Lindsay Hassett, the only experienced Test cricketer in the Australian Services side, captained the team that brought first-class cricket back to England in the summer of 1945. With Stan Sismey, Cec Pepper, Keith Miller, Graham Williams and Lindsay Hassett himself doing most of the cricketing work, the Services drew the five-Test 'Victory' series 2-2 against an England side led by Walter Hammond. Hassett, who had refused an officer's commission and toured on warrant officer's pay of 12 shillings a day, was praised in Wisden as 'a cricketer-captain in the Bradman mould but with rather more humour'.
Hassett, a Geelong man and prewar Test centurion (Brisbane 1938), enlisted in the AIF in 1940 and saw service in Palestine and New Guinea. Bradman never served overseas; the leadership of the Services side gave Hassett a longer apprenticeship than Bradman in handling unfamiliar opposition.
By April 1945 the war in Europe was ending. The Services chiefs and the MCC, prompted by Plum Warner, agreed to put on a five-Test programme to mark VE Day. Hassett was the obvious senior cricketer.
Hassett had served in the Middle East and New Guinea with the AIF before being seconded to lead a cricket side drawn from RAAF and Army personnel still stationed in Britain after VE Day. Squadron Leader Stan Sismey was the official tour manager-keeper; Hassett ran the cricket.
The five 'Victory Tests', played 19 May to 22 August 1945 at Lord's (twice), Bramall Lane, Old Trafford and Lord's again, attracted enormous crowds — over 90,000 across one Lord's Test — and were officially first-class but never accorded full Test status. England won the first by six wickets; the Services won the second at Bramall Lane by 41 runs (Pepper 6/91); the third at Lord's was drawn; England won the fourth at Old Trafford by six wickets; the Services won the final Test at Old Trafford by four wickets to square the series 2-2.
Hassett himself made 446 runs in the rubber including a century at Lord's. Keith Miller broke through with 185 for the Dominions (a separate fixture in August) and 71 not out at Lord's in the third Victory Test. The Australian Services then went on, via India, to play three further unofficial 'Tests' there in November 1945 before disbanding.
VE Day, 8 May 1945 — series confirmed
19-22 May — first 'Victory Test' at Lord's; England win
23-26 Jun — second at Bramall Lane; Services win by 41 (Pepper 6/91)
14-17 Jul — third at Lord's; drawn
6-8 Aug — fourth at Old Trafford; England win
20-22 Aug — fifth at Old Trafford; Services win to square series 2-2
Aug-Sep 1945 — Hassett 446 runs in series
1940
Hassett enlists in AIF
May 1945
Confirmed Australian Services captain
May-Aug 1945
Victory Tests drawn 2-2
Nov 1945
Services tour India
1949
Succeeds Bradman as Australia captain
“A cricketer-captain in the Bradman mould but with rather more humour.”
The Services side toured India in late 1945 (where Hassett scored 122 in the second 'Test' at Bombay), then home to Australia. Most of the team-mates would form the post-war Australian Test side: Miller, Hassett, Sismey-replaced-by-Tallon. The Victory Tests drew over 367,000 spectators in five matches.
The captaincy that bridged Bradman's pre-war reign and his post-war one. Hassett's calm during the Victory Tests, often in front of his largest-ever crowds, marked him out as Bradman's eventual successor as Australian captain.
Wisden's 1946 edition called the Victory Tests 'the most heart-warming cricket of the wartime years'. Hassett became Australia's captain in 1949 and led them to the 1953 Ashes. The Services tour is remembered as the bridge from war cricket to peace.
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.