Editing Gubby Allen (section)

==Test match career==
===Debut===
During 1930, Allen again had leave in which he could play cricket,<ref>Swanton, p. 85.</ref> and was among the front-runners for a place in the England team.<ref name="Swanton, pp. 85–86">Swanton, pp. 85–86.</ref> His first appearance of the season was for the MCC against the [[Australian cricket team in England in 1930|Australian touring team]]. Although he took four for 28 on the last day, his rivals for an England place were also successful.<ref name="Swanton, pp. 85–86"/> Playing for Middlesex against the Australians, Allen took six for 77 but was overlooked for the first Test at [[Trent Bridge Cricket Ground|Trent Bridge, Nottingham]]. England won the match during the course of which Larwood, the incumbent fast bowler in the team, fell ill. Allen opted to play for Middlesex against [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] while the team for the second Test was being chosen, and took six for 77.<ref>Swanton, p. 86.</ref> His subsequent inclusion in the squad of 13 for that game was not particularly well received by the press.<ref>Swanton, p. 87.</ref>

On the morning of the match, Larwood was unfit and Allen played. England batted first, and Allen scored three runs before being dismissed on the first afternoon.<ref>Swanton, p. 88.</ref> On the second morning, an article in the ''[[Daily Express]]'' by Trevor Wignall, a popular journalist who wrote sensational sports stories, suggested that the crowd's enjoyment of the day was marred by Allen's inclusion on the grounds of his Australian birth. Wignall claimed that the public felt Allen should have been omitted, and that the selectors were rumoured to be ignorant of his birthplace.<ref>Swanton, pp. 88–90.</ref> That day, Allen opened the bowling for England; after a slow start, the Australian openers added 162 runs before the first wicket fell. Like the other bowlers, Allen then rapidly conceded runs to [[Donald Bradman]], who scored 254 runs. Australia scored 729 for six [[Declaration and forfeiture|declared]] in reply to England's 425, and Allen returned bowling figures of none for 115 from 34 [[Over (cricket)|overs]].<ref>Swanton, pp. 89–90.</ref> England lost early wickets in their second innings, and when Allen came in to bat, the score was 147 for five wickets, still 167 behind the Australians. He 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.<ref>Swanton, pp. 89, 91.</ref> In contrast to the reaction to his bowling, Allen's innings was praised in the press.<ref>Swanton, p. 92.</ref> This was his only Test of the series.<ref name=figures/>

Allen was unsuccessful in the Gentlemen v Players game, but performed effectively with the ball for Middlesex. He continued to struggle when batting, and his highest innings of the year was 77 runs scored in the end-of-season Scarborough Festival.<ref name=S94>Swanton, p. 94.</ref> In total, he scored 281 runs at 17.56 and took 42 wickets at 22.19.<ref name=fcbatting/><ref name=fcbowling/> He was not invited on the MCC tour of South Africa.<ref>Swanton, pp. 95–96.</ref>

===Success===
Allen's cricket remained limited in 1931.<ref name=S96>Swanton, p. 96.</ref> Despite all-round success in several early games for Middlesex,<ref name=S96/> he was initially omitted from the team for the first Test against the [[New Zealand cricket team in England in 1931|New Zealand]] team.{{refn|New Zealand were scheduled to play only one Test in 1931. After their strong performance in that match, a further two Tests were added to their programme.<ref name=S99>Swanton, p. 99.</ref>|group=notes}} When Larwood withdrew with an ankle injury, Allen was added to the team;<ref>Swanton, pp. 96–97.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|last=Meredith|first=Anthony| title=Groomed for success| url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/cricketer/content/story/215798.html| publisher=ESPNCricinfo, reprinted from The Cricketer| access-date=6 April 2013|date=July 2002}}</ref> Allen did not have a particularly good match as a bowler,<ref>Swanton, p. 97.</ref> but was successful with the bat. When he started his innings at the beginning of the second day, England had scored 190 for seven wickets in reply to New Zealand's 224.<ref>Swanton, p. 98.</ref> He scored 98 in the 150-minute first session, and went on to score 122; with [[Les Ames]], he added 246 for the eighth wicket.<ref name=S99/> This was a record partnership in Test matches for the eighth wicket until 1996, and an England record for that wicket until 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title=Highest Partnerships for Eighth Wicket in Test matches|url=http://www.wisdenrecords.com/Records/Test/Overall/Batting/Highest_Partnerships_Eighth_Wicket.html|publisher=Wisden|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref> England scored 454, but New Zealand replied with 469 and the match was drawn on the third and final day.<ref name=S99/> This was Allen's only innings of the series.<ref name=tbat>{{cite web|title=Test Batting and Fielding in Each Season by Gubby Allen |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/559/t_Batting_by_Season.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref>

