Bob Massie: Bassendean to Lord's

0:03Welcome to the Bear Essential Podcast, where I will chat to the people who have contributed to the rich history of the Bayswater Morley Cricket Club, formerly known as the Bassendean Bayswater Cricket Club, established in 1946. My name is David Baird, and my association with the club began in 1983, and over the years I've been a player, lower grade captain, president, secretary, and club coach. Today I will be chatting to Bob Massie. Bob played 159 games for Bayswater Morley, 24 Sheffield Shield games for Western Australia, and for Australia he's played three one-day internationals and six test matches. Bob was Bayswater Morley, Bassendean Bayswater's first test representative.

0:44Bob was a player, administrator, and coach of the club. The pavilion at Hillcrest is named in his honour, and he is a life member of the club.

0:54Welcome Bob, thanks for your time. I thought I might start straight at 72. Lots has been probably thought that it was a meteoric rise, but it was a lot of work went into getting into the test side and wondered if you could give us some background. Yes, well playing at a very early age, 18, I played a state match, and I had 99 first grade wickets at that stage, and I didn't think I was a superstar or anything like that, but I didn't get any wickets in that match, and the best thing was to play to find out how far away I was, and I was a long, long way off the standard required to be a state trigger, and that led to me making other decisions, which we'll probably come to later on.

1:41And the English... The England Lords will be forever sort of etched in people's memory. What about the lead up and just a little bit of background to that particular time in your life, I guess? Well, at the end of my first season in Scotland, people drove me down to London, and I had about the best part of a day to just do something before I went to the airport. I thought, well, I've got to see Lords because I may not never get back here, who knows? So I caught the undergrounds and got directions. And I finally started walking down the street, and there was this little sign, which was a bit of a letdown. It just said, Lords, with a sort of looking pudding that way.

2:23So I went down there and went through this single gate, and I walked in, and I didn't know what to expect when I walked in. And I was in the nursery, and it wasn't until I looked up and saw the back of the stands that I realized that, aha, it's through there, you know? And of course, there's an opening where you can drive the machinery through and what have you. So I walked up, and it wasn't a solo. No one. And the season had finished. They had top-dressed the wiffers. They're just little pieces of gravel. And I walked and stood there. No one said, what are you doing here or anything? So I went out on the ground expecting a booming loudspeaker announcement.

3:04Nothing happened. Walked out to the center square, stood at the edge of the center square, looked around at the pavilion and the stands. Not a soul. And when it felt like it, I went back the same way. It worked out. It was incredible.

3:20Yeah, to just walk into Lourdes. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. So you mentioned Scotland. You played over there. What was the reasoning from Scotland for, say, somewhere else in the UK, which is kind of a traditional route to go? Well, very good question. Number one, Dad was Scottish. When I was growing up, Dad would show me sketches that his father in the lighthouse. Dad was born in a lighthouse out in a rock in the North Sea with his sister. And Dad showed me these sketches. So his dad would just draw of Scottish castles and just on yellow paper and pencil. And so Scotland was like this magical faraway place.

4:00I used to practice a lot by myself down at the local park, bowling in the nets. And after a couple of years, of course, people were at the mercy of the weather. And if it's raining, you couldn't practice. So I thought, well, a lot of people used to go and get a contract to go and play in the UK as a professional or just join up with a club. And I thought, well, if I go and play over there, I'll be playing. I'll be playing all the time, pretty much. So I'll be able to get as much bowling in as I can under match conditions. And when I got there, the beauty was they played with the jukeball. So that was great practice. So that was the main reason, but also because I'd wanted to go and see where Dad came from. Yeah, for sure.

4:41Going back to Basel and Morley days, at a very young age, there was a number of you who were in administration, probably before your time, it was a young club and just wondered what sort of jobs that you got roped into and were involved with back in the day. Back in those days. Well, we had to be on the committee because there was no one else available. There would be the president, who was a mature figure, of course, and probably a patron who we probably never saw. So it was the players had to be the committee for the club to function. We all bogged in and just did everything that was necessary. If we had to put the nets up when the new season was starting, cleaning out the change rooms or whatever needed to be done, we would just bog in and do it.

