Supremos: Melburnians Bill Ponsford (left) with Bill Woodfull. Together they shared 23 century stands, three in Tests.

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‘No, Ken,’ he told me, his eyes twinkling. ‘I couldn’t tell you that. The income tax people might be after me…’

MUTT and JEFF

Few pairings have ever been as celebrated as Bill Ponsford and Bill Woodfull, Australia’s prolific openers who flattened bowlers’ spirits and the seams of cricket balls with ruthless efficiency. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was their stage. Only Dolly the Clydesdale spent more time in centre pitch, daily hauling the roller up and down the famed wicket square prompting a stream of extraordinary run feasts.

Twice in the timeless 1920s, Victorian XIs amassed 1000 runs-plus. Ponsford scored 429 in the first match and 352 in the second. When the ball rolled off his boot onto the stumps, robbing him of another quadruple, he muttered: ‘By cripes, I’m unlucky!’

Eight of his 23 century stands with Woodfull came in Melbourne, including their biggest three: 375, 236 and 227, all at interstate level just months after they’d opened for Australia for the first time. On witnessing the toss and seeing the broad frame of Woodfull preparing to take the first ball as was his habit, the team’s wicketkeeper Jack Ellis, a building inspector, would take himself off to a site or two and on the way back to the ground leisurely lay some bets with a local bookmaker, so sure was he that he wouldn’t be required to bat until late in the day, if at all.

Sydney pressmen had initially been aghast when two Southerners were promoted to Test openers. One dubbed them ‘Mutt and Jeff’ after the comic strip characters. A stream of elite New South Welshmen, from Warren Bardsley and Herbie ‘Horseshoe’ Collins to Charlie Macartney and Tommy Andrews, had been at the head of Australia’s order for years. But so dependable were they that by the end of their reign, even the most caustic Sydney scribes were calling Ponsford and Woodfull ‘The Twins’.

On wide, ever-so-white wickets, which should have carried a health warning to bowlers, ‘The Two Bills’ would bat for hours. Woodfull, seemingly ungainly, hands apart on the handle, all concentration; and Ponny, cap on its familiar tilt, dancing at the spinners and toying with the mediums, always showing the full face. Ponny treated net practice like it was a Test match. Bert Ironmonger once said he’d bowled at Ponny for years at St Kilda, yet rarely induced even a play and miss! The record breaker was almost always controlled and inscrutable.

As a 15-year-old in short pants on his first XI debut at the St Kilda Cricket Ground, Ponsford batted for more than an hour against the men from Fitzroy. The opposing attack included EA ‘Ted’ McDonald, soon to be one of the premier pacemen in the world, yet Ponny made 12, all in singles.

‘I couldn’t hit the ball past the bowler then,’ he told me years later. ‘But it wasn’t bad going. I was pretty small.’

Before his massive new world record 429, Ponny hadn’t made a century at club level. The closest was a 99 earlier that summer for St Kilda against South Melbourne when he was run out by a direct hit. The fielder? Woodfull!

The Ponsford-Woodfull combine became the most famous in Australian Test annals, the pair recording century stands in Australia, England and New Zealand. Few before or since could so occupy the crease or be so consistently relied upon to take the shine off the ball for the players who followed. Their signature English summer of 1930 saw them amass three centuries in four Tests; shades of Hobbs and Sutcliffe. A young Don Bradman, in at No. 3, was a beneficiary and sparkled like no-one before or since. At a send-off gala function for the team at the tour end, Sir James Barrie of Peter Pan fame read a specially composed poem, ‘How to Get Woodfull Out’.

A fourth 100-run partnership between the two Bills came the following Australian season in Sydney, when the pair ushered in the New Year with a fifth-wicket stand of 183 in just two hours and 20 minutes. Woodfull, captaining at home for the first time, batted at No. 6. It was the highest of their Australian Test stands.

Woodfull was the ultimate team man and with his no-fuss ways and caring approach was always very popular amongst his peers. He wouldn’t have a drink himself, but he’d buy beers for his team. The son of a minister, he was a Methodist and worked hard for his success. As Australia’s bravest captain, he’d refused to be bowed by Bodyline, and led by his own no-nonsense example. In the rooms before a game he wouldn’t say much, but for a, ‘Come on fellers. Remember it’s straight up the centre with no short passes.’

