How the Waca was tamed in the balmy days of 1978
David Gower and Bob Willis hammered Australia – with a bit of help from Kerry Packer
David Gower is talking about the 1978-79 tour: “The Aussies always love to boast that their second team could beat us. On that occasion, we demonstrated that it wasn’t true.” It was a tour that takes on extra significance with every repeat visit. Remarkably, it remains the only time in 13 attempts that England have won at the Waca.
This statistic made Joe Root’s position look only even more precarious heading into this morning’s third Test in Perth. As did Gower’s analysis, which emphasised the vulnerability of the depleted, Packerised team England faced in 1978-79.
Australia came away as the victims of a 5-1 landslide – their heaviest defeat in Ashes history. And yet it did not feel like a real Ashes series because both Chappell brothers, along with Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee, were busy earning bigger bucks with World Series Cricket.
“I like to talk it up as the finest attack ever to represent Australia,” Gower, a graceful member of England’s middle order, says now, with a twinkle. “Actually, they weren’t a bad team, and quite a few of them – like [left-arm seamer] Geoff Dymock and [reluctant captain] Graham Yallop – went on to play Tests after World Series. But we had experience on our side.
“I wouldn’t say Perth is an impossible challenge for English teams, because we had the upper hand there on the next two tours as well, and just couldn’t finish the Aussies off. Still, the stats point to home advantage playing a big part. I was lucky in ’78 because I had played grade cricket just up the road at Claremont-cottesloe, so I had adapted my technique for that back-and-across movement you have to use.”
Geoff Miller – the off-spinning all-rounder who had the best series of his career in 1978-79 – makes a similar point, only from a bowler’s perspective. “You have to adjust. In 1977 we went straight from Sri Lanka to playing a warm-up match in Perth before the Centenary Test. Bob Willis was bowling the same length as he had in Asia and the batsmen were just leaving ball after ball as they kept flying over the top of the stumps.
“It’s important not to get carried away with the pace and bounce. When we came back to the Waca in 1978, Ian Botham spent the first innings digging it in short at Peter Toohey, but Toohey loved playing off the back foot, and he smashed Beefy everywhere.” Fortunately, Willis had adapted by now, and picked up a five-wicket haul.
The 1978 Perth Test was staged just before Christmas in typically glorious Western Australian sunshine. England’s players could stretch out with a beer and catch up on the grim news from home, where Jim Callaghan’s minority government was battling through the so-called “winter of discontent”.
You could not call it a holiday camp, though. Not when the opposition had Rodney Hogg. Handed his first Test opportunities at the age of 27, Hogg was quick – Mitchell Johnson quick – and nasty with it. He hit Gower in the neck during his Perth hundred and snarled “f------ impostor” to him as they walked off at the next break.
In reality, the Australians were the impostors that winter. But Gower was wise not to make this point to Hogg himself – an Aussie so rough-necked that, when the Queen performed her handshakes on the outfield at Lord’s in 1981, he watched her walk past and then
After the Queen walked past Hogg, he remarked too loudly: ‘Nice legs for an old Sheila!’
remarked, slightly too loudly, “Nice legs for an old Sheila!”
It was a mercy for England that Hogg was asthmatic, which curtailed his ability over long spells. As Gower puts it: “He bowled at the speed of light, but only for three or four overs, so you’d put on your helmet and try to survive.”
Not everyone succeeded, as Hogg claimed an extraordinary 41 wickets at 12.85 – the third-highest haul in Ashes history.
Yet Hogg and Yallop did not see eye to eye. As the series wore on, Hogg requested field changes via intermediaries, because “I’m not talking to that p---k”.
Such disunity would do wonders for England’s chances if it reemerged in Perth this week. Unfortunately, Steve Smith is running a tight ship, and Mitchell Starc seems rather too chilled to throw punches at team-mates, as Hogg was known to do. In recent months, Root’s men have been the ones with the self-control issues.