordered, and detailed description on when and where the person studied. || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> Baby Don was the youngest of the five Bradman children, with brother Victor and sisters Islet, Lilian and May. The Bradman family lived in a slab hut on a property in the village of Yeo Yeo, about 25 kilometres from Cootamundra, a regional town situated 375 km south west of Sydney.

His First Real Game
At the age of twelve he was invited to play for the senior school team and in his second game on the Oval he scored 115 not out from a team total of 150. He also took 8 wickets. It was at about this time that Don Bradman's future wife, Jessie Menzies, came to live with the Bradman’s for a year as her parents owned a property out of Bowral and she could not get to school. According to Sir Donald it was during this year that he decided that he wanted to marry her. On weekends Don acted as scorer for the Bowral team which included his father, brother and two uncles. One day the team was short a player and he was sent in at the fall of the eighth wicket, scoring 37 not out. For the return innings, the following Saturday, on the Glebe wicket (Bradman Oval) he scored 29 not out. As a reward for his fine effort, a Bowral team member gave him his first cricket bat. Don's father had to saw one inch off the bat to suit the young Don. He later used this bat in his first full season in the senior men's team. This prize possession is now on display in the Bradman Museum. As a teenager, he continued to be busy with sport playing rugby, tennis, cricket and competition athletics.

Don’s Boyhood Dream
Don travelled with his father to Sydney, in February 1921, to watch his first Test match, the Fifth Test between England and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The two day excursion so impressed Don, he vowed to his father, that he would never be satisfied until he played cricket on that ground. Don Bradman wrote//…”When 13 years of age I set out on the greatest adventure of my young and crowded life. For then it was that I beheld the Sydney ground and saw for the first time first-class cricket. My father had taken me to Sydney from Bowral, my home, some 80 miles away. I was quite a little fellow in knicker-bockers, but I remember how the enormous crowd and the magnificence of the ground fired and captured my fancy. It was amazing and unforgettable. I thought then, and still think, it is the finest ground in the whole world.

During one of the intervals my father took me by the hand and we walked round the ground to take a peep at the pavilion, and perhaps rub shoulders with the players. I vividly remember my feelings at that moment. I turned to my father: “I shall never be satisfied until I play on this ground”, I said. He smiled with affectionate tolerance. As it turned out, my next visit to the Sydney Cricket Ground was when I stepped on it as a player.”// Sydney Morning Herald, 1930.

Going to Work
At the end of 1922, aged 14, Don left school and took a position with Mr Percy Westbrook, as a Clerk in a Bowral Real Estate Agency. Mr Westbrook played a very important role in Don's early career by allowing him the time to play cricket in Sydney when the offer came in 1926. Don Bradman remembered this at a farewell function in Bowral, 1930..."After leaving school I spent five years with Mr Westbrook before going to Sydney. Everything lay in his hands, but at great inconvenience he let me go to Sydney. It was due to him that I got my chance in big cricket". grass wickets. ||  || Bradman has recalled that throughout his life, he never suffered from nerves when confronted with new or challenging situations. He simply met the challenges as best as he was able at the time. As a schoolboy batsman this character trait helped him greatly. There is a delightful story about Don Bradman in the school yard which was recalled by one of his fellow pupils. The Headmaster at the time was in the habit of wearing a bright red cardigan and went by the nickname to the school population as ‘Robin Red Breast’. He would daily ring the school-bell to close the lunch break after considering his fob-watch for the time.One day when the young Bradman was batting ‘Robin Red Breast appeared beside the bell and while he was checking his watch Don said //‘How’s about I see if I can stop him ringing the bell’// and with that hit the next ball straight at the teacher knocking him to the ground! It’s an evocative school-yard tale but sadly cannot be confirmed. Don eventually left school with a glowing report ‘He is truthful, honest and industrious and an unusually bright lad.’ Wrote his headmaster Mr E. Lewis in 1922. ||  ||  || [] || .
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 * || Bradman’s schooling was typical of many children of his generation. He started kindergarten on 8th September 1913 aged 5 and left school in 1922 aged 14. He did well at school and was particularly good at mathematics. During his schooling he learned to play cricket, initially in school-yard rough and tumble games. In 1919 he played in his first organised school cricket match scoring 55 not out. The following year he scored his first century, 115 for the Bowral school against Mittagong. The Bowral team total was 156.
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 * || He attended Bowral Public School and spent many hours during his childhood playing backyard cricket with a golf ball and a cricket stump. As a teenager Bradman played cricket for his school and county, coming to the attention of state and national selectors. ||
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No other sportsperson in Australian history has captured the respect and admiration of the sporting public the way 'The Don', the cricketer from Bowral in the State of New South Wales (NSW), has done. During his 21 years of first-class cricket, Bradman achieved everything that was possible in the sport - he captained his South Australian Sheffield Shield team; was a State selector; Test selector; and captain of the Australian Team for almost a decade, including of the 1948 Australian Test team known as The Invincibles.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Major Achievements: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> Well ordered, and detailed description of the events and many personal comments. || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Major Achievements: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> Well ordered, and detailed description of the events and many personal comments.

