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Bob Massie, the West Australian swing bowler who demolished England with
16 wickets in his first Test match, and disappeared from the scene as
quickly as he came, has sometimes been dismissed as a fluke. His record,
however, shows he was able to run through a side on more occasions than
that famous Lord's Test match and sometimes in less helpful conditions.
In fact his selection for the 1972 England tour had a lot to do with
his running through a strong Rest of the World side in Sydney a few
months before and at the end of the West Indies tour when he was written
off he at last shook off the after-effects of influenza and bowled out
Guyana in a day.
Few people remember that the famous Lillee cheer was
invented to urge on the entire two-syllable Australian attack of the
early 70s, with the two West Australians and David Colley, and that
chants of "Mass-ie" were just as common on Test grounds in 1972 as those
calling on his soon-to-be more illustrious partner. Massie came into
the Australian side in the unofficial Test series against the Rest of
the World which replaced the cancelled visit by South Africa in 1971-72.
On his debut in the New Year match at the MCG he took 2-70 and 1-95 and
scored 34 and 23. He hit really swinging conditions in the fourth match
when his first innings tally was 7-76. Injury forced him out of the
first Test in England and at Lord's he took 8-84 in the first innings
and 8-53 in the second.
At Trent Bridge he had 4-43, but he fell away in
the later matches. Against Pakistan in 1972-3 he took 4-20 in Adelaide
and to his 3-123 at Sydney he added a score of 42 and a stand of 83 with
Jeff Watkins in a match Australia only won by 52 runs. (Bob Harragan)
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