Don Tallon

Donald Tallon (17 February 1916 – 7 September 1984) was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953. He was widely regarded by his contemporaries as Australia's finest ever wicket-keeper and one of the best in Test history, with an understated style, an ability to anticipate the flight, length and spin of the ball and an efficient stumping technique. Tallon toured England as part of Don Bradman's Invincibles of 1948 and was recognised as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1949 for his performances during that season. During his Test career, Tallon made 58 dismissals comprising 50 catches and 8 stumpings.

His early cricket was played in Bundaberg where he was selected to represent Queensland Country against the England cricket team during the infamous Bodyline tour. Aged 17, he made his first-class cricket debut for Queensland against Victoria in December 1933. By the 1935–36 season, Tallon was an established player and he topped the Queensland batting averages for the season, however he was a surprise non-inclusion for the 1938 Australian team to tour England. Following the Second World War and the retirement or unavailability of other candidates, he was finally given an opportunity to play Test cricket, making his debut against New Zealand in 1946 aged 30.

Following the Invincibles tour, poor health dogged Tallon, causing him to miss the 1949–50 tour of South Africa. He recovered his spot for the Ashes series in 1950–51, catching well but failing with the bat. Tallon missed selection for the 1951–52 Test season but recovered his spot for the 1953 Australian team to tour England. He played in the first Test before being replaced by Gil Langley, this time permanently. He retired from first-class cricket in 1953 and returned to Bundaberg, assisting his brother in running a corner store. He died in Bundaberg aged 68.

Early years Tallon was born on 17 February 1916 in the Queensland coastal sugar and rum town of Bundaberg, north of Brisbane. He learned to play cricket on a backyard wicket with his three brothers and father Les, an iron moulder at the Bundaberg foundry, who played as a slow bowler in the local cricket competition. He became the primary school's wicket-keeper at the age of seven, playing with and against boys aged 11 and 12. He learned to keep to the leg spin of his brother Bill, who also went on to represent Queensland. Tallon later said of his decision to become a wicket-keeper, "You are never out of the game, and that suits me fine".

First-class debut

He made his first-class debut for Queensland at 17 against Victoria in December 1933, having never previously attended a first-class match as a spectator. He conceded only six byes and took a catch in an innings of 542 in a tidy performance,

In his second first-class match in the 1934–35 season, and his fourth overall, He started well with 58 in a drawn match against New South Wales, and then scored 45 and made six dismissals in an innings as Queensland fell to an innings defeat against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), including five stumpings. Nevertheless, it was another unsuccessful season for Queensland; Tallon did not experience a win and suffered losses in three of his six matches. Tallon took three catches but was unable to capitalise with the bat. He made three and was unbeaten without scoring in the second innings as Bradman's men reached their target. He scored 101 against South Australia and 96 against Victoria, but both matches were lost. It was another disappointing season for Queensland, who were again winless; No official reason was given for Tallon's non-selection. Another was Tallon's preference in standing back to medium pacers. In reality, Tallon stood back and stood up to the stumps depending on the situation. While the medium pacers were swinging the ball, he would stand back to avoid the risk of missing an edge. When the ball was old, he would stand up to the stumps when a medium pacer was operating and effect many stumpings with his fast reflexes. Bradman injured himself during the marathon innings in a rare stint at the bowling crease after the specialist bowlers had failed to break the Englishmen. With opener Jack Fingleton also injured, Australia were down to nine men and fell to the heaviest defeat in Test history (an innings and 579 runs) and the series was drawn. Tallon's dozen included three stumpings and he was at the crease when Queensland hit the winning runs to complete their first victory in two years. He passed 100 first-class dismissals during the season, achieved in just 32 matches—the fastest Australian to reach the mark. Tallon scored 55 and completed four dismissals as Queensland started with a 27-run loss to New South Wales. Tallon was discharged in 1943 as a private and was not decorated. On a wet wicket, New Zealand were dismissed for 42 and 54 against the slow bowling of Bill O'Reilly and Ernie Toshack. Tallon made a stumping, a run out and took a catch. He scored only five runs as Australia won by an innings and 103 runs. Tallon had rarely kept to O'Reilly's leg spin and impressed the bowler, who compared him with Oldfield. During the tour of New Zealand, Australia won all of their five matches, four by an innings. and in the process took his first-class tally to 170 dismissals his 50th first-class match.

Tallon now felt secure about his place in the team for the rest of the series. This led to increased confidence in his play in the Third Test at Melbourne (MCG). After keeping tidily and scoring 35 in the first innings, Lindwall reached his century, but Tallon fell for 92 to Doug Wright.

In the Fourth Test at Adelaide Tallon stumped Denis Compton, but the umpire gave him not out because "the glare of the sun suddenly became so intense that he was unable to see clearly the white line of the popping crease" and Compton made 147. The England openers Len Hutton and Cyril Washbrook had put on 100 in the second innings when Tallon caught Washbrook, scooping up a ball from Lindwall. Washbrook "stood there transfixed. Even some of the Australian leg-side fielders expressed amazement". Tallon was known for his impetuous appealing - "he was often roaring before he had studied facts and it was his over-eagerness that brought about the shocking decision". But Tallon maintained the appeal and Bradman backed him. Washbrook told Wally Hammond that the ball had gone into the ground just before it went into Tallon's gloves and the England captain tried unsuccessfully to find a press photograph of the ball touching the ground. Later in the match Tallon missed a vital stumping off the England wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans, who stayed put for 95 minutes without making a run. Tallon stumped Compton again, but he was given not out and went on to make an unbeaten 103 in a match-saving stand of 85 with Evans.