5:23And who were some of your mates being back in those days? Were involved at committee level with you? Oh, Danny McEvoy, I suppose, closest to my best mate. Ray Shaw, Geoff Addison, Mel O'Neil was the key figure, the most experienced person in the club and others. It was interesting times because, yeah, there was just not committee men and players. It was players who were committee men. Yeah, yeah. Not a lot of experience. Yeah. Well, even prior to your admin days, you sort of had a bit of an unusual, unusual start at Basel and Morley, considering the status you ended up with, as maybe you can let us know.

6:05Well, it's just funny how things turn out. Danny was captain of a Cambridge League team, which Bedford started up, Bedford Youth Club. Mum saw the advertisement in the paper, local paper, told me, and I went down to training. It was just up the end of our strip at Beaufort Park. And we practised at Beaufort Park. We played all our matches at Wellington Square. We won the title.

6:31Mel must have got wind of it and invited us to become the second under-16 team, second to Basel, then under-16s. And so we played on turf. And it coincided with starting up at Hillcrest. So we played our home games at Hillcrest before our matches being played there. Now, it must have been at the end of that season, because we only had one year in the Champions League, and one of the fellows had a Land Brever or something. I don't know how he could drive at that age, but it was a game at the Waka. Basel and Dean were playing Westport. And we drove into the Waka and sort of found out where Basel and Dean was playing.

7:12And Mel O'Neil recognised us and came over and said, oh, would one of you boys like to score for us? And the other guy said, well, I can't stay all day.

7:22And so I said, oh, if I can get a lift home, I'll score. And he said, oh, we'll get you home, because we've all got to go back that way. And Beaufort Street was the main drag in those days. And so my bike was left at Beaufort Park at the top of our street. And I started the day. It started at 62, 63, Susan. And I was getting a fair few wickets in under-16s. And Mel came up to me after four matches and said, well, we'd like you to start playing senior cricket in the afternoon. We'd like to play you in fourth grade under Ron Bucky. And they were doing very well. They were beating teams. And Ron had about 20-odd wickets after four games. And they had a really good bowling attack. Wayne Stewart, Harry Evans, and Don Buckingham.

8:04And so I said, but I'm the scorer. And he said, don't worry, we'll get another scorer. And so I started playing fourth grade. And I got 70 wickets in 10 games, 71 wickets. Now, some of the wickets were pretty horrendous. I got 14 wickets in one match at Paid Park West. And I reckon seven or eight of them, the ball didn't leave the pitch. It just shuffled on the ground. And so those figures are a bit misleading. But we got in the grand final. And we got beaten by Fremantle at College Park over two weekends. So that sort of early start and then move through, the grades, obviously.

8:44Can you just, as we progress through, just have a look as you started to make the Shield team and maybe how you heard about that and then progressed on, as I say, to the Test Arena? Well, there was a committee meeting on a Tuesday night after practice. We obviously had gone home, had tea, and we went back to Higgins' place in Bayswater. And Mel was waiting on the Duranda as we walked in. That was Danny himself, I think, walked in. And he said, oh, Bob, can I see you for a sec? And I thought he wanted me to vote a certain way. And, you know, whether we delay this one-pound bill from the Bassambeen Council for another two months or do we buy it, administration wasn't my bad, Ben.

9:24And so it wasn't that at all. He said, look, Bob, I've had a call from the Chairman of Selectors, Alan Edwards.

9:33Laurie Maines had to pull out of the state match starting on Friday against South Australia with a back injury. And they want you to go down to the Wacken State practice tomorrow night with Bruce Shardley for a bowl off to see which one of your plays, in the match on Friday. Well, I don't know what was said at that meeting.

9:51And I went down to the bowl off and it seemed like there was about 1,000 people there because there wasn't 1,000. And Bruce and I have bowled for a fair while. And then Alan Edwards said, oh, Bob, can I see you? And he just took off. And he started walking towards the players' change room. And I thought, oh, well, looks like I'm going to get the bad news. And he walked and walked and walked and walked. We got right in front of the old players' change room. He said, you're playing on Friday. Bob, can you just, Bruce Shardley, Bruce started as a seamer. So he was playing off against you as a seam bowler, not as a spinner that we remember him as as later in his career. Yes, that's right.