After a gap of three weeks with no cricket, Allen took six wickets in his first match back. Meanwhile, Larwood was ruled out of the England team after an injury in a car crash;<ref name=S100>Swanton, p. 100.</ref> Allen played in the second Test and took five for 14 in New Zealand's first innings.<ref name=S101>Swanton, p. 101.</ref> England won that game, and the next was drawn after rain washed out the first two days; Allen neither batted nor bowled.<ref name=S101/> In the series, he took eight wickets at an average of 16.12.<ref name=tbowl>{{cite web|title=Test Bowling in Each Season by Gubby Allen |url-access=subscription  |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/0/559/t_Bowling_by_Season.html|website=CricketArchive|access-date=6 April 2013}}</ref> He ended the season with 401 first-class runs at 30.84 and 40 wickets at 18.77.<ref name=fcbatting/><ref name=fcbowling/>

Allen played less frequently in 1932, even though he wanted to secure a place in the [[English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33|MCC team to tour Australia]] during the 1932–33 season.{{refn|Throughout Allen's career, the MCC organised and administered English cricket. Official English touring teams always played under the name of MCC and were only styled "England" during Test matches.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.lords.org/history/mcc-history/| title = MCC History| publisher = Marylebone Cricket Club| access-date = 8 April 2013| archive-date = 18 February 2012| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120218202927/http://www.lords.org/history/mcc-history| url-status = dead}}</ref>|group=notes}}<ref name=S103>Swanton, p. 103.</ref> He played four times for Middlesex and played in two Test trial games, but did not play in the season's only Test match.<ref name=S104>Swanton, p. 104.</ref> His most important game of the season was the Gentlemen v Players match, in which many of those involved were potential selections for the touring team; he took eight wickets in the game,<ref name=S104/> and after the second trial was named in the MCC team.<ref name=S106>Swanton, p. 106.</ref> The press reaction to his inclusion was mixed, and there were several who criticised the selectors.<ref name=S107/> He 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.<ref name=D121>Douglas, p. 121.</ref> Having been named in the team, Allen did not play again in the season.<ref name=figures/><ref name=S107>Swanton, p. 107.</ref> In eight first-class matches, he scored 113 runs at 11.30 and took 25 wickets at 25.36.<ref name=fcbatting/><ref name=fcbowling/>

===Bodyline series===
[[File:Bodyline Team.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A team photograph of England's 1932–33 side: Allen is seated second from the right on the front row. [[Douglas Jardine]] is in the centre of the front row and [[Pelham Warner]] is on the extreme left.|alt=A cricket team arranged in three rows. Seventeen men are dressed as players, the other three men are in suits.]]
The MCC tour of Australia during the 1932–33 season was highly controversial owing to the England team's use of what came to be known as [[Bodyline]] bowling.<ref>{{cite web|last=Williamson|first=Martin|title=A brief history ... Bodyline|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/bodyline/content/story/148537.html|publisher=ESPNCricinfo|access-date=8 April 2013}}</ref> The tactic involved bowling at [[leg stump]] or just outside it, pitching the ball short so that it reared at the batsman's body and with a ring of fielders ranged on the [[leg side]] to catch any defensive deflections from the bat. Bodyline bowling was intimidatory,<ref>Douglas, p. 103.</ref> and was largely designed and implemented by [[Douglas Jardine]], the MCC captain,<ref>Swanton, p. 110.</ref> in an attempt to curb the prolific scoring of Bradman.<ref>Douglas, pp. 86, 111.</ref> Allen was one of four fast bowlers chosen for the tour,<ref name=S111>Swanton, p. 111.</ref> but did not go along with Jardine's instructions to "hate" the opposition. Nevertheless, the two men got along,<ref name=S109>Swanton, p. 109.</ref> and Allen later claimed to be Jardine's "best friend" on the tour.<ref name="F116"/> Allen also 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.<ref>Frith, pp. 107, 116.</ref>

