ON THIS DAY: When Lillee and Thomson left England black and blue

The Cricketer goes back in time to remember famous moments in Ashes history during this winter's series between England and Australia

The Cricketer looks back on famous moments in Ashes history during England’s trip Down Under.

Today, the story revolves around a pair of pacemen, a Brisbane barrage and how Mike Denness’s pendant became lodged in his chest...

The night before the first Test of the 1974-75 Ashes series, Dennis Lillee stumbled upon Jeff Thomson sipping quietly on a scotch in a hotel bar.

When it was pointed out by his bowling partner that this was an unconventional way to prepare for a game of much magnitude, Thomson’s response fizzed like one of his nose-endangering bouncers.

“When I go out to bowl I want the hangover from hell,” he said. “I bowl really well when I’ve got a headache.”

^{Jeff Thomson in action for Australia}

The great Australian quick must have been suffering from the mother of all migraines that week in Brisbane, if his devastating display against England is anything to go by.

The tourists arrived Down Under as underdogs but chipper underdogs, confident following a draw in the West Indies the previous winter and a home whitewash of India.

Within five days at the Gabba - between November 29 and December 4 - all optimism had disappeared.

Not only had Thomson and Lillee beaten the visitors to a pulp, they’d strained what was left and served it up on the rocks with a lemon garnish.

The Australian spearheads launched a vicious, relentless, high-velocity assault of England’s batsmen, so severe they ended up calling for reinforcements from back home in time for the second Test.

Lillee was his usual self - aggressive, determined and never shy to get the top order dancing about their crease - but it was the impact of Thomson that took the English most by surprise.

A relative unknown quantity to captain Mike Denness and his team, Thomson had recently relocated to Queensland from his boyhood state of New South Wales.

He’d played for Australia before, a solitary Test against Pakistan in the winter of 1972-73, but his meagre return from that game (none for 110) wouldn’t spark fear into The Scarecrow. Furthermore his display in warm-up game against the tourists was erratic. England had nothing to worry about, right?

Wrong.

 

“We never thought they'd pick Jeff. We thought it was a different Thomson - Froggy, who played for Victoria."

 

Thomson had played the Pakistanis with a broken foot and, prior to his run-out for Queensland, he had been instructed by Aussie captain Ian Chappell to serve up misinformation disguised as harmless half-trackers.

“Just f*** around," Chappell said. "Don't show the English batsmen what you can do."

F*** around Thomson did and, when he was named in the Australia XI for the first Test, David Lloyd thought there was a typo on the teamsheet.

“We never thought they'd pick Jeff," said Lloyd. "We thought it was a different Thomson - Froggy, who played for Victoria."

It was soon abundantly clear that the neither the selectors nor the printers had made a mistake.

Thomson opened up with savage pace, peppering the England batsmen, as Australia defended their first-innings 309.

While England didn’t cower first time around, led by a fighting century from Tony Greig, when they returned to the crease for the second innings they had little defence to offer against Thomson and Lillee’s unadulterated aggression and crumbled for 166.

 

 

John Edrich batted with a bruised hand, Dennis Amiss’s was broken, Thomson his Denness so hard in the chest that the England skipper’s St Christopher pendant became lodged in his skin.

“He even frightened me sitting in the press box,” wrote the former Australia all-rounder Frank Miller.

Thomson ripped through the visitors to claim six for 46 in that second innings, taking his match haul to nine for 105. Australia won by 166 runs.

“I can remember... the look on the eyes of most of the English batsmen right down to the tail was one of disbelief when they saw Thommo slide through them in both innings,” said Lillee.

It must have been enough to drive them to drink.

SAM MORSHEAD