10:32He was a medium-paced swing bowler. And it wasn't until quite a bit later that Keith Slater carried him to bowl. He used to bowl these off spinners with a funny sort of grip he used in baseball. And he got drift and bounce and turn and spud. Eventually he got into, bowled these in the game. And then he started bowling them in club matches and obviously doing very well. And the rest is history. And if we project a little bit further, what about getting into the test side and the next level up? How did that all materialise? Well, I hadn't played a game in the Eastern States. Someone thought I wouldn't be effective in the Eastern States. So I missed a couple of tours. One I definitely, I reckon, should have been on.

11:12The other one probably should have been on. So the first match we played was against Victoria at the MCG. I got seven wickets in the match. Went to Sydney for the second match. And I didn't bowl very well in the first inning. So I won for 50 odd. The second innings is only not long to play, a few hours. And I got three for six quite quickly. One might have been a dodgy decision, but they owed us a couple of New South Wales umpires. And then they ended up six down and Doug Walters and Kevier Keith saved the match. I then went out that night to some friend's place who had been a lady I was in school with.

11:54Known for 10 years of age through the local church and what have you. Had moved to New South Wales and had children and what have you. And the teams in those days were announced on the radio, eight o'clock on the ABC News. And so I just said to her, I think you might have missed the first news bulletin. I just said, oh, would you mind putting the early one or just to see what teammates are playing in the next international match. So she put it on and the team came across and it was read out in alphabetical order. And my name came out. No, I couldn't believe it. Two games in the Eastern States. And yeah, so my husband had been at a meeting and then he drove us back, which was about 20 miles or something.

12:40We had it from, oh, I forget, the suburb. I thought, I'm driving back to Sydney. They dropped me off about close to midnight and I get out of the car, wave them goodbye and realised then that my cricket bag is in the boot and we're flying out next morning for Brisbane. So I had to ring them when they got home and ask them, could they please bring me home? My cricket bag, that. Wow. And we took off. But yeah, there was no phone calls or anything in those days. No. The only first thing was a game against South Australia when I was 18 when it was just a face-to-face thing through circumstances. Yeah. The 1972 tour to England, I remember as a young bloke being devastated, not because you were in, but Graham McKenzie was left out for David Collier thing and I'm going, oh, because he was a real favourite.

13:32So that was quite a... Iconic tour also led by Ian Chappell. It was a really changing time. So just wondered again, if you can give us any insights into his leadership and the team, the whole dynamics of it all. Well, that day that the team was announced, we had a double wicket competition at Hillcrest. It was about 100 degrees.

13:53Nancy, my wife, had immigrated from Scotland and she fainted in the dressing room, in the change rooms. And Mrs. Lawrence had helped her out. I was out in the field. I didn't do much, but we won it. She'd winning and I were partners. And we had to set the presentations and what have you. I promised mum and dad we'd go back for the announcement of the team to England. And so I've gone back and we listened to the team. The team comes out and the phone rings just after the announcement's been made. And it was Graeme Watson. He said, oh, mate, you've heard we've won the shield.

14:36We're having a get together at such and such restaurant in James Street. I said, oh, okay, mate. I said, congratulations. He said, oh, thanks. Yeah, it was a great season. I said, no, you're in the team to England. Wow. Wow, what news. You were injured when the first test was on and then obviously the second test at Lord's. Take us back. Yeah, well, the match was against the MCC, which was like a test press rehearsal for both teams. And we bowled first. And the first over I bowled, the ball was swinging beautifully. And Dennis was bowling from the other end, the nursery end, which was up the hill, which was quite unusual for him.

15:21And he was beating the batsman right left and centre under the door. You know, this is going to be fun today. Bowled another over, same thing, swinging all over the place. And then the first ball of the third over I bowled, I was running in and almost got out of my action and I just felt this stabbing pain in my left side. Tried to bowl another ball and couldn't. And I'd obviously done damage to my intercostum muscle. And there was a doctor there at the ground and they called him in and I got this right big needle in the side and I missed three and a half weeks, as you said. And then when I came back and played against Combined Universities, I bowled all right, got some wickets, including Majid Khan.