Jardine did not initially plan to include Allen in the Test team,<ref name=S109/> but the latter's bowling in the opening tour matches brought him into the frame.<ref name=S113>Swanton, p. 113.</ref> In his first game, he unsettled and dismissed Bradman with his pace;<ref name=S113/> in later years [[Jack Hobbs]], who reported on the game, suggested that Bradman was intimidated by Allen, and [[Jack Fingleton]], who played in the team with Bradman, claimed that he refused to face Allen's bowling.<ref>Frith, p. 83.</ref> 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 Allen wrote.<ref name=F116/>

Allen played in England's victory in the first Test but took only one wicket.<ref name=figures/> He 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. Australia levelled the series after Bradman scored a century,<ref>Swanton, pp. 118–22.</ref> but England won the remaining three matches of the series.<ref name=figures/> In the third game, Allen opened the bowling and took four wickets in each innings. His performance was praised by critics and enhanced his reputation.<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/151781.html| title = England v Australia 1932–33 (Third Test) | work = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack  | year = 1934 | publisher = John Wisden & Co | location = London |access-date = 8 April 2013}}</ref><ref>Swanton, p. 128.</ref> As Voce missed the fourth Test with injury, Allen bowled more in that game and took five wickets, but suffered a side-strain in the second innings.<ref>Swanton, p. 130.</ref> The injury prevented Allen bowling at full pace in the final Test; he played despite his own reservations and struggled throughout.<ref>Swanton, p. 132.</ref> In total, Allen took 21 Test wickets at an average of 28.23 and scored 163 runs at 23.28.<ref name=tbat/><ref name=tbowl/> In his review of the tour for ''Wisden'', Sydney Southerton wrote: "G. O. Allen, about whose selection many hard things were at the time said, fully justified his choice&nbsp;... He 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. Altogether a most useful man in the team."<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/151778.html| title = The M.C.C. team in Australia and New Zealand, 1932–33| work = Wisden Cricketers' Almanack  | year = 1934 | publisher = John Wisden & Co | location = London |access-date = 8 April 2013}}</ref> Jardine praised his contribution after the tour, both to Allen's family and in his official report.<ref>Swanton, p. 136.</ref> In all first-class matches, Allen scored 397 runs at 24.81 and took 39 wickets at 23.05.<ref name=fcbatting/><ref name=fcbowling/> In his biography of Jardine, Christopher Douglas suggests: "[Allen] thrived on the intensive programme of matches and was able to build up his form and consistency to a standard that he hardly ever matched in England."<ref name=D121/>

Throughout the series, Allen refused to use Bodyline tactics,{{refn|Allen's definition of Bodyline was different from that of other people. He maintained that England did not use Bodyline until the second innings of the second Test, when Larwood began to bowl outside leg stump. He maintained that the bowling in the first Test was acceptable and not Bodyline.<ref>Swanton, pp. 137–38.</ref> Speaking to David Frith, he denied that Bodyline was used in the first match, and when challenged, replied: "My dear chap, I was ''there''."<ref>Frith, p. 120.</ref> Frith also reports that on the first day of the second Test, Allen had up to five fielders on the leg side, and one of his deliveries struck the Australian captain [[Bill Woodfull]] on the chest.<ref>Frith, p. 149.</ref> |group=notes}}<ref name=ODNB/><ref name=S111/> and openly said so within the team.<ref>Swanton, p. 127.</ref><ref>Douglas, p. 133.</ref> His attitude made him popular with Australian spectators.<ref name=F116>Frith, p. 116.</ref> Jardine twice tried to force the issue. Before the first Test, he asked Allen to bowl more bouncers with fielders on the leg side; Allen refused, saying he did not want to play cricket like that and that Jardine should leave him out if he was not happy.<ref name=F116/> Prior to the second Test, Jardine again approached Allen and said that Larwood and Voce wanted him to bowl short, and believed that he only refused because he wanted to maintain his popularity. Allen wrote home: "Well, I burst and said a good deal about swollen-headed, gutless, uneducated miners."<ref>Quoted in Frith, p. 146.</ref> Allen threatened not to play, and to go home to relate the events of the tour to the press. Jardine did not pursue the matter.<ref name=F146>Frith, p. 146.</ref> Others in the team also opposed Bodyline. The [[Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi|Nawab of Pataudi]] refused to field in the "leg trap"—the ring of fielders positioned on the leg side to catch deflections from short deliveries—during the first Test.{{refn|Although Pataudi refused to field in the leg trap in the first Test, contemporary diagrams show that he did so during the second Test.<ref name=F118/>|group=notes}}<ref name=F118>Frith, p. 118.</ref><ref>Douglas, p. 148.</ref> Allen had no compunction fielding there; at [[Fielding (cricket)#Fielding position names and locations|short leg]] he held five catches from Larwood's bowling in the series.<ref name=F116/> Upon his return to England, Allen continued to oppose Bodyline tactics, making his opinion known to senior figures in the MCC, and leading a debate among county representatives which resulted in legislation to ban the tactic after the 1934 season.<ref>Swanton, pp. 143–58.</ref>

