Aussie cricketer’s near-fatal head blow helped lead to introduction of helmets
Graeme Watson, who has died aged 75, was a sportsman of remarkable bravado. Twice in one match when playing cricket for Australia he was hit on the helmetless head by fast bowlers and even stopped breathing for a few seconds when taken to hospital. He was soon back in the middle, opening the innings and hooking and pulling the short-pitched ball as he had always done before.
He had been selected for a match against a powerful Rest of the World XI at Melbourne in 1972. Opening the Australian innings, he had made four when he was struck by South African fast bowler Peter Pollock and had to retire. Returning to the crease the next day, he took his score to 16.
He had reached
21 in his second innings when Tony
Greig, later to captain England, unintentionally let go a beamer – a fast, high and illegal full toss.
Watson intended to pull the ball over the boundary. Instead, he deflected it at full pace into his nose. He went down slowly, clutching his face, blood pouring over his shirt, and had to be carried off. His team-mates visited him in hospital after play, when he was sitting up in bed and full of his customary fun.
His face told a different tale. That night a blood clot developed and he was put on the operating table. Close to death, he was resuscitated by the medical staff. It became one of several incidents that led to the introduction of helmets in 1978.
Typically, Watson made light of what had happened and, although advised by his doctors to retire, was back in action the following month, opening the batting for Western Australia. The selectors had taken note of his bravery, as had Ian Chappell, the Australia captain, and he was chosen for the tour of England later that year.
Watson was never out of the fast lane. He played cricket for three states and was married four times. A gifted Australian Rules footballer, he broke his jaw not once, but twice, when playing for Melbourne. Still he returned for more high-level sport and, like many a sportsman from Victoria, liked a drink. After retiring he forged a successful second career as an architect.
Graeme Donald Watson was born in 1945, the second child of Donald Watson, a schoolmaster and Australian Rules footballer, and Constance (nee Bennett), who was a talented musician. He was educated at Chatham State School in Surrey Hills, Melbourne, which had been attended by Bob Cowper, a future cricket captain of Victoria and another test player. Watson then studied architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
He first came to sporting prominence at cricketer b March 8, 1945 d April 24, 2020 the age of 16, when he was playing A-grade Australian Rules football for Ormond. He anticipated making a living as an architect, not as a sportsman, but nonetheless made his first-class cricket debut in 1964 and his test debut in 1966-67 against South Africa, scoring a half century in his one innings at Newlands, Cape Town. His partnership of 128 for the seventh wicket with a fellow Victorian, Keith Stackpole, proved crucial.
In his two other appearances in that series, he was twice out for ducks. He did take three wickets, bowling at a medium pace that could be lively. Nicknamed ‘‘Beatle’’ by his team-mates on
Older brother Ian on Graeme Watson account of his haircut, he did not play test cricket again until Australia’s tour of England in 1972. He joined Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in 1977. In all first-class cricket Watson scored 4674 runs, with a highest score of 176 against Hampshire in 1972.
Architectural work took him to Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. After he had finished playing and Sydney had secured the Olympic Games of 2000, he designed the precinct, striking out on his own in the specialist field of stadium facilities. He won contracts from governments and sports administrations across Australia and took on consultancies with construction companies.
Three of Watson’s four marriages, to Barbara Carlyon, Dr Katie Williams and Karina Forrest, ended in divorce. He is survived by his fourth wife, Jan Ryan, his two daughters with Karina – Laura and Louisa – and his two stepdaughters from Jan’s earlier marriage, Anne and Therese.
‘‘Graeme’s boldness appeared when he was four years old,’’ his brother Ian recalled. ‘‘There was a school bell in front of our primary school just across the road from our home. Every so often it would ring. ‘It’s that naughty little Watson boy again!’ the teacher would say. That was my brother not letting anyone stand in his way, even then.’’ – The Times
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‘‘Graeme’s boldness appeared when he was four years old.’’