16:07It was opening for them. And in the second match, I got smashed around a bit in the first innings, got two for about 80. Their captain was a real mouth and was getting stuck into us. Then the second innings, that's right, Ian Chappell come up, he said, look, mate, don't get involved with this bloke. He said, you've got a test to play shortly. And that sort of relieved the pressure a bit. And then I got two for 30-something in the second innings. And that was the last game before the second test. And then the second test arrives, you're picked and there was a little bit of talk about around the wicket and different sort of bowling. I still remember watching it and listening to it on the radio.

16:49So maybe take us through that. Yeah, it was very interesting. It was very interesting because it had only been in the last month that I thought to myself, if a certain player hadn't have been playing, I would never have been bombing around the wicket. So what happened was, on the plane over, I woke up and everyone else was asleep. It was night time and I'd had a bit of a decent nap and I wasn't going to go back to sleep, I could tell. So I started just thinking about the England batting order, how I bowled to them. And I had this idea that because Ed Rich was such a good lever of the ball and reading the line of the ball, I thought it was swinging on my chest. I'd come around the wicket and bomb an in-swinger at his off-stump. Like a left-armer bowling is a way-swinger to him.

17:32And then I went through boycott and, well, he had trouble with calling in 64. I was an out-swing bowler. You have them get to him, Dola Vera, what have you. I went around in the first innings, but I didn't get Ed Rich. He had Dennis got him. And I got him in the second innings. And I was about to go back over the wicket because I had no intention to keep bowling around, they'll get to right-handers. And so I was about to change and I thought, hang on, instead of you chopping and changing, just stay here for a bit and see what happens. And, of course, they just kept nicking me. Brilliant. So test career, it was short and, you know, maybe the story as to how it maybe finished so quickly and also how you get told that stuff at that level or is it just all of a sudden your name doesn't get read out?

18:18Yeah, you just read it in the paper. You don't get told anything. Well, after the England tour, we came back, we played two tests against Pakistan. The interesting thing was, and they asked the team, well, we were on Eastern States tour and I only listened to their names being read out once because they never, you know, said any changes were happening for the second test before the first test was played. And after we finished this, we were all, thank heavens for that, and Ross Edwards said, hang on, mate, there was something else and your name was mentioned. So we listened again the next hour and it said, you know, the team for the first testing against Pakistan is so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so. And for the second test, J.R. Thompson, New South Wales, will replace R.A. or Massie.

19:02Western Australia. I said, that's odd. What if I got 16 wickets against Pakistan? Get dropped for the second test. So we were playing at the Adelaide Oval and it was pouring with rain and one of the selectors was standing out just by himself looking across the Oval. And I just sort of said, oh, hello to him. I didn't ask any questions why I was not playing. And he never offered any explanation. Ian Chappell, I said, mate, do you know what's going on? He said, no, no, nothing. I expect to see you. In Sydney. And, yeah, what they were doing, they were trying people out for the West Indies Tour and they picked Thompson not knowing that he was playing with a broken bone on his foot.

19:45And they got none for 100 and none for 10. Then, of course, he didn't get picked for the next test. I was back in for the next test. And, of course, he didn't go to the West Indies. And you went to the West Indies and then, yeah, maybe I'll leave that. Yeah, well, that was the downfall. The West Indies didn't have the real fast bowlers at the time. It was before the real fast bowlers arrived. Michael Holding played against us at Montego Bay. But he was 16 or 17 or something. You know, the wickets, no grass on the wicket at all. And some of the outfields had no grass on them. Only a few grounds had grassy outfields.

20:25So the ball lasted 10 overs and it was just shredded of any shine. And so a bit later on, you could swing it for a while but not very long at all. And I was then subconsciously trying to slam it into the pitch. And I was then subconsciously trying to slam it into the pitch. to try and get some movement. And I just lost my rhythm and my action. And I just couldn't get it back together. And after I'd come back and playing for WA and not bombing very well, eventually got dropped. And I worked for a year, did everything I possibly could. John Inferno got Ray Strauss to come down to the Nets to try and help me. But I just couldn't get the fluency and the rhythm in my action that I had built up over 10 years.

