COVERED WINTER 2020

33 JOIN OUR MAILING LIST FOR ALL THE LATEST: TRENTBRIDGE.CO.UK/MAILINGLIST WhenVE Day was announced by the Headmaster, each boy received a gift (mine was a dinky toy Jeep), and we were allowed the day off. All boys played cricket and I seem to recall playing on Parents Day for the Second XI versus the Mothers – it was several years later that I came toTrent Bridge at EasterTime for coaching by Bill Voce! The end of fighting in Europe came too late for the cricket authorities to carry out the plans devised in 1943-44. A programme very similar to that in pre- vious wartime years had been laid down. A game of two days had been fixed at Lord’s between an England team and the Australian Services on the Saturday and Monday ofWhitsunWeek.This was hastily extended to three days and named theVictoryTest. Notts’ star batsman, Joe Hardstaff, who’d featured in the 1939Tests v West Indies, was fighting the Japanese. The county therefore had no represent- atives in the strong England side led by Wally Hammond. Australia won by six wickets, the only century made by a man with some Notts connections, Keith Miller.The match was a tremendous success with about 30,000 turning up each day and profits going to the Red Cross. Four more three-day ‘VictoryTests’ were arranged.The series was tied two all, with one match drawn. Whether there was any thought given toTrent Bridge being the venue for one Test is not clear – Bramall Lane was the venue that was used. Perhaps the fact that the Army still occupied the Pavilion was a clinching factor.The players through the war used the press box in the Radcliffe Road Stand as a dressing room. The Australian Royal Air Force XI did come toTrent Bridge for a two-day game at the end of August. About 10,000, excluding members, paid to watch the game and saw Bill Voce take eleven wickets in the match. He was then reinstated in the EnglandTest team during the 1946 series v India. Keith Miller scored over 100 runs for the Australians and a large sum of money was donated to the Nottingham General Hospital. The County Championship did resume in 1946 –VJ Day happened in August 1945 and several Notts cricketers, including Hardstaff, Simpson and Butler, spent their service career in the Indian subcontinent. Simpson was not demobbed until June 1946, and so missed Notts’ early matches. Hardstaff was picked for the first post- warTest in England, at Lord’s, and duly hit 205 not out. A suitable way to celebrate the resumption of important cricket in England. HISTORY “THE END OF FIGHTING IN EUROPE CAME TOO LATE FOR THE CRICKET AUTHORITIES TO CARRY OUT THE PLANS DEVISED IN 1943-44. A PROGRAMME VERY SIMILAR TO THAT IN PREVIOUS WARTIME YEARS HAD BEEN LAID DOWN.” PeterWynne-Thomas