Bruce Yardley's best Tests

I’ve met a couple of second-tier celebs over the years but few of them made me gush and babble more than one I only talked to over the phone: Bruce Yardley.

Yardley, Australia’s international cricketer of the year in 1981-82, recently passed away at the age of 71.

I spoke to Bruce was when I was a researcher on the Channel Seven travel show The Great Outdoors and he was, for some reason, running a fishing charter service off the north-west coast of Western Australia. I had to organise a fishing component – Andrew Daddo was the presenter at the time – and I didn’t realise who I was talking to until midway through the conversation, whereupon I promptly reverted to being eight years old. I’m pretty sure I started reciting his stats to him.

He took it in good humour and Daddo came back with a signed photo of him and Yardley (and a dead fish), which I still have.

It wasn’t easy to be an off spinner in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s – it’s no picnic even now – but Yardley captured the public imagination partly through a series of excellent performances, partly through acting like he was a fast bowler (late-order slogging, alpha-male posturing), partly through the fact he mastered off spring so late in life (he made his first-class debut in 1966-67 but didn’t crack spin bowling until ten years later) and partly through the way he seemed to play as though every moment counted.

In memory of his life I thought I’d jot down some key Bruce Yardley Test match performances

1. Fifth Test against India, 1977-78
Yardley’s Test debut came at the climax of one of the greatest Test series of all time, the 1977-78 series against India. An Australia weakened by defections to World Series Cricket and led by a recalled Bob Simpson managed to take a 2-0 lead but were thrashed in the next two Tests.

The selectors made a bunch of changes, including bringing in Bruce Yardley as the spinner to replace fellow West Australian Tony Mann, who had won Australia the second Test with his batting but who struggled with the ball. Really the spinner slot should have gone to Victorian leggie Jim Higgs, who was the better bowler, but he was a liability in the field and with the bat.

Yardley had a great test, scoring 22 and 26, runs which proved invaluable. Jeff, going wicketless in the first innings, took 4-134 in the second, a champion effort, especially considering attack spearhead Jeff Thomson fell injured during the game and couldn’t bowl for most of it, helping bowl Australia to victory by 47 runs, one run less than what Yardley scored.

2. Second Test against the West Indies, 1977-78
Australia then toured the West Indies, with Yardley usually bowling in tandem with Higgs. It was a combination that made sense – the two were different styles of bowlers and Yardley’s skill with the bat helped compensate for Higgs’s lack of it.

The second Test is remembered for Yardley’s batting – he came to the crease when Australia was 6-149 against an attack that included Andy Roberts, Colin Croft and Joel Garner and proceeded to flay them all around the ground, making for what stood for 38 years as the fastest Test 50 by an Australian. He was eventually dismissed for 74, and he scored 43 in the second dig too. Australia still lost the game, but Yardley certainly went down in a blaze of glory.

3. Third Test against the West Indies, 1977-78
The series against the West Indies became a lot more equal from the third Test onwards when the bulk of the West Indies made themselves unavailable for selection due to World Series Cricket. Yardley made crucial contributions to a fine three-wicket victory by Australia, scoring 3-96 in the second innings and scoring 15 not out in Australia’s tricky chase. Bob Simpson elected to give himself almost as much bowling as Yardley in this Test, though, which caused consternation among the team at the time.

4. Fifth Test against the West Indies, 1977-78
Australia lost the fourth Test due to some disastrous batting but bounced back in the fifth. Yardley (4-35) and Higgs (3-67) were on track to bowl out the West Indies – they were 9-258 with six overs to go – when Van Holder whinged about his dismissal and the Kingston crowd rioted. The game was called off and declared a draw. Yardley ended the tour with 15 wickets in the series and was firmly established as the country’s first choice off spinner.

5. Sixth Test against England, 1978-79
Yardley struggled at home during the 1978-79 Ashes, but he had a memorable game in the sixth Test, top scoring in Australia’s second innings with 61 and opening the bowling in England’s second innings.

6. Fifth Test against India, 1979-80
Yardley didn’t have a great tour of India, like most of the Australian side, but in the fifth Test he scored 61 and 12 and took 4-91 in India’s first innings. The match was drawn.

7. Third Test against India, 1980-81
Yardley’s form fell away in 1979-80, the season the World Series Cricket players came back, and he was dropped, with Ray Bright becoming the spinner of choice. Yardley came back strong in 1980-81, though, being recalled to the Test team. His best game was the final one against India, where Yardley took 2-45 and 2-65. He also made an uncharacteristically slow seven off 58 balls in the second innings as Australia fell to defeat.

8. An omission: the 1981 Ashes
Yardley took 47 first-class wickets in Australia in 1980-81, easily the most by a spinner in the country, and would have seemed a sure bet to be selected on the 1981 Ashes. However, the spinners chosen were Graeme Beard (29 wickets that summer) and Ray Bright (22).

Why? It has never been confirmed, but – conspiracy theory time – back in 1977-78, just prior to the fifth Test in the West Indies, Yardley had been called for throwing in a tour game against Jamaica, the first time an Australian player had been so punished since Ian Meckiff in 1963. Allegedly the Australian and English cricket boards had an unofficial policy not to select players who had been called for throwing on tours.

Yardley would play two series against England at home but would be overlooked for selection on tours to England in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1983. World Cup tours came in 1979 and 1983, and Yardley was never a great success in one-day cricket; he had not been in good form in 1979-80. But in 1981 he should have gone. I could be wrong about my omission. But if I am, could someone tell me why?

Bruce Yardley of Australia (Adrian Murrell/Allsport)

9. First Test against Pakistan, 1981-82
Yardley took 6-84 in Pakistan’s second innings, bowling Australia to victory and ushering in the greatest season of Yardley’s career, which ended in him winning international cricketer of the year.

10. Third Test against Pakistan, 1981-82
He took 7-187 off 66 overs but Australia lost by an innings.

11. First Test against the West Indies, 1981-82
A Test best remembered for Kim Hughes’s heroics with the bat, but Yardley was in there too, scoring 21 and 13 useful runs in a low-scoring game and helping bowl Australia to victory with a second innings 4-38.

12. Second Test against West Indies, 1981-82
Yardley took 3-87 and 7-98 against the West Indies and also scored 45 off 33 balls against the best attack in the world, winning the man of the match, although the game ended in a draw.

13. Third Test against New Zealand, 1981-82
No-one much remembers this rain-affected tour of New Zealand, though someone did write a book about it, which I own, which I recognise says a lot about me. Yardley took 4-80 in New Zealand’s second innings, helping Australia equalise the series.

14. First Test against England, 1982-83
Yardley took 5-107 and 3-101 in a game best remembered for the injury to Terry Alderman caused by a drunken English pitch invader. The test ended in a draw. The series was highly entertaining and dominated by fast bowlers, but Yardley offered useful support, taking 22 wickets and scoring 141 runs.

15. Sole Test against Sri Lanka, 1982-83
Yardley’s last Test turned out to be Australia’s first against Sri Lanka. He took 5-88 and 2-78, helping bowl Australia to an easy victory. Yardley then retired from cricket after being overlooked for the 1983 World Cup.

His absence was notable, as Australia spent a decade trying to find a spinner they were happy with. They had some success with Bob Holland and Greg Matthews but mismanaged both, and they tried Tom Hogan, Peter Taylor, Tim May, Peter Sleep and Greg Matthews (again). Eventually they found Shane Warne, who in many ways is Yardley-esque – aggressive, acts like a fast bowler and is a lower-order slogger.

Rest in peace, Bruce. You were great value.