21:11And I finally got back. I played a match against South Australia. Wasn't at my peak, but I got three for 80-odd off 26 overs or something. And then two simple catches dropped in the slips. Then I was dropped again. So I just thought I've had enough of this. So I just ran out on the bridge. It was a lovely blow. And I just said, Alan, I'm not coming down the WACA anymore. I've had enough of this selection stuff. If you want me, you know where I am. But I won't be coming down to training anymore. Fair enough. And he said, oh, don't be like that. I said, I'm sorry, Alan. I've just had enough of it. No, no, no. Well, I might move to a different angle. You had a very long stint as a commentator with the ABC and wondered how that came about and some of the highlights of that.

21:58Well, Dennis Lillee broke Richard Venno's record and Ian Brayshaw was working full-time ABC. And I was working in the Commonwealth Bank at South Perth and Ian Lang said, look, I'm doing, compiling a program about Dennis breaking Richard Venno's record. And we're talking to players who played with Dennis and against Dennis. I thought I'd come out and do an interview with you. And I said, yeah, sure. So he came out to the bank. The manager let us use his office. And we talked about Dennis and his feet. And then at the end of it, when it was finished, he said, look, just want to ask you a question. Would you be interested in doing some commentating for the ABC?

22:42He said, I'm going to be going at comments into ball by ball this year with Keith Slater and Dennis Kemeny. And we're putting on, looking for three new, not experts, voices, comments here. And so Rick Charlesworth started, myself and Tony Locke on the first day. But prior to that, I thought you'd have to go and have a voice test and be given some guidelines and what have you. George Brutusich gave me a room and just said, oh, mate, it's George Brutusich here. Ian Brayshaw tells me that you might be interested in doing some commentary. Do you think you can do it? Well, I didn't know whether I could do it or not, but I said, yes, I think so.

23:24And that was it. That was it. I said, is there any guidelines or whatever? He said, yeah, don't swear.

23:32You're telling me not to swear. What would the highlight of your broadcasting have been or an event or just an occasion? Well, number one, doing the World Cup final, 1992, MCG, 85,000 people, England, Pakistan. I said to Neville Oliver, because I started doing, after a few years, I was doing interstate test matches. I did about 10 Boxing Day tests straight because no, I wanted to be away Christmas Day, so I didn't mind doing it. It was submitting your place, I guess, and doing the Perth test and sometimes another one. And I said to him, oh, gee, I'd, I'd, I'd suddenly come up at the World Cup and said, oh, I'd work for nothing to do that, you know.

24:17And about a week later, Neville ran and said, look, mate, if you're happy to do the World Cup, we'll fly you over, put you up. So that was a wonderful experience to do that. And we walked back. It was a balmy night. And I bumped into Bob Cummins. He'd played for the rest of the world during that series prior to England. And we went out and had a meal and a couple of drinks and had a great night. So it was a very eventful day. The other, I suppose, whole lot was doing a test match with Alan McGilvray.

24:53It was rather interesting. The other side was Mac used to like to go around and see his mates during the breaks when he wasn't commentating and have a couple of middies and come afternoon, he was commentating at the WACA with me and he was a fair way away. And I was down the other end from him. And he said, after these comments from turned around and he peered at me and it seemed like an eternity, he said, Norm.

25:27He didn't correct him, but that was one. But yeah, that was Jim Maxwell, Tim Lane and Neville Oliver. It was a terrific panel of callers. Because they just had such different styles that it worked so well. Jim starting off with the details of the start of the day's play or on the first day, the teams and the conditions and what have it. And then Tim Lane with his research and background of previous tests and all those sort of things. And then Neville was the ideal person to come in for the last session, especially if it's coming up to lunch or tea when perhaps the game's over.

