136 Facts About Gubby Allen

Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen CBE was a cricketer who captained England in eleven Test matches.

Gubby Allen was born in Australia and grew up in England from the age of six.

Gubby Allen improved as a batsman in the following seasons until work commitments forced him to play less regularly.

Gubby Allen made his debut in 1930, and remained in contention for a place, when he was available to play, for the rest of the decade.

From 1933, Gubby Allen worked in the London Stock Exchange, which limited the amount of cricket he could play.

Gubby Allen continued to play irregularly for Middlesex until 1939; after the Second World War, in which he worked in military intelligence, he played occasionally for Middlesex and other teams into the 1950s.

Gubby Allen was instrumental in the creation of a MCC coaching manual, and worked hard to eliminate illegal bowling actions.

Gubby Allen was born on 31 July 1902 in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, Australia, the second of three children to Walter Gubby Allen, a lawyer, and his wife Marguerite, nee Lamb, the daughter of Edward Lamb, a Queensland government minister.

Gubby Allen began to play cricket seriously at school; by his second year, he reached the school second team, from where he progressed to the first team then the captaincy.

The family had planned to send Gubby Allen to Haileybury, but Wells persuaded Gubby Allen senior to send his son to Eton instead, although it was a considerable financial burden on the family.

At Eton, Gubby Allen played many sports, but his academic performance was no more than respectable, and he later admitted to laziness.

In cricket, Gubby Allen played for his school house team and had reasonable success with bat and ball; by 1918 he was house cricket captain.

The new Eton coach George Hirst persuaded him to continue, and a few weeks later Gubby Allen took nine for 19 in an innings against Winchester.

Gubby Allen was chosen to play in the annual matches at Lord's in which two teams representing the best public schoolboys opposed each other, but was forced to withdraw with sunstroke.

Towards the end of the 1921 season, Gubby Allen was invited to play first-class cricket as an amateur for Middlesex, for whom he qualified by residence.

Gubby Allen believed that Pelham Warner, who often supported young Middlesex cricketers, encouraged his selection by the club, despite the potential risks to the team's position in the County Championship from playing an inexperienced cricketer.

Gubby Allen made his first-class debut against Somerset on 21 August 1921 and made one other appearance that season without achieving much in either match.

Gubby Allen was left out of the team's first game; as the university was playing Middlesex, he played for the opposition instead and took six for 13.

Towards the end of the season, Gubby Allen returned to the Middlesex team and his 15 wickets placed him at the top of the county's bowling averages.

Gubby Allen played rugby for the Trinity team before resuming cricket for the 1923 season.

Gubby Allen began well, reaching fifty in a first-class match for the first time against Middlesex, in which he shared a stand of 120 for the ninth wicket with Ralph Huband, and taking six for 89 in the same game.

Later in the 1923 season, Gubby Allen was recalled by Middlesex and played five games for the county.

In late 1923, having decided not to return to Cambridge, Gubby Allen took a job in the City working for the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation as an underwriter.

Gubby Allen was free to play regularly for Middlesex in 1924.

Gubby Allen ended the season with 568 runs at 21.84 and 50 wickets at 17.48.

Gubby Allen was chosen for the first time to represent the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord's, where he scored 52, and his reputation grew steadily.

Gubby Allen began well for Middlesex but was less successful in a trial match to help choose the England team.

In county cricket, Gubby Allen scored his first century for Middlesex, and began to open the bowling occasionally, having been the third or fourth bowler in previous seasons.

Gubby Allen declined an invitation to tour South Africa with an MCC team, and work limited him to two first-class games for Middlesex in 1928.

Gubby Allen moved to Lyons for 18 months to work for a silk company.

Gubby Allen worked at Debenhams until 1933, initially as first assistant to the Works Department manager, then as the assistant to the assistant general manager.

Gubby Allen took the first three wickets, but Lancashire were batting comfortably at 215 for three wickets.

Around the tea interval, Gubby Allen took the last seven wickets in 69 deliveries while conceding 13 runs from his bowling, including the last four wickets in five balls.

Gubby Allen was praised in the press, although the Manchester Guardian correspondent suggested that a weak batting performance helped him, and Wisden merely described this as one of several good performances in the game.

