September 1954 and, with the first Ashes Test two months and 10 days away, a crowd gathered at Tilbury Docks to see off England’s cricketers as they departed for Australia. The previous night the traditional dinner had been held at Lord’s in their honour, and according to one report the players indulged so freely of “an endless supply of champagne and cocktails” that, rather than wave at the well-wishers as the boat pulled away, most of them were by then already unconscious, sleeping it off.
So they would probably have been grateful that, as they boarded the boat, the man the signature‑seekers seemed to be focusing on was not one of them at all, but a 66-year-old wearing a handsome moustache and an air of discomfort. “These are the chaps you want, I am in the background,” he said. “I would give my boots to go.”
