No one would have understood that the seeds of the Don Bradman legend were sown when the New South Wales town Bowral’s cricket team took on the nearby Wingello team in the session 1925-26.
It was a home fixture for Bowral in the Berrima District (Southern Tablelands) cricket tournament, performed on a Saturday afternoon. Wingello, if nothing, was an even smaller country town than Bowral.
The yardstick to take a decision on such things in those days was quite easy, and Bowral had unequivocal evidence in its favor. It boasted of 3-pubs while Wingello, which was further into the outback, had none.
Seated in a train pulling into Bowral station(Australia) just before the match was a yet unpredicted undergraduate from Sydney University who replied to the name Bill O’Reilly.
Thinking of a quiet weekend at his railside home at Wingello, the young man was shaken from his trance by frantic calls for him from the station outside at Bowral.
It was the voice of the Wingello station control, who was also the skipper of the sleepy little hamlet’s squad. The Wingello captain had adequately fetched the budding leg-spinner’s cricket gear from his home. He then carried his prized 11th man to the Bowral ground from the train.
Sometimes fortune has a hand in the blooming of remarkable careers. If Don Bradman’s stint with Bowral had started because a performer did not turn up, O’Reilly turned out now for Wingello because they had nothing else. For various reasons, each was filling up one final vacancy.
And so the 2-faced up together. Who could have envisioned then that both would become masters of their craft, the best thing ever, and that the nondescript ground would become well-known as the Sir Donald Bradman Oval?
Bowral won the toss and decided to bat on what was at that time, a hard & solid pitch topped with matting.
Don Bradman indicates shades of greatness very early.
#OnThisDay in 1905, Bill O'Reilly was born.
O'Reilly was one of the game's first great spin bowlers, taking 144 wickets for Australia at an impressive average of 22.59. pic.twitter.com/C1nbs1YPN1
— ICC (@ICC) December 20, 2018
This is a story reported by O’Reilly himself, and more than 5-decades later, he reviewed it in a Newspaper article in The Hindu:
“Perhaps to get full value from the trouble he had taken on my behalf earlier in the day, my station master and captain handed me the new ball. I got a wicket quickly – nice going.”
O’Reilly added:
“It was pleasantly reassuring to see the replacement batsman making his snail-paced diffident approach from the shade of the age-old gum tree which served as the shelter shed. This had all the signs of an easy job. How was I to know that I was about to cross swords with the greatest cricketer that ever set foot on a cricket field.”
O’Reilly had the improvement of the early exchanges with Don Bradman, then 17-years-old, and may have even captured his wicket on a few events. But once the Don decided down, he launched an astonishing attack on the unlucky trundlers, which is what they looked like.
🔸 11 five-fors in 27 Tests
🔸 Bowling average of 22.59🇦🇺 Australia's Bill O'Reilly, who was born #OnThisDay in 1905, was the leading wicket-taker in the 1934 and 1938 Ashes series 👏
He is regarded as one of the greatest spinners to date! pic.twitter.com/uP3DCGfxQz
— ICC (@ICC) December 20, 2020
When the day was complete, Don Bradman was unconquered on 234, and O’Reilly had noticed that hopping off that train had been “a very grave tactical blunder.” As the match was to resume the following Saturday afternoon, O’Reilly had adequate time to grieve.
He would not have latticed, though, if he had been familiar that this match could indeed be a huge leveler at that nascent stage of his career.
On resumption, O’Reilly bowled Bradman’s primary ball,
“with a leg-break which came from the leg-stump to hit the off bail. Suddenly cricket was the best game in the whole wide world.”