Wally Hammond, England captain on the 1946-47 Ashes tour, was struck down by fibrositis at Adelaide and could not take the field for the fifth Test at Sydney from 28 February 1947. Norman Yardley led England in his place. Hammond never played another Test. The series — Bradman's first post-war — ended 3-0 to Australia, and the greatest English batsman of the inter-war years left Test cricket without a farewell innings, soon emigrating to South Africa.
Hammond had averaged over 60 in 14 Tests during the 1930s and was widely regarded as the best slip fielder of his time. He had served in the RAF during the war (commissioned, mostly in administrative roles in Egypt and South Africa) and emerged tired rather than recharged.
The Adelaide Test of January 1947 had been drawn after Compton scored centuries in both innings; Hammond was carried off on the third evening. Doctors prescribed bed rest. England nominated Yardley for Sydney.
Hammond, then 43, had been a hesitant captain on the post-war tour. He had centuries in the warm-up matches (131 v an Australian XI at Northam, 208 v Western Australia) but the Test series was a disappointment: he managed only 168 runs at 21 in the first four Tests. The seven-year wartime gap, combined with personal strain — his second marriage and an emerging investment business — left him visibly drained.
Fibrositis seized him during the fourth Test at Adelaide in heat that approached 40°C. He was carried from the field; Yardley, his vice-captain, took over the captaincy for the final Test at Sydney where England were beaten by five wickets.
Hammond's Test record at retirement: 7,249 runs at 58.45 with 22 hundreds, plus 83 wickets and 110 catches in 85 Tests. He played one final first-class match for Gloucestershire in 1951 and emigrated to South Africa, where he died in 1965.
Jan 1946 — Hammond appointed captain for Australia tour
29 Nov 1946 — wins toss at Brisbane, puts Australia in (Bradman 187, England innings + 332 defeat)
Jan 1947 — fibrositis at Adelaide
28 Feb 1947 — Sydney Test begins; Yardley captain
5 Mar 1947 — England lose by 5 wickets; series 3-0 to Australia
1947 — retires from Test cricket
1927
Test debut for England
Jan 1946
Confirmed captain for Australia tour
Nov 1946
Inserts Australia at Brisbane; loses by innings + 332
Jan 1947
Fibrositis at Adelaide
Feb 1947
Misses Sydney Test; Yardley captains
1947
Retires from Test cricket
England's selectors moved through Yardley, Brown and Mann before settling on Hutton in 1952. Hammond returned home, divorced, remarried and moved to Natal in 1951. He coached briefly at Natal University.
An anti-climactic exit for a giant of pre-war batsmanship. Hammond's ill-judged decision to insert Australia at Brisbane in November 1946 (in the sticky-wicket Test) and his fibrositis at Adelaide combined to deny him the farewell his career deserved.
Hammond's pre-war Test average of 58.45 stood as a benchmark for England batsmen for decades. His brittle 1946-47 captaincy is sometimes cited alongside Hutton's 1954-55 as the most contested in Ashes history. The Hammond gates at Bristol's County Ground commemorate his Gloucestershire career.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.