26:10And it was just becoming a little bit flat because of his voice and his uplifting and racy sort of style. He'd lift the broadcast again. And it was really fantastic. And we all used to go out and have tea together at night at other tests. It was great days. And Basel and Morley benefited from your ABC connections with a number of Test Max breakfasts where all those gentlemen all came along and gave their time and they were great events. Yeah. And I was glad it happened. I was glad I was part of the club because the club was great to me. And they enjoyed it. They looked forward to it. Yeah. So, Bob, you've coached extensively. What would some of your favourite memories be in that area?

26:53Well, Betty, individually, doing work with Wayne Clark and Bruce Reid, you know, I saw them as young guys and thought, but these guys have got real potential. And I don't know what it is, but you can look at some blokes and say, he's got it. I think he's got it. He does the work. He's got a good chance of making it. So, with Wayne, and Bruce Reid, I spent two winters with them down at Hillcrest on a Sunday morning, if it wasn't raining, and just teaching them what I thought they had to learn. Wayne had to learn to bowl the outswinger, which he didn't have, like I didn't have when I was young. And Reedy had to learn to swing it in as a left-hander to swing it into the right-hander.

27:33And so, we spent two winters on a Sunday morning just working on that aspect alone. And then that just gives you the armoury to go away and work on it. That's what they both did. We both played test cricket.

27:48And from a club or a team focus? Yeah. After being on the WACA coaching staff for a couple of years, I went back to Basie, and they needed a bit of tightening up in a few areas, and some nicknames weren't very appealing to me. So, the guys were terrific, and they just made the changes I asked for. And two years later, we played off in the grand final at the WACA against Mount Lawley, who were a good side. And we lost. We lost by, I think, 30 or 40 runs. It was a mighty fine run chase. Unfortunately, we dropped, I think, Mike Boletta on nought, and he made 140.

28:28So, that didn't help the cause, but that was a highlight to get there. The players really worked hard, and they really gelled. We were lucky to get one young Ryan Campbell, who came down from Kalgoorlie with Tim Brookes, who turned out to be a terrific asset to the club, got over 300 wickets. And he was great to work with. And maybe... Maybe just as we start to wind up, some of the favourite players you played with or been involved with over the journey, both from a playing capacity and people around the club that have been a big influence at Bayswater? Well, there's a lot of Bayswater and Wally players that I really enjoyed playing with. It was a terrific club.

29:09And the thing that always is, it was a true club. Everybody from first grade to fourth grade, you know, were treated equally. Well, that was what my perspective was. And Danny and Ray Shaw, Peter Lawrence, Wayne Clark, Tom Mullooly, Mel O'Neil, you know, that's terrific. And when we first started off, Mel really put emphasis on young players. I knew the group he had wasn't going to go very far or get any beating very easily when I was scoring. And so he injected youth into the team. The value of Mel was, Danny tells the story, that one of his very first matches, he was having real trouble against a certain bowler, and Mel just took over, and Danny and her face, that bloke for six overs, Mel just farmed the strike.

29:57It kept him away from things like that. Then, of course, young McCall Lake, Ken McCall Lake and Neil McCall Lake came along. And Ken, of course, developed into a state opener. And apart from his brilliant football career, it was a very fine opening batsman and took some great catches in the slips. On the state level, well, the 71-72 Shield team had the greatest spirit you could ever have. It was, selectors would pick the players. They can't pick whether you're going to all gel together. But we did, and we felt like we had another one or two players on the field when we went out because everybody felt about each other and worked together.

30:38Best players, Lily, I mean, the whole team in 71-72 and around then was an excellent side. But Lily was a standout. Invers is captain.

30:49But everyone, right through the list. You know, Marshy was a magnificent keeper. Batsman, Ross Edwards. Yeah, pretty hard to say, sort of only name a handful. And who's he against, players against? Well, Greg Chappell was the best player I bowled against ever. I didn't play against Viv Richards, Barry Richards. But Greg Chappell had the watertight technique. Concentration was fantastic. And he had a brilliant temperament. So there's a lot of good players around. But he was one that was, I'd pick as number one. Fantastic.

31:29Bob, it's been great to catch up. Thank you. And all the best. Thanks very much, Ben.