Swanton suggests that Gubby Allen's bowling was inconsistent throughout the season; he finished with 31 wickets at 25.87 and scored 544 at 45.33.

Gubby Allen opted to play for Middlesex against Northamptonshire while the team for the second Test was being chosen, and took six for 77.

England batted first, and Gubby Allen scored three runs before being dismissed on the first afternoon.

Wignall claimed that the public felt Gubby Allen should have been omitted, and that the selectors were rumoured to be ignorant of his birthplace.

That day, Gubby Allen opened the bowling for England; after a slow start, the Australian openers added 162 runs before the first wicket fell.

Australia scored 729 for six declared in reply to England's 425, and Gubby Allen returned bowling figures of none for 115 from 34 overs.

England lost early wickets in their second innings, and when Gubby Allen came in to bat, the score was 147 for five wickets, still 167 behind the Australians.

Gubby Allen scored 57 and shared a partnership of 125 with his captain, Percy Chapman, to take England into the lead but Australia won the match by seven wickets.

In contrast to the reaction to his bowling, Gubby Allen's innings was praised in the press.

Gubby Allen was unsuccessful in the Gentlemen v Players game, but performed effectively with the ball for Middlesex.

Gubby Allen continued to struggle when batting, and his highest innings of the year was 77 runs scored in the end-of-season Scarborough Festival.

Gubby Allen was not invited on the MCC tour of South Africa.

When Larwood withdrew with an ankle injury, Gubby Allen was added to the team; according to Anthony Meredith, writing in The Cricketer in 2002, Pelham Warner made this decision himself without consulting his fellow selectors, to their considerable annoyance.

Gubby Allen did not have a particularly good match as a bowler, but was successful with the bat.

Gubby Allen scored 98 in the 150-minute first session, and went on to score 122; with Les Ames, he added 246 for the eighth wicket.

Meanwhile, Larwood was ruled out of the England team after an injury in a car crash; Gubby Allen played in the second Test and took five for 14 in New Zealand's first innings.

England won that game, and the next was drawn after rain washed out the first two days; Gubby Allen neither batted nor bowled.

Gubby Allen ended the season with 401 first-class runs at 30.84 and 40 wickets at 18.77.

Gubby Allen played four times for Middlesex and played in two Test trial games, but did not play in the season's only Test match.

Gubby Allen was low in the national batting and bowling averages; critics pointed out his infrequent appearances in first-class cricket and questioned his stamina for a long tour.

Gubby Allen was one of four fast bowlers chosen for the tour, but did not go along with Jardine's instructions to "hate" the opposition.

Nevertheless, the two men got along, and Gubby Allen later claimed to be Jardine's "best friend" on the tour.

Gubby Allen wrote home that Jardine was "the stupidest man I know", claimed to be terrified of him and suggested that at times he felt like killing him.

Gubby Allen later wrote to his father that Bradman was a "terrible little coward of fast bowling"; the two men later became friends, and Bradman was never made aware of what Gubby Allen wrote.

Gubby Allen played in England's victory in the first Test but took only one wicket.

Gubby Allen retained his place as part of a four-man pace attack in the second Test, took four wickets and was one of the most successful English batsmen in the match.

Gubby Allen's performance was praised by critics and enhanced his reputation.

In total, Gubby Allen took 21 Test wickets at an average of 28.23 and scored 163 runs at 23.28.

Gubby Allen accomplished great work, often getting rid of batsmen likely to be dangerous; his fielding close in on the leg side was uniformly good and he played several excellent innings.

Gubby Allen had no compunction fielding there; at short leg he held five catches from Larwood's bowling in the series.

Gubby Allen played in both, but batted just once and, still feeling the effects of his injury, took only two wickets.

Gubby Allen travelled to England in 1934, and the pair wrote frequently to each other, but Grace died from Bright's disease in 1935.

Gubby Allen did not feel suited to working in a department store, and on his return home took a job with the stockbroking company David Bevan and Co.

Gubby Allen planned to be unavailable for the Test matches against the West Indies, but Larwood was injured and Voce out of form, so he was persuaded to play in the first Test.