Bradman averaged a century - 100 runs - once in every three innings he played. His batting averages are revered. In his first international tour (1930) Bradman made 2960 runs (with a batting average of 98.66), including 10 centuries. In his final tour 18 years later, he made 2428 runs with an 89.92 batting average, including 11 centuries. When he retired in 1948, Bradman's legacy to the cricketing world was a remarkable Test batting average of 99.94. The tributes to Bradman kept coming after he retired. In 1949 he became the only Australian cricketer to be knighted. And in 1988 the Australian Confederation of Sport voted him greatest male athlete of the past 200 years. In 1960 Bradman became the first former Test player to be elected chairman of the Australian Board of Control. He continued to serve cricket as a selector and a member of the Board, including as chairman, for two terms. On 16 June 1979 he was invested as a Companion of the Order of Australia. According to Bradman's official web site, this famous cricketer also holds other awards, including: In a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 1930, Bradman, at 21 years of age, broke the world's batting record for the highest score in first-class cricket by smashing the previous record of 437 runs held by Bill Ponsford. Bradman scored 452 runs not out in just 415 minutes. At the same time he also made 1000 runs for the season. This remarkable performance launched Bradman's international career with his inclusion in the team to tour England. Fans saw him smash many more records. For example, in the Third Test at Leeds Bradman broke the world Test batting record with 334 runs, scoring 309 runs in a day; and in the Fifth Test he scored 232 runs to have a series Test aggregate of 974 runs at a batting average of 139.14. When he returned to Australia - still only 21 years old - Bradman was already an Australian legend. Writing in the Bradman Albums he said: In a long career there are many outstanding memories but I suppose the opening day of the Third Test at Leeds must rank as the greatest in my cricketing life. To break the world's record Test score was exciting. More than anything else, however, was the knowledge that I had scored the runs at such a fast rate and therefore provided entertainment for the spectators. > Sam Hood (1872 - 1953), //Wedding of Don Bradman (and Jessie Menzies)//, 1932. Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales: DG ON4/7305. On 30 April 1932 Bradman married his childhood sweetheart Jessie Menzies, and he later described their union as the greatest partnership of his life. Bradman was elected to the Australian Board of Control in August 1945, during a five-year hiatus from playing cricket due to severe muscular spasms. After not expecting to play again, he accepted the Australian captaincy in 1946 for the test series against England, in an effort to help a post-war recovery. >> During the 1947-48 Test series against India Bradman scored 172 runs, his 100th first class century, and led Australia to a 4-0 win with a batting average of 178.75. During the tour Bradman announced that the forthcoming tour to England would be his last. In March 1948, Bradman captained the Australian Test team who became known as The Invincibles - the greatest Australian side in history. During the team's eight-month tour of England, which was Bradman's finale, the team won every match. In early December 1948, more than 94,000 people flooded to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch Bradman in his testimonial game. || Sir Bradman faced the English for the first time in 1928-29 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He scored well enough to make the first Test, but the NSW team was thrashed by England. It has been said that Sir Bradman didn't play at his best during that test - but I believe it takes a whole team to win or lose a match. He was recalled for the Third Test in which he scored 112 runs becoming the youngest player to score a century in the Test match. When England bought the "bodyline attack" to Australia, Sir Bradman did not play in the First Test due to ill health. In the second Test he was out for a duck in the first innings, but redeemed himself in the second with 103 not out. Sir Bradmans career ended in 1948 while captaining the Australian Tour of England. The Australians were undefeated during this tour. During his Cricket career he scored 117 centuries in first class cricket and played in 52 Test matches - 24 of which were as Captain. In 1949 Sir Bradman was the first Australian knighted for cricket and spent many years after involved in the sport. He was a member of the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket in 1960-63, then its Chairman in 1969-72. He was also a fully qualified Cricket umpire. During his retirement from the game he wrote 4 books about cricket - //The Art of Cricket//, //My Life Story//, //How to Play Cricket// and //Farewell to Cricket//. || [] ||
 * Sportsman of the Century;
 * Captain of the Greatest Team of the Century (1948 Australian cricket team);
 * Wisden Cricketer of the Century;
 * Captain of the Australian Cricket Team of the Century;
 * nominated in the top ten world sports figures of the century by the World Confederation of Sport; and
 * elected in the top 100 world figures of the twentieth century - one of only two Australians to be included
 * In 1928 Bradman made his Test cricket debut for Australia, which was the beginning of his celebrated and record-breaking career.
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 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> He ended his first season with a total of 416 runs with 10 innings then went on to score more than 1000 runs in each of the next nine Australian seasons.
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 * ^  || Bradman took the cricket world by storm as he kept breaking one record after the other. In 1930 on the tour to England he made 334 the highest test score at that time. Already, therefore, he had in a very short space of time accomplished wonders, but his triumphs were far from being at an end, for in England he left further records behind. In the second innings of his First Test Match in this county, at Trent Bridge, he made 131, following that with 254 at Lord's, 334 at Leeds and, after failing at Manchester, putting together 232 at the Oval. With his big innings at Leeds he beat the record individual score in Test Matches between England and Australia, which had stood since 1903-04 to the credit of R. E. Foster, with 287 at Sydney. Without a not out average of over 139 for the five Test Matches, and in the course of the summer he altogether played eleven three – figure innings for his side, six of these being over 200.