Woodfull wasn’t the fastest runner between wickets and once, sometimes twice a season, was run out. But such misfortunes were rare in combination with Ponsford, only a handful of run-outs occurring in almost 100 stands together. They trusted each other’s judgment and took genuine pride in their achievements. Their stellar 375 against New South Wales during Christmas Week, 1926, remained a record for Sheffield Shield cricket for 65 years. It stamped their authority as a world-renowned opening pair… and it came at a rare old clip:

1–50: in 28 minutes

51–100: 47

101–150: 40

151–200: 17

201–250: 24

251–300: 34

301–350: 25

381–375: 8

When Woodfull was dismissed for 133, Ponsford was 232 and scoring at a run a minute. He was 170 when Woodfull reached 85. No mega-score had ever been amassed so quickly in the Sheffield Shield. Of 190 eight-ball overs bowled by New South Wales, just five were maidens. The Victorians batted six sessions for 1107, a new world-record score, before keeper Ellis was run out. The New South Wales attack included the whimsical leg-spinner Arthur Mailey who said his figures of four for 362 would have been far superior, ‘Had a chap in a tweed coat 20 rows back near the shilling stand not kept dropping Jack Ryder!’ He was sorry Ellis had succumbed at the end as he was ‘just striking a length!’

WOODFULL and PONSFORD IN TESTS
Opponent	Tests	Innings	Not Out	Best	Runs	Average	100s
England	8	13	0	162	569	43	3
South Africa	4	6	1	185	738	37	0
West Indies	2	3	0	50	106	35	0
Total	14	22	1	162	860	41	3

Late on the first day of Victoria’s epic, Victoria’s No. 3 HSTL ‘Stork’ Hendry suggested to Ponsford that they hit out, only to be told that he could do so if he wanted, ‘But I might just try and hang around a bit longer, Stork!’

It wasn’t until the first hour the following day that Ponsford mis-hit a delivery from New South Wales change bowler Gordon Morgan onto his foot, the ball trickling back onto his stumps. As he whacked his leg in annoyance, New South Wales captain Alan Kippax said: ‘What are you crook about? You’ve been there long enough.’ Years later Ponsford told me he could still remember the moment. ‘I was just starting to see them too!’ His 352 came in just six hours and three minutes and included thirty-six 4s. He did not give a chance until he was 265. He’d wanted to better Clem Hill’s Shield record of 365 as several of his teammates had laid some bets. He felt he’d let them down.

Ponsford and Woodfull remained Australia’s first-choice openers until the conclusion of the 1934 Ashes tour, when both retired, Woodfull at 37 and Ponsford 34. Woodfull had a teaching career to follow and played little cricket afterwards. Ponsford, a clerk and for a time a journalist, continued at club level at Melbourne. The Bodyline summer of 1932–33 soured the international game for them both, Woodfull’s widow years later saying the terrific hit under the heart her husband had taken in Adelaide had shortened his life.

In an interview that the normally publicity-shy Ponny agreed to only after daily phone promptings from his old teammate Leo O’Brien, Ponny told me that Bodyline ‘wasn’t the game’. He’d loved each of his three trips to England but felt 1938 and the next scheduled Ashes tour was too far away, so he retired too.

Ponsford’s ultimate first-class batting average was 65.18, Woodfull’s average just a boundary short of 65. Of those to make 10,000-plus first-class runs only two, India’s Vijay Merchant with 71.22 and Bradman with 95.14, have superior averages.

As Victoria’s long-time Sheffield Shield openers Woodfull and Ponsford averaged 70 together, including 120 in 1926–27 and 104 in 1927–28. While Ponny was the more fluent and generally reached the major milestones quicker, Woodfull had his moments, most notably on the 1934 Ashes tour in a county game in Bristol when the pair started with 183, Woodfull reaching his 100 in three hours, half an hour before Ponsford was out for 54. With the arrival of Bill Brown, who opened in the final four Tests, Woodfull dropped himself down the list but remained a force.

