Miracle at Lord's

Britons, for reasons best known to themselves, take their national game of cricket almost as seriously as war. Yet England, mother of the game, has not won a test series with her chief foe, Australia, since the season of 1932-33. Stiff-upper-lipped about perennial defeats, Britons could only mourn the virtuosity of their cricketers of old.

By last week hopes of renewed glory were rising across the land. In Nottingham, playing the first of five test matches with the fearsome Australians. England's team had achieved a draw when rain halted play. But weather notwithstanding, Britons began to see England as the Aussies' equal for the first time in 20 years. For one thing, Australia is now without its famed batsman, the retired Sir Don Bradman. And against Australia's great Bowler Ray Lindwall, who can take his 20-yd. running start and fling the ball at close to 90 m.p.h.. England could pit some formidable batsmen of its own. Among them: Captain Len Hutton, who holds the record for runs scored in a test match (364), and Denis Compton, who seems back in his best form this year. These were England's mainstays; all England needed was a little help.

At Lord's Cricket Ground last week, on the fifth and final day of the second test match, the help materialized. The chief helper was Yorkshire Batsman Willie Watson, 32, better known as a professional soccer player than as a cricketer. England needed a whopping 363 runs to win, and there was only a seven-hour playing day (with at least 1 1/2 hours out for luncheon and tea) to do it in. Batsman Watson, slim and serious, stepped to the wicket. With chances of victory almost nil, England's practical aim was to stay at bat all day, thus pull out another draw. For 5 hrs. 45 min. Willie Watson stayed at his wicket, scored a drawn-out century (100 runs), finally left six fellow batsmen to "stonewall" (hit harmless, perfunctory grounders) for the game's final 40 minutes. At 6:30 p.m. the game was called--a draw--amidst lusty cheers.

Headlined the Manchester Guardian: MIRACLE OF FAITH AT LORD'S. The stately London Times began its story: "Out of darkness, through fire into light. Thus did England yesterday rise like some phoenix from the ashes . . ." But best of all, what the Guardian's Cricket Critic Neville Cardus once called England's "proper spirit of hostility" was ablaze again.

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