Tallon's keeping was further lauded in the second innings of the Fifth Test, when he stumped Edrich, Jack Ikin and Alec Bedser from McCool's bowling. He also scored 54 and claimed seven dismissals in a Queensland win over South Australia. Having spent the majority of his life in sunny Queensland and growing up in tropical Bundaberg, the cold English climate initially caught Tallon off guard. He did not wet his inner gloves as was his custom due to the temperature. As a result, Australia adopted a pace-oriented strategy and Johnson was the only spinner regularly used in the Test matches. McCool was not to play a Test on the tour, depriving Tallon of an opportunity to show his stumping abilities standing up at the stumps to his Queensland teammate.

Early in the tour, Tallon struck an unbeaten 17 on a damp pitch in a low-scoring match as Australia defeated Yorkshire by four wickets. It was the closest that the tourists came to defeat for the tour.

Tallon had difficulty with the English conditions early in the season as he sustained a bruised right finger when he lost sight of a Ray Lindwall bouncer on a misty morning during a tour match against Surrey at The Oval and was hit as he put hand over his face for protection, with the ball running away for four byes.

Despite sustaining an injury from a catching error, Tallon was selected for the First Test at Trent Bridge. He took four catches, including two difficult ones to dismiss key batsmen at the start of the second innings. He thus helped Australia to seize the initiative by denying England a good start, which was converted into an eight-wicket victory. The teams moved on to Lord's and Australia compiled 350 in its first innings. Tallon made 53 and helped the tail to "wag" and recover from a position of 7/258. Tallon did not concede a bye in England's first innings of 215 and his diving was estimated to have saved around 40 runs. Australia won the Test, He also dropped Compton three times, allowing the English batsman to go from 50 to 145 not out as he held the hosts' first innings together.

Tallon's little left finger swelled up after the Third Test and he exacerbated the injury during a tour match against Middlesex, ruling him out of the Fourth Test at Headingley, Tallon never bowled in his Test career and only rarely in first-class cricket, where he delivered 301 balls, the approximate workload of a specialist bowler in one match. Tallon also made seven dismissals for the match. and employment reasons. His place was taken by Saggers, who made 21 dismissals in the five Tests. and scored 116 in an unofficial Test in Dunedin. and gained the derisive nickname Deafy.

Tallon missed selection during the 1951–52 season due his increasingly error-prone glovework and a combination of health reasons including stomach ulcers and deafness.

He was unable to reclaim his Test place in 1952–53 despite making 133 against the touring South Africans and 84 against New South Wales for Queensland before the Tests.

He was selected for the 1953 tour of England, and scored 76 against Tasmania before the tourists departed. Tallon played in another eight first-class matches for the tour, scoring 119 runs at 19.83. His most notable effort was an unbeaten 83 in an innings win over Kent. He was unable to regain his Test position. He scored 21 and 54 not out in a drawn match against New South Wales. Tallon's high acclaim among cricket pundits derived from his style, rather than raw statistics. In 21 Tests, Tallon kept wicket in 41 innings, making 58 dismissals at an average of 1.41 per innings. Modern Australian glovemen such as Rod Marsh and Ian Healy, both of whom held the Test world record for dismissals, averaged closer to two. Tallon's Test batting average of 17.13 pales in comparison to that of contemporary wicket-keepers such as Australia's Adam Gilchrist and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, both of whom have made a double century and more than ten centuries. English wicket-keepers from two decades after World War II such as Godfrey Evans and Jim Parks scored two Test centuries apiece and averaged substantially more than Tallon.

Tallon had an understated style, which was without flourish or flamboyancy. Tallon's crouch was more pronounced than most other keepers and he rebounded upwards further and faster than others. He had a particularly smooth and graceful catching technique that left his hands undamaged from the ball's impact, the injury in England in 1948 being a notable exception that proved the rule. In recognising him as one of their five Cricketers of the Year in the 1949 Wisden, the Almanack noted that his hands resembled those of a violinist, while Bradman noted that all his "fine, longer fingers were intact" as though he had not played much cricket. According to his English counterpart Godfrey Evans, Tallon was the "best and most nimble keeper ever" while Australian teammate Alan Davidson called him the "Bradman of keepers". Due to financial reasons, Tallon could not afford new equipment and he used an outdated pair of iron-coated gloves for most of his career.

Strong driving and quick scoring were hallmarks of his batting, made possible by his swift footwork. Tallon was a vociferous and frequent appealer behind the stumps, something that led to complaints from opposition batsmen who felt that the pressure he exerted was unfair. The constant travel, interstate and overseas, took a toll on his marriage and the pair divorced in 1950. His nephew Ross played one match for Queensland Colts in 1967–68.

Test match performance

Batting Wicket-keeping Opposition Matches Runs Average High Score 100 / 50 Catches Stumpings Dismissals per innings Most dismissals (Inns) England 15 340 18.88 92 0/2 38 4 1.40 4 India 5 49 12.25 37 0/0 11 3 1.40 4 New Zealand 1 5 5.00 5 0/0 1 1 1.00 1 Overall 21 394 17.13 92 0/2 50 8 1.38 4