He scored 452 for New South Wales against Queensland setting the highest first class score and so shaken were the English Team by this champion that they started resorting to unfair means and there started the Bodyline War. That slowed him down a bit but did not stop him from breaking more records. Following his success on his first tour of England, in 1930, Don Donald Bradman was chosen as one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in the 1931 Almanack. In this magnificent career of his he made a total of 211 centuries, played 80 tests for Australia most of them as captain, made 6996 test runs and had an excellent average of 99.94 which could have been 100 had he made just 4 runs in his last test but unfortunately got out on a duck. || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Well known persons working at the same time. || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> OLDFIELD, WILLIAM ALBERT STANLEY (1894-1976), cricketer, was born on 9 September 1894 at Alexandria, Sydney, seventh child of John William Oldfield, Manchester-born upholsterer, and his wife Mary, née Gregory, from Yass. Bert was educated at Newtown and Cleveland Street Superior Public schools and became a tramways clerk.
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Oldfield stumped 52 of the 130 batsmen he dismissed in 54 Tests, a surviving international record for stumpings and their proportion to catches. His most celebrated stumping was achieved off fast-medium bowler Jack Ryder in 1925, when he brilliantly dismissed Hobbs down the leg side. He took his best Test catch in the same series when he moved yards to intercept a leg glance from Hobbs. Oldfield was a useful lower-order batsman, accumulating 1427 Test runs at an average of 22.65 and scoring six first-class centuries. || GRIMMETT, CLARENCE VICTOR (1891-1980), cricketer, was born on 25 December 1891 at Caversham, Dunedin, New Zealand, son of Richard James Grimmett, bricklayer, and his wife Mary, née McDermott. They moved to Wellington where Grimmett was educated at the Mount Cook Boys' School; at 15 he was apprenticed to a signwriter. He began playing senior district cricket for Wellington East and, later, for Wellington Province in Plunket Shield matches. In 1914 he moved to Sydney where as a wily leg-break bowler he played for Leichhardt, Paddington and the Sydney Districts clubs. Three years later he settled in Melbourne and played for South Melbourne and Prahran. He practised assiduously in his backyard with a fox-terrier that he trained to retrieve balls. On 1 November 1919 at Prahran, with Catholic rites, he married Elizabeth Annie Egan (d.1968).
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Overall, Grimmett took 1424 first-class wickets at 22 runs apiece and was the first bowler of any country to capture 200 Test wickets. In 1924-36 he played in 37 Tests for Australia, taking a record 216 wickets at 24 runs; he was a useful late-order batsman. In 1936-37 and 1938 he was omitted from the Test sides against England. Grimmett never overcame his chagrin. In 1938 he was a guest of the Maharajah of Jath in India; and in the Australian season of 1938-39 he took a record total of 73 wickets.

