page_title: Gubby Allen
section_title: Bodyline series
hierarchical_section_title: Gubby Allen / Test match career / Bodyline series
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of the England cricket team which toured Australia in 1932–33, taken just before the third Test. Back row: George Duckworth, Tommy Mitchell, Nawab of Pataudi, Maurice Leyland, Harold Larwood, Eddie Paynter, W. Ferguson (scorer) Middle row: Pelham Warner (co-manager), Les Ames, Hedley Verity, Bill Voce, Bill Bowes, Freddie Brown, Maurice Tate, R. C. N. Palairet (co-manager). Front row: Herbert Sutcliffe, Bob Wyatt, Douglas Jardine, Gubby Allen, Walter Hammond
context_page_description: Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen CBE was a cricketer who captained England in eleven Test matches. In first-class matches, he played for Middlesex and Cambridge University. A fast bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman, Allen later became an influential cricket administrator who held key positions in the Marylebone Cricket Club, which effectively ruled English cricket at the time; he also served as chairman of the England selectors.
  Allen was born in Australia and grew up in England from the age of six. After playing cricket for Eton College, he went to Cambridge University where he established a reputation as a fast bowler, albeit one who was often injured. After leaving university, Allen played mainly for Middlesex. He improved as a batsman in the following seasons until work commitments forced him to play less regularly. A change of career allowed him to play more cricket, and by the late 1920s he was on the verge of the England Test team. He made his debut in 1930, and remained in contention for a place, when he was available to play, for the rest of the decade.
context_section_description: The MCC tour of Australia during the 1932–33 season was highly controversial owing to the England team's use of what came to be known as Bodyline bowling. The tactic involved bowling at leg stump or just outside it, pitching the ball short so that it reared at the batsman's body and with a ring of fielders ranged on the leg side to catch any defensive deflections from the bat. Bodyline bowling was intimidatory, and was largely designed and implemented by Douglas Jardine, the MCC captain, in an attempt to curb the prolific scoring of Bradman. Allen was one of four fast bowlers chosen for the tour, but did not go along with Jardine's instructions to "hate" the opposition. Nevertheless, the two men got along, and Allen later claimed to be Jardine's "best friend" on the tour. Allen also wrote home that Jardine was "the stupidest man I know", claimed to be terrified of him and suggested that at times he felt like killing him.
  Jardine did not initially plan to include Allen in the Test team, but the latter's bowling in the opening tour matches brought him into the frame. In his first game, he unsettled and dismissed Bradman with his pace; in later years Jack Hobbs, who reported on the game, suggested that Bradman was intimidated by Allen, and Jack Fingleton, who played in the team with Bradman, claimed that he refused to face Allen's bowling. Allen later wrote to his father that Bradman was a "terrible little coward of fast bowling"; the two men later became friends, and Bradman was never made aware of what Allen wrote.
  Allen played in England's victory in the first Test but took only one wicket. He retained his place as part of a four-man pace attack in the second Test, took four wickets and was one of the most successful English batsmen in the match. Australia levelled the series after Bradman scored a century, but England won the remaining three matches of the series. In the third game, Allen opened the bowling and took four wickets in each innings. His performance was praised by critics and enhanced his reputation. As Voce missed the fourth Test with injury, Allen bowled more in that game and took five wickets, but suffered a side-strain in the second innings. The injury prevented Allen bowling at full pace in the final Test; he played despite his own reservations and struggled throughout. In total, Allen took 21 Test wickets at an average of 28.23 and scored 163 runs at 23.28. In his review of the tour for Wisden, Sydney Southerton wrote: "G. O. Allen, about whose selection many hard things were at the time said, fully justified his choice ... He accomplished great work, often getting rid of batsmen likely to be dangerous; his fielding close in on the leg side was uniformly good and he played several excellent innings. Altogether a most useful man in the team." Jardine praised his contribution after the tour, both to Allen's family and in his official report. In all first-class matches, Allen scored 397 runs at 24.81 and took 39 wickets at 23.05. In his biography of Jardine, Christopher Douglas suggests: "[Allen] thrived on the intensive programme of matches and was able to build up his form and consistency to a standard that he hardly ever matched in England."
  Throughout the series, Allen refused to use Bodyline tactics, and openly said so within the team. His attitude made him popular with Australian spectators. Jardine twice tried to force the issue. Before the first Test, he asked Allen to bowl more bouncers with fielders on the leg side; Allen refused, saying he did not want to play cricket like that and that Jardine should leave him out if he was not happy. Prior to the second Test, Jardine again approached Allen and said that Larwood and Voce wanted him to bowl short, and believed that he only refused because he wanted to maintain his popularity. Allen wrote home: "Well, I burst and said a good deal about swollen-headed, gutless, uneducated miners." Allen threatened not to play, and to go home to relate the events of the tour to the press. Jardine did not pursue the matter. Others in the team also opposed Bodyline.
caption: A team photograph of England's 1932–33 side: Allen is seated second from the right on the front row. Douglas Jardine is in the centre of the front row and Pelham Warner is on the extreme left.
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