Their final match together was a testimonial in their honour in Melbourne, in November 1934, shortly after the return of the Ashes touring team. Appropriately they shared in their twenty-third and final century stand, 132 for the fourth wicket, Ponny in at No. 5 making 83 and Woodfull, No. 6, 111, having been cheered all the way to the wicket after lunch to the Northcote Boys’ Band’s rendition of ‘For They’re Jolly Good Fellows’. Early rain on the Saturday seemed likely to affect the crowd, but more than 22,000 still came to celebrate with two of Australia’s finest.

‘We were a little unlucky though,’ said Ponsford. ‘It was wet. In those days people worked on a Saturday morning. When it rained people would go home instead of going to the cricket. Our fund diminished somewhat.’ They each received more than 1000 pounds, but Ponny was uncomfortable divulging the exact figures. ‘No, Ken,’ he told me, his eyes twinkling. ‘I couldn’t tell you that. The income tax people might be after me if I start making statements!’ One thousand pounds then was the 2000s equivalent of $65,000. A fair return indeed for two of Australia’s finest.

CENTURY STANDS BETWEEN ‘THE TWO BILLS’
First wicket (18)
375	Victoria v New South Wales, Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1926–27 Ponsford 352, Woodfull 133
236	Victoria v South Australia, MCG, 1927–28 Ponsford 336, Woodfull 106
227	Victoria v New South Wales, MCG, 1927–28 Ponsford 202, Woodfull 99
223	Australians v The Rest, Sydney Cricket Ground, 1926–27 Ponsford 131, Woodfull 140
214	Australians v Otago, Dunedin, 1927–28 Ponsford 148, Woodfull 107
184	Australian XI v New Zealand, Auckland, 1927–28 Ponsford 86, Woodfull 284
183	Australians v Gloucestershire, Bristol, 1934 Ponsford 54, Woodfull 131
162	Australia v England, Lord’s, second Test, 1930 Ponsford 81, Woodfull 155
159	Australia v England, The Oval, fifth Test, 1930 Ponsford 110, Woodfull 54
158+	Victoria v South African XI, MCG, 1931–32 Ponsford 84 not out, Woodfull 73 not out
138	Victoria v New South Wales, SCG, 1932–33 Ponsford 200, Woodfull 78
122	Australians v Wellington, Wellington, 1927–28 Ponsford 58, Woodfull 165
118	Australians v An England XI, Folkestone, 1930 Ponsford 76, Woodfull 34
117	Australians v Warwickshire, Birmingham, 1926 Ponsford 144, Woodfull 51
115	Victoria v Queensland, MCG, 1926–27 Ponsford 151, Woodfull 56
106	Australia v England, Manchester, fourth Test, 1930 Ponsford 83, Woodfull 54
104+	Victoria v South Australia, MCG, 1926–27 Ponsford 84, Woodfull 34
104	Woodfull’s XI v Richardson’s XI, MCG, 1933–34 Ponsford 42, Woodfull 118
+ unfinished
Second wicket (1)
109+	Victoria v South Australia, Adelaide Oval, 1924–25 Ponsford 77, Woodfull 67
Fourth wicket (3)
178+	Victoria v New South Wales, SCG, 1925–26 Ponsford 138, Woodfull 126
133	Victoria v South Australia, Adelaide Oval, 1922–23 Ponsford 108, Woodfull 123
132	Woodfull’s XI v Richardson’s XI, MCG, 1934–35 Ponsford 83, Woodfull 111
Fifth wicket (1)
183	Australia v West Indies, Sydney, second Test, 1930–31 Ponsford 183, Woodfull 58
+ unfinished

PONSFORD and WOODFULL AS OPENERS
	Innings	Not Out	Runs	Best	Average
Test cricket	22	1	860	162	40.95
Australia on tour	21	0	1024	184	48.76
Australian XI games (in Australia)	5	1	513	223	128.25
Testimonial games	3	0	142	104	47.33
Victoria (Sheffield Shield)	29	0	2046	375	70.55
Victoria v overseas teams	6	0	99	67	16.50
Total	86	2	4684	375	55.76

 

Left: Prolific: Bill Woodfull (left) with the equally-remarkable Bill Ponsford in Sydney.

Centre: Big Bertha: Bill Ponsford with his ever-so-broad bat ‘Big Bertha’. He hated getting out at any time.

Right: Reliable: a badge featuring the great Bill Woodfull, 1934.