Gubby Allen played little thereafter that season and declined an invitation to tour India with an MCC team.

Gubby Allen was selected for the fourth Test but, unhappy with his fitness, withdrew to play for Middlesex.

Gubby Allen was successful in several games preceding the final, deciding Test, and was included in the team.

Australia won comfortably after scoring 701 in their first innings; Gubby Allen took four for 170 and was wicketless in the second innings.

Amid growing speculation that Gubby Allen would be chosen as the next England captain, Warner arranged for him to captain a low-key tour to Gibraltar in early 1935.

Gubby Allen played twice before withdrawing from the rest of the season on medical advice.

Gubby Allen took five for 35 in his first innings as captain and a further five wickets in the second innings, making this the only Test in which he took ten wickets.

At least one selector favoured Claude Ashton, who played first-class cricket infrequently; Gubby Allen informed the selectors that, were Ashton to be made captain, he would not take part in the tour.

Gubby Allen believed that Warner was influential in securing his appointment, but that his Australian background was important given that the tour had to repair tensions left over from 1932 to 1933.

Gubby Allen captained England in the remaining two Tests against India.

The second game was drawn but England won the third and Gubby Allen took seven for 80, his best figures in Test matches.

Gubby Allen met Voce to discuss matters and the latter agreed to sign a statement in which he apologised for the past and in effect promised not to bowl Bodyline.

Gubby Allen played well in the early games, but the team's results were poor as players struggled to adapt to the Australian pitches.

When England batted again, Gubby Allen top-scored with 68, an innings he later rated the best of his career.

England made 256 and, on a pitch affected by rain, Gubby Allen took five for 36 as Australia were bowled out for 58 to lose by 322 runs.

Several critics, including members of his own team, suggested Gubby Allen should have declared to force Australia to bat when the pitch remained very difficult.

Gubby Allen considered the risk to be too great and did not declare until the score had reached 76 for nine.

Gubby Allen was criticised for this, by Warner among others, particularly when the team lost in his absence.

Gubby Allen proposed that he miss the final Test, but the other selectors insisted he play.

Bradman replied that an opposing captain could not veto members of his team, at which Gubby Allen went to the umpires and threatened to bring his team off the field if Bodyline was used.

Gubby Allen clashed over tactics with one of his team, Joe Hardstaff; the pair never got along thereafter.

Gubby Allen played just four first-class games that season, scored 161 runs and took 15 wickets.

Gubby Allen played several times in the early season for Middlesex and performed well with bat and ball, but injured his back.

In 13 first-class games, Gubby Allen scored 431 runs, with a highest score of 64, at an average of 26.93.

In July 1938, Gubby Allen was commissioned into the Territorial Army as a second lieutenant.

Gubby Allen joined the City of London Yeomanry along with several friends and colleagues, and this took up much of his time in 1938 and 1939.

Gubby Allen had time for five first-class games in 1939, scoring 164 runs and taking 16 wickets, before he was called up to the regular army on 24 August 1939.

Gubby Allen's regiment was part of the Royal Artillery; he quickly became involved with Anti-Aircraft Command and began to associate with Royal Air Force officers.

In June 1940, Gubby Allen was appointed as a flak liaison officer to Five Group, an RAF Bomber Command group responsible for distributing intelligence on German air defences collated by MI14 to bomber stations.

Gubby Allen remained in this position for the rest of the war, being promoted to lieutenant colonel when MI14E became MI15.

Gubby Allen had little time for cricket, although he appeared twice for Middlesex in 1946.

Gubby Allen played twice for the Free Foresters, a club of wandering amateurs, in first-class games.

Late in the 1947 season, Gubby Allen was asked to captain and manage an MCC team which was to tour the West Indies that winter.

The young and experimental team suffered badly with injuries; Gubby Allen missed several matches himself through strains.

When Gubby Allen tried to impose discipline on the team to prevent his players staying out late to drink alcohol, neither Cranston nor Hardstaff backed him.

Gubby Allen later regretted accepting the invitation to lead the team.

Gubby Allen did not play any more Test cricket; in 25 matches, he scored 750 runs at an average of 24.19 and took 81 wickets at 29.37.