In 1941 Grimmett played his last big match. After that he coached at many schools and worked as an insurance salesman. He published three books: //Getting Wickets// (1930), //Tricking the Batsman// (1932) and //Grimmett on Cricket// (1948). He described how he got his 'sympathy with the ball': before bowling he would interlock 'the fingers on both hands, then pull and stretch the fingers as hard as I could'. Then when he took hold of the ball, 'it nestled in my hand and felt so much smaller'. || [] || Neil Harvey, like Clem Hill, was one if a number of brothers who played cricket with distinction. Like Hill, Harveybatted left hand and was a superior performer to his brothers. Both captained Australia’s Test XI, albeit only once in Harvey’s case, and each had the ability to win the game off his own bat. Harveyemulated Hill playing Test cricket as a teenager and at 19 years, 122 days was more than a year younger than the South Australian in scoring his maiden Test hundred. By the time Harveyreached his early 30’s he was sometimes referred to as Australia’s “young, old man of cricket” and his retirement from first-class cricket at 34 was probably several years too soon.
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In 1949-50 the Victorian left-hander reeled off eight centuries on the Australian tour of South Africa, four of them in Tests, and averaged 76.30. Oddly enough he had six Test hundreds to his name before scoring his first Sheffield Shield century, against SA, in 1950-51. Even at a young age Harveyhad developed an array of strokes and maturity beyond his years. Hence it came as a surprise in 1951-52 when he failed to average 30 in all first-class games and was confined to 261 runs in 10 innings in the Test series at home against the West Indies. Late in the season he regained touch by making 254 and 126 for Fitzroy in a semi final against St Kilda. Before that game he had batted six times for his club that season for an aggregate of 100 runs with a highest score of 33. Harveyreached his 254 in only 255 minutes and steered Fitzroy to a total of 8/424 before his brother Merv declared. St Kilda replied with 140 and Fitzroy batted again, with Harveymaking 126 out of 9/269 (dec). St Kilda was dismissed for 137 in its second innings, leaving Fitzroy the winner by 416 runs. In the final against Melbourne, Harveycontributed 76 and 19 but Fitzroy lost. His flurry of runs at the end of the season enabled him to head the VCA averages with 57.50 || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Why do their life is regarded as significant and why they are admirable. || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Source:http://premier.cricketvictoria.com.au/page/harvey_robert_neil.html ||
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Why the person is a significant person: **

Don Bradman became a national symbol through his unique physical and mental skills which took him to the highest pinnacle of sporting achievement as a cricketer. This precocious talent was reinforced by his depth of character which in combination yielded a widespread fondness held for him across millions of people regardless of age and nationality. His humble, almost frugal upbringing in Bowral under the watchful eye of his parents largely shaped his character. He learned the value of hard work early and helped his father build the family home. Like many of his generation he learned to be adaptable and used his not inconsiderable intelligence to improve himself despite limited physical resources. He expressed a comfortable self-sufficiency, without judging others, also from an early age which unsettled many whom he met. His diligence in meeting his responsibilities was unwavering and was expressed most poignantly in the reams of correspondence that he undertook to personally reply to the legions of fans who wrote to him from around the World. In essence he was always at ease with himself regardless of the backgrounds with whom he mixed. During the Great Depression or the early 1930's, Sir Donald helped lift national pride through his cricketing achievements and in doing so lifted people’s spirits. His positive, flowing and rapid batting were a joy to behold. This is probably his greatest legacy along with raising the profile of Australia internationally amongst cricket playing nations. At the time a higher proportion of the Australian population watched cricket live and listened to it on the radio and there were fewer other past-times to distract people. Bradman was a phenomenon and broke many long-standing cricket records in 1930. He was young, good-looking, respectful, eager and modest. In addition he almost single-handedly won back the Ashes from England when it was expected that England would win. This made Australians feel immensely proud that a young man (he was only 20) from the 'bush' could take on England, the home of cricket, and win. By focussing the nation’s mind on how this country lad could seemingly effortlessly make mother England look incompetent, he freed Australian’s from the mindset that they were somehow a poor colonial outpost. In this way he helped us to identify ourselves squarely and proudly as Australians.