===Change of career===
During the Bodyline tour, his first visit to Australia since the age of six,  Allen spent time visiting friends and family.<ref>Swanton, pp. 112, 114–15.</ref> Before returning to England, the MCC played two Tests in New Zealand. Allen played in both, but batted just once and, still feeling the effects of his injury, took only two wickets.<ref name=figures/><ref>Swanton, p. 140.</ref> The team returned to England via Canada, but Allen parted company in Vancouver to meet friends in Los Angeles. During his trip, he met several Hollywood stars and passed through Chicago and New York on his way back to England.<ref>Swanton, pp. 140–42.</ref><ref name=F346>Frith, p. 346.</ref> In New York, he met and fell in love with Norah Grace, the daughter of a shipping magnate. She travelled to England in 1934, and the pair wrote frequently to each other, but Grace died from [[Bright's disease]] in 1935.<ref name=F346/><ref name="Swanton, pp. 141–42">Swanton, pp. 141–42.</ref>

Allen did not feel suited to working in a department store, and on his return home took a job with the [[Stockbroker|stockbroking company]] David Bevan and Co.<ref name="Swanton, pp. 141–42"/> Consequently, he played little cricket in 1933.<ref name="Swanton">Swanton, p. 143.</ref> He 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.<ref>Swanton, p. 144.</ref> He played little thereafter that season and declined an invitation to tour India with an MCC team.<ref name=S146>Swanton, p. 146.</ref> In three games that season, he scored 199 runs and took 13 wickets.<ref name=fcbatting/><ref name=fcbowling/> That December, he was elected as a member of the [[London Stock Exchange|Stock Exchange]].<ref name=S147/>

As the 1934 season began, Allen was recovering from an operation to repair a [[Hernia|rupture]] and played only once before that summer's Ashes series, in which [[Bob Wyatt]] captained England.<ref name=S147>Swanton, pp. 147–49.</ref> Injury ruled him out of the second Test, but he was fit for the third.<ref name=S148>Swanton, p. 148.</ref> In a drawn game, he scored 61 runs but took no wickets; troubled by uneven footholds, he bowled three [[Wide (cricket)|wides]] and four [[no-ball]]s during his first over, which lasted for 13 deliveries.<ref>Swanton, pp. 150–51.</ref> He was selected for the fourth Test but, unhappy with his fitness, withdrew to play for Middlesex. He was successful in several games preceding the final, deciding Test, and was included in the team.<ref>Swanton, pp. 152–54.</ref> Australia won comfortably after scoring 701 in their first innings; Allen took four for 170 and was wicketless in the second innings.<ref>Swanton, pp. 155–56.</ref> In two Tests, he took five wickets at an average in excess of 70 and scored 106 runs at 35.33.<ref name=tbat/><ref name=tbowl/> In all first-class games that season he scored 438 runs at 25.76 and took 51 wickets at 27.49.<ref name=fcbatting/><ref name=fcbowling/> Amid growing speculation that Allen would be chosen as the next England captain, Warner arranged for him to captain a low-key tour to Gibraltar in early 1935. During the return journey, Allen pulled a muscle when his ship pitched unexpectedly; the injury limited his cricket during 1935. He played twice before withdrawing from the rest of the season on medical advice.<ref>Swanton, pp. 159–60.</ref> Off the field, Allen was elected to the MCC Committee at the unusually young age of 32.<ref>Swanton, p. 209.</ref>