DECEMBER 10

DECEMBER 10

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

Today we tell the tale of one man’s extraordinary perseverance and the TV executives who rued it.

Barnacle Bailey, they called him, and he loved it.

Over the course of the 1950s, Essex all-rounder Trevor Bailey earned himself a reputation as the immovable object in world cricket.

First it was the four hours he spent making 71 to save the Lord’s Test against Australia in 1953; then his anchor-like 27 in a fifth-wicket partnership of 192 with Denis Compton against the Pakistanis a year later; twelve months on, a two-hour eight against South Africa at Headingley.

Finally, in 1958, came the piece de resistance in the baking heat of Brisbane; a feat of endurance and determination immediately etched in Ashes folklore.

Bailey - an accomplished cricketer regarded as perhaps the finest all-rounder of his era - made 68 from 427 balls in 458 minutes during the second-innings of a Test match lethargic enough to have triggered carbon monoxide warnings.

It was the slowest half-century of all time, which was an unfortunate coincidence for broadcasters ABC and GTV9, who just happened to have picked the game to be the first to be shown live across Australia.

Those who had tuned in and found Bailey seemingly stuck in a defensive pose for overs on end may well have thought the telecast was experiencing teething problems when, in reality, it was just England’s No 3 doing what he did best.

Bailey came to the crease in the second innings with his side 28 for one and still trailing by 24.

The whole game had wandered on by at the sort of pace you might associate with a snail coming back from long-term injury - England's first-innings 134 took up the entire first day, while Australia only managed 156 for six on day two - but somehow Bailey turned it down a notch further.

Digging his heels in, the former Royal Marine and FA Amateur Cup winner (Bailey's talents knew few bounds) had been at the crease for just shy of six hours when he finally reached his half-century.

“It made one sick at heart to watch,” wrote the great EW Swanton in the Daily Telegraph.

Yet the innings still had to be admired, if only for the batsman’s sheer stamina and patience.

Barnacle just wouldn't let go.

“The nickname never worried me,” Bailey later told The Cricketer’s Huw Turbervill.

“I knew exactly what I was trying to do. We were desperately trying to stay in the match, to grind out as many runs as possible.

“I enjoyed playing in Australia. I found the crowds amusing. I was never worried. It was all very jolly. There was never any barracking.”