In short he made people feel good about themselves and their country and they loved him for it! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Respect for him transcended the sporting arena. Shortly before he retired from cricket he became a much admired speaker, witty, intelligent and insightful who held very high principles. He believed in respect for one's parents, a high sense of duty to one's roles be they as a parent, husband, worker, sportsman or cricket administrator. Despite the incessant adulation he received throughout his entire life Bradman remained unswervingly true to these values. || Bradman was an exceptional batsman; in fact he was probably one of the best that the world will ever see. Bradman's almost unbelievable achievements were a result of nothing more than pure talent and ability. His overall statistics were superior to his peers' not only during the time of his own career but also remain unrivalled today. While nothing should ever detract from the Bradman legacy, it needs to be explained how context played a role in elevating him to the almost-surreal cult status which continues to surround his memory today. At the time that Bradman was beginning to become a significant figure not only in the sporting domain but also on the international scene, Australia itself was still finding its place in the world. It was a comparatively young nation compared to the rest of the world, and while it managed to escape the First World War with some heavy casualties and a newly-established national character, it now faced the Great Depression. //See animation// During the Depression, the majority of the Australian public were without food, jobs and even homes. Every day was a constant struggle for them. It was a period of severe hardships and as a result many of them turned their attention to sport to take their minds off their situations. Cricket, in particular, has always been a sport for which Australians have felt deep affection. Even before the separate colonies of Australia were united by Federation and recognised as a nation, there was an Australian cricket team. In 1882 the first Australian cricket team travelled to England, the birthplace of modern cricket, where they defeated the English cricket team. This simple victory in a game of cricket against their motherland instilled a great amount of national pride in Australians. In much in the same way as that game of cricket had done in 1882, the heroic abilities of Bradman during the 1930s boosted the morale of society and renewed their sense of national pride. Ordinary people could escape the worries of their daily lives by immersing themselves in stories of Bradman's heroic sporting feats. As a result, he was often described by others at the time as a 'bright star,' owing to the way he inspired people, even in the most desolate of times. || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;">Establishes when and where the person died and the effect their work and values had on people. || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> Sir Donald Bradman died on 25 February 2001 at the age of 92. He is widely recognised as the world's best ever batsman and a truly great Australian. || [] ||
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 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: 115%;"> Don Bradman, dubbed 'the boy from Bowral', rose to acclaim during times of hardship, depression and recovery. He represented Australia for 20 years, playing 52 Tests from 1928/29-1948. Knighted for his services to cricket in 1949, he remains the only Australian cricketer to receive a knighthood for services to the game. He retired from Test cricket with a batting average of 99.94, making his Test batting achievements nearly twice that of the nearest Test batsman. ||
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 * ^  || //Sir Donald Bradman died of pneumonia at his home in Adelaide on 25 February 2001// ||
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 * ^  || Sir Donald died peacefully in his sleep at his Adelaide home on the 25th of February, 2001 at the age of 92. He had been in poor health and was trying to recover from a bout of pneumonia. He was a national treasure, adored by millions all over the world. The passing of Sir Donald Bradman marked not only the death of a cricketing legend but a spiritual moment in the history of Australia. As a cricketer, the world has known no equal. He was the true symbol of fine sportsmanship, the benchmark that all young cricketers aspired to. His innings may have closed but his legacy will forever live on in the hearts of millions of his fans around the globe.

We at yehhaicricket.com salute this great champion who will always remain the God of cricket. ||
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