On the first day of the 1946-47 Ashes, Don Bradman — making his Test return after eight years and visibly out of touch on 28 — chopped a ball from Bill Voce that flew chest-high to Jack Ikin at second slip. England appealed for the catch; umpire George Borwick gave it not out, ruling the ball had bumped from the ground. Bradman did not walk. He went on to make 187, England were beaten by an innings and 332, and Hammond's relationship with the Australian captain never recovered. The wicket-that-never-was framed the entire series.
The 1946-47 series was the first Ashes since 1938. England, captained by Hammond at 43, was already weak — Hutton's withered left arm, Compton out of touch, Voce a shadow of his Bodyline self. Bradman had not played any Test cricket since the war and his health was so poor that he had been invalided out of the RAAF in 1941 with fibrositis of the spine.
Australia won the toss and batted. Bradman went in at 9/1 with Sid Barnes. He was struggling visibly, beaten outside off stump by Bedser repeatedly, and had been dropped at slip on 7 by Yardley off Bedser. By the time of the Voce delivery he had taken 132 minutes to reach 28.
Bradman had agonised for months about returning. At 38, with a back so bad he had been invalided out of the RAAF in 1941, he was unsure he could survive a Test innings. By the morning of 29 November 1946 he had crawled to 28 in two-and-a-quarter hours of edged singles and miscued drives.
The delivery from Voce — a wide-of-off-stump rising ball — was met with a defensive jab. The ball flew from the bat at a sharp angle to Ikin, who took the catch at chest height. Hammond, Yardley, Edrich, the wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans and Voce all appealed. Umpire George Borwick — a New South Welshman, as the home tradition then dictated — said not out, ruling that the ball had hit the ground first. Bradman, head down, did not move.
Norman Yardley wrote later in his book Cricket Campaigns (1950): 'I was at gully and watched the ball bounce from the turf onto the top edge of the bat and go from there straight into Ikin's hands. From where I stood it was as plain a catch as you would ever see.' Hammond, walking past Bradman at the over change, is reputed to have said 'A fine f---ing way to start a series'; both men later denied it but Bradman's biographer Charles Williams accepts that something close to it was said.
Bradman went on to 187 in 318 minutes, putting on 276 with Lindsay Hassett. England were bowled out twice on a sticky wicket — Ernie Toshack taking 9/99 in the match — and lost by an innings and 332 runs. Bradman, who had never previously refused to walk for what he believed to be a clean catch, defended the decision in his autobiography Farewell to Cricket: he genuinely thought he had hit the ball into the ground.
Bradman, on 28, chops a wide ball from Bill Voce
Ball flies chest-high to Jack Ikin at second slip
Ikin takes the catch cleanly; full England appeal
Umpire George Borwick rules not out — bump ball
Bradman stands his ground; Hammond reportedly furious
Bradman goes on to 187 (318 mins, 21 fours)
Bradman-Hassett add 276 for the third wicket
England lost by an innings and 332 — series effectively decided
29 Nov 1946 morning
Australia win toss, bat; Bradman in at 9/1
29 Nov 1946 +132 min
Bradman, on 28, chops Voce to Ikin at slip
29 Nov 1946 +132 min
Borwick rules not out — bump ball
29 Nov 1946 evening
Bradman 162 not out at stumps
30 Nov 1946
Bradman dismissed for 187 by Edrich
1-2 Dec 1946
Toshack takes 9/99 in match on sticky wicket
4 Dec 1946
Australia win by an innings and 332 runs
“I was at gully and watched the ball bounce from the turf onto the top edge of the bat and go from there straight into Ikin's hands.”
“I was certain I had hit the ball into the ground; I was equally certain that the umpire was the proper judge.”
“A fine f---ing way to start a series.”
Hammond never spoke socially with Bradman for the rest of the tour. Yardley took over as England captain for the post-series Tests in New Zealand. Voce, who never played another Test, said in his retirement that he 'simply could not understand how it was given not out'. The Australian Cricket Board declined to comment.
The innings revived Bradman's career. Across the 1946-47 series he scored 680 runs at 97.14, the platform from which he embarked on the 1948 'Invincibles' tour.
Cricket's most consequential not-out decision of the decade. Whether Bradman cheated or merely backed his own eyes, the umpire's ruling preserved the most important career in the game and broke the back of England's series before it had begun.
The Brisbane bump-ball is the original modern walking controversy. It is invariably cited whenever the question of 'should batsmen walk?' is debated — by Hutton in his autobiography, by Greg Chappell during the underarm fallout, and by Adam Gilchrist in defending his decision to walk in the 2003 World Cup semi-final. ESPNcricinfo's 'A Bradman Wicket That Never Was' (2018) revisited the moment as the single most influential umpiring decision of the post-war era.
England
1932-08-12
In August 1932 the MCC selectors confirmed Douglas Jardine as England's captain for the 1932-33 tour of Australia, a decision contested at the highest levels of English cricket and one that — combined with Plum Warner's appointment as tour manager — would set the conditions for the Bodyline series.
England
1934-03-21
On 21 March 1934 Douglas Jardine wrote to The Cricketer that he had 'neither the desire nor the intention' of playing in the upcoming home Ashes series. The announcement, taken as a quiet resignation, removed the architect of Bodyline from the field before Australia returned to England — a precondition Australia's Board had implicitly demanded.
England / Gloucestershire
1937-11-15
In November 1937 Wally Hammond — the leading professional batsman of his era — was accepted by MCC as an amateur, opening the door to the England captaincy he received six months later for the 1938 Ashes. The change crystallised inter-war debates about the amateur-professional divide and the unwritten rule that England's captain be amateur.