Gubby Allen played his final Middlesex games in 1950, captaining the team in four matches in the absence of the regular captain, and made his final first-class appearance for the Free Foresters in 1954.

Gubby Allen bowled from sideways on, and according to his Wisden obituary, had "a rhythmical run-up and full follow-through".

Alan Gibson, in his study of England captains, wrote that Gubby Allen "was a fast bowler, not quite of the highest class"; he noted that Gubby Allen became more accurate as he got older, but this was offset by a loss of pace.

Gubby Allen judged him to be an orthodox tactician, possibly influenced by the fact that his two predecessors, Jardine and Wyatt, often used highly unusual tactics.

Gubby Allen was heavily involved in an MCC drive to improve youth cricket in the early 1950s.

Unlike many of the cricketing Establishment, who saw improved public school and amateur cricket as a priority, Gubby Allen wanted the MCC to focus on state schools and boys who did not have access to top-class facilities.

In 1951, the club formed the MCC Youth Cricket Association, of which Gubby Allen was a member.

Gubby Allen worked in collaboration with Harry Altham; Gubby Allen was responsible for the technical aspects of the publication.

In later years, Gubby Allen judged this work to improve youth cricket as one of his proudest achievements as an administrator.

Gubby Allen served as chairman from 1955 to 1961; under him were three other selectors, who varied throughout his period as chairman, and the serving England captain.

Many professional cricketers thought that Gubby Allen was a snob who preferred to keep them in their place; critics believed that he deliberately restricted the career of Les Jackson for reasons of class.

Gubby Allen played an active role in home Test matches, generally attending at least three of the five days of every game, discussing tactics with the captain, and speaking to the press.

The decision was controversial, and Quelch suggests that, with the series in the balance after England lost the second Test, Gubby Allen was feeling the pressure.

Gubby Allen was criticised in the press by Bill Bowes, a former England teammate, for forcing one of the England team, Fred Trueman, to bowl at a handkerchief during practice before the match, in an attempt to improve his accuracy.

In 1956, Gubby Allen became chairman of the MCC's Cricket Committee.

Gubby Allen began to pursue bowlers with illegal bowling actions; commentators were aware that this was a growing issue but no action had been taken, and Gubby Allen took the lead.

Geoff Griffin, a bowler who toured England with the South African team in 1960, was perceived to have a suspect action; when the bowler was no-balled for throwing in a Test match, the South African press suggested that Gubby Allen had played a prominent part.

Later that year, Gubby Allen met Bradman, Australia's representative at the Imperial Cricket Conference ; the pair wanted to ensure that bowling actions would be fair in future, and the ICC agreed to take action.

Gubby Allen later took the lead in re-drafting the law on throwing.

Gubby Allen streamlined the MCC administration and recruited new people to key positions.

Gubby Allen was heavily involved in a change in the relationship between the MCC and English cricket in 1968.

In 1965, Gubby Allen underwent the first of four hip operations spread over the following 14 years; he believed that his fast bowling may have brought about his hip problems.

Gubby Allen's justification was that Douglas-Home, a statesman and former Prime Minister, had given advice which contradicted this;, other Committee members were Test selectors and Gubby Allen believed that the information would place non-cricketing pressures on their choices for the England team.

Oborne suggests that Douglas-Home's advice was made redundant by Cobham's letter, and that Gubby Allen's supposed desire to protect the other selectors was "preposterous" as the tour would have been cancelled.

The MCC was no longer solely responsible for any decisions, being only a part of the Cricket Council, but Gubby Allen pressed the government to intervene and decide whether the tour should go ahead.

Gubby Allen believed it was a political matter outside the scope of cricket authorities; the government eventually became involved and the tour was cancelled.

Gubby Allen retired from the Stock Exchange in 1972, resigned as MCC Treasurer in 1976 and left the Cricket Council in 1982.

Gubby Allen was appointed a CBE in 1962 and knighted in 1986.

In 1968, Gubby Allen moved to a flat directly behind the Pavilion at Lord's, where he lived until his death.

Gubby Allen never married, and died at home on 29 November 1989, suffering from the effects of a stomach operation earlier in the year.

Gubby Allen is buried at Brookwood Cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey, England.