I’VE always thought this whole Christmas thing is a bit over-rated. The frantic gift-buying that people indulge in for months, generating tones of rubbish as expensive wrapping paper and excessive packaging is savagely disregarded into the waste stream. Then there’s the Christmas tree to wrestle into the car and those horrendous tales of families arguing all day with their sister’s husband, who they can’t stand. It is all a bit silly isn’t it?
But Boxing Day is bliss. No hot lunch to cook, contented kids and no commitments, apart from turning on the telly to watch the yachts, or the Boxing Day Test.
I HAVE particularly fond memories of a Boxing Day in years gone by when five of us young blokes from Mittagong headed to Rushcutters Bay to check out the Sydney to Hobart fleet preparing for the big voyage ahead. Amazing boats they were and we even spotted Alan Bond’s wife Eileen barking orders aboard. It wasn’t hard to see why they called her Big Red - she was big and she was red.
We saw the yachts safely out of Sydney Heads, then headed for Randwick to watch the horses gallop around.
IN the comfort of the bar at the racetrack we also watched the final overs in the Boxing Day cricket match from Melbourne. Australia was on the ropes against the then mighty West Indies. Our batsmen had been ripped apart by Michael Holding, who took 5-45 in one of the fastest bowling displays ever seen in Australia.
With just half an hour’s play left on day one, Dennis Lillee responded with probably the finest spell of bowling of his career. He began the session with 306 Test wickets to his name, just behind Lance Gibbs’ world record of 309 and by stumps he had equalled that record. The crowd erupted when he had Desmond Haynes caught at slips for one then trapped nightwatchman Colin Croft for a duck.
At the other end Terry Alderman knocked over Faoud Bacchus, signalling the entry of the best batsman in the world at the time, Viv Richards, who had been in scintillating form.
It was hardly a challenge for Viv, until the very last ball of the day. Lillee almost pushed off the fence in front of Bay 13 as the crowd roared with his every stride, then went berserk as the ball ripped through Richards, cannoning off an inside edge onto the stumps. The master blaster was out, Lillee had taken 3/3, the Windies were 4/10, and it was game on.
“WE’RE off to Melbourne to see Lillee get his record,” decisively declared Peter ‘Pumpkin’ Tomlin at the Randwick Racecourse bar, leading us to the airport with very little money (the bookmakers had most of that) and no baggage - not even a tooth brush or clean undies.
We rummaged through the moth manure and old world war two meat ration vouchers in Roger Cupitt’s wallet to find the only credit card among the five of us. It was a battered old thing, with a crack through the middle, but the helpful bloke at Ansett Airlines got it to work and we were on our way with five very cheap standby tickets to Melbourne on the last flight of the night.
We booked into the People’s Palace for a sleep before heading out to the MCG to catch the start of play on day two.
THAT morning the huge crowd willed a wicket with every ball, screaming deafening chants of “Lillee, Lillee Lillee”, which must have been getting into the head of Larry Gomes, because he found the edge of the bat, snicked it to first slip and Greg Chappell wrapped his mitts around the catch that gave Lillee the world record.
Good news for Chappell who had scored four ducks on the trot in the past 11 days, but even better news for Lillee who went on to take a career best 7-83 and inspire a very rare victory over the West Indies in those frightening days when the Australian batsmen were asking for a rule change to allow them to wear brown corduroy trousers when facing the world’s most fearsome bowling attack.
The roar from the crowd was deafening as Lillee wandered in a daze back to his fielding position down in front of Bay 13. I’ll never forget that day. Come to think of it, I can’t remember a bad Boxing Day.
Have a good one!
*Geoff Goodfellow has lived his life in the Southern Highlands, works for Wingecarribee Council and is well known in local sporting and social circles.
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