1. David Steele (1975)
David against Goliath had nothing on David against Lillee and Thomson, who had brutalised England's batsmen the previous winter. Steele had little pedigree (16 centuries in 12 years) and was described as "the bank clerk who went to war": his random selection at the age of 33 was akin to sending your granny out to scare off the burglars. Yet if his librarian chic did not catch on, his librarian cheek certainly did: he cheerfully told Thomson and Lillee to "bugger off", turned the tide of the series with four fifties in six innings, and won the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year.
2. Sydney Copley (1930)
The scorecard for the first Test at Trent Bridge says simply "McCabe c sub b Tate 49", an entry that tells the story about as adequately as a Twitter version of Shakespeare. Australia, chasing 429 to win, were 267 for four when Copley, a member of the Notts groundstaff who was on as 12th man, took a stunning low catch on the run to dismiss the dangerous Stan McCabe and rip the game England's way. They were his 15 yards of fame: Copley made his only first-class appearance the next week and soon drifted away from the game.
3. Gary Pratt (2005)
There was no MBE, but Pratt will always be a VIP of English cricket. As the substitute who ran out Ricky Ponting at a pivotal moment of the fourth Test at Trent Bridge (and caused the Australian captain to lose his cool and fulminate at Duncan Fletcher as he passed the England balcony) Pratt had a front-and-centre spot on the trip around Trafalgar Square. That he was nowhere near Test standard with bat and ball - Durham released him a year later and then Cumbria took him on - only embellished the legend.
4. Bob Massie (1972)
The swing bowler's art is intrinsically precarious, but even that doesn't entirely explain the fate of Bob Massie. On his debut at Lord's Massie, famous for his mutton-chop sideburns, made lambs of a very experienced England line-up, taking eight wickets in each innings. His match figures of 16 for 137 are the best by a fast bowler on a Test debut. Yet just as suddenly he lost his outswinger, and took only 15 more Test wickets. Within six months he had played his final Test, and within 18 he was dropped by his state, Western Australia.
5. Bobby Peel (1894-95)
The man who turned a match with a hangover. Australia needed only 64 runs with eight wickets left to win the first Test on the final morning at Sydney; some England players had taken the concept of the last-chance saloon rather literally, and spent the previous evening drinking heavily. Among them was left-arm spinner Peel, who the next morning was desperately held under a cold shower because he barely knew his own name. A few hours later it was on the honours board: Peel took six wickets as England won by 10 runs.
6. Phil DeFreitas (1994-95)
To describe Phil DeFreitas as an all-rounder, as many did, was like describing Dame Edna Everage as a man: you knew it was true but it was rarely evident. He often failed to do justice to his batting talent, but it emerged gloriously in the fourth Test at Adelaide: DeFreitas cuffed 88 from 95 balls on the final morning, including 22 in one over from an apoplectic Craig McDermott with a series of legside swishes that seemed to travel ever further as the over progressed. England turned imminent defeat into improbable victory.
7. Richard Ellison (1985)
After taking an underwhelming 10 wickets in five Tests against West Indies, Sri Lanka and India, the mop-headed swing bowler was recalled for the fifth Ashes Test, with the series 1-1, and immediately swung things England's way. He took 10 wickets as England won at Edgbaston, including a spell of four for one on the fourth evening. He followed up with seven as England regained the Ashes at The Oval. Within a year, however, he had played his final Test; troubled by back injuries, he went on to become a schoolmaster.
8. Dean Headley (1998-99)
His Ashes legend may amount to a famous spell in a dead-rubber victory and eight wickets in a subsequent defeat, but that was largely the lot of England between 1989 and 2005. Headley's seam bowling could be destructive when on-song, particularly an unyielding second-innings six for 60 that gave England a 12-run victory at Melbourne. He followed up with four wickets in each innings of the final Test at Sydney, but was dropped for the first Test of the following summer because of poor county form. Another victim of a dodgy back, he retired at the early age of 31 to set up a printing business.
9. Jack Iverson (1950-51)
Mystery spin, by its nature, has an unlikely element, and few batsmen knew how to handle Australia's Iverson in the early 50s. A late bloomer who did not play first-class cricket until he was 35, he was a huge, clumsy man with startling mental fragility. But boy, could he bowl: his mix of off-spin, leg-spin and googlies, with no notable change in action, brought 21 wickets at 15.23 in his maiden series. It was also his only series. He suffered a bad ankle injury after he trod on the ball in the fourth Test, and played only two more first-class games.
10. Peter Taylor (1986-87)
When Peter Taylor was called up for the final Test of the series most people thought Australia had got the wrong Taylor: Mark, the future captain, was scoring runs galore in the Sheffield Shield, while Peter was a journeyman 30-year-old off-spinner. But there was no need for Australia to tinker with their Taylors: Peter took eight wickets in the match and batted doughtily for four hours. Australia, at their lowest ebb, won this dead rubber by 55 runs; after that game, England did not win another Ashes series for 18 years.
Rob Smyth defends his selection
Many a sporting chancer can look the part, even while camouflaging a complete lack of naked talent. Yet in the history of England's cricketing rivalry with Australia, few have looked as unlikely to play a starring role as David Steele, a very English hero. While substitutes, such as Gary Pratt, aren't supposed to be on the field, a man like Steele wasn't even supposed to be playing sport, especially against two of the most bloodthirsty bowlers ever to roam the green. Perhaps it is no surprise, however, that it is the bowlers who have more often played the decisive yet never-to-be-repeated cameos in these contests. Some may query the exclusion of Gladstone Small, who took five wickets in the first innings and the decisive catch in the second as England regained the Ashes at Melbourne in 1986-87. But Australia were a modest side, and Small an accomplished bowler. Anyone who expected the success of this 10, however, is either a psychic or a revisionist.
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