Bill O'Reilly

Youth and early career

Of Irish descent, O'Reilly's paternal grandfather Peter emigrated from County Cavan, Ulster in 1865. Arriving in Sydney, he had been a policeman for four years in Ireland and continued in this line of work in New South Wales. He was sent to Deniliquin in the Riverina, where he settled and married another Irish immigrant, Bridget O'Donoghue from Ballinasloe, County Galway. O'Reilly's father, Ernest, was a school teacher and moved around the areas surrounding the Murray River to study and teach. O'Reilly's mother Mina (née Welsh) was of mixed Irish and English descent, of a third generation family from Adelaide. O'Reilly was born in the opal mining town of White Cliffs. Ernest had been appointed to open the first school in the town, and had helped to build the school and its furniture himself. Bill was the fourth child in the family, with two elder brothers and a sister.

O'Reilly's cricket skills were largely self-taught; his family moved from town to town whenever his father was posted to a different school, he had little opportunity to attend coaching. He learned to play with his brothers, playing with a "gum-wood bat and a piece of banksia root chiselled down to make a ball." He learned to bowl because his older brothers dominated the batting rights. His bowling action was far from the classic leg spin bowler's run-up and delivery, indeed, according to Wisden, "he was asked to make up the numbers in a Sydney junior match and, with a method that at first made everyone giggle, whipped out the opposition". From a young age, O'Reilly was a tall and gangly player.

In January 1908, shortly after Bill had turned two, the family moved to Murringo, after Ernest was appointed the headmaster. O'Reilly said in his autobiography Tiger that the move played no vital part in his cricket education. The area had much more vegetation than the desolate White Cliffs, and an Irish Australian majority. O'Reilly later described the period as the happiest of his life. There the children played tennis on a court on their property and took up cricket. During this time, O'Reilly's mother gave birth to another son and two more daughters. In 1917, at the age of 12, the family moved to the town of Wingello. Ernest made the decision because there were no high schools near Murringo and his older children were about to finish primary school. Nevertheless, there was no high school in Wingello where Ernest had been appointed headmaster, so O'Reilly had to catch a train to Goulburn—50 km away—to study at the local public secondary school, where his elder brother Tom had been awarded a scholarship. Wingello was a cricket town and "everyone was a cricket crank" according to O'Reilly. It was here that he developed a passion for the game. O'Reilly played in the town's team and also won the regional tennis championships. O'Reilly bowled with an action reminiscent of the windmill that his family erected in the town. However, school life was difficult, especially in the winter, as the Southern Tablelands were harsh and cold. The O'Reilly children had to leave Wingello at 7.45 am by rail and caught a slow goods train that delivered them home at 7 pm; these vehicles did not provide protection against the weather, and the boys did not participate in any school sport as the only train home left after the end of classes.

Sydney Teachers College

O'Reilly won a scholarship to the Sydney Teachers College at the University of Sydney, to train as a schoolmaster. However, the financial assistance was only for two years and merely sufficient for O'Reilly's rent at Glebe Point. When he was in Sydney, O'Reilly received an invitation to join an athletics club based on his performances in Goulburn, but was only able to join after the secretary Dick Corish waived his membership fee. Jumping 47 feet, he came second in a triple jump competition behind Nick Winter, who went on to win gold in the event at the 1924 Summer Olympics with a world record of 50 ft. O'Reilly also placed second in a high jumping competition, clearing six feet. Corish was also a cricket administrator and invited O'Reilly to play in a David Jones Second XI. Not knowing anything of his new recruit's abilities, Corish did not allow O'Reilly to bowl until he explicitly complained of only being allowed to field. O'Reilly promptly finished off the opposition's innings by removing the middle and lower order. After an encounter with journalist Johnny Moyes, who wrote glowingly about O'Reilly's skills.

While training as a teacher, O'Reilly joined the Sydney University Regiment, a unit of the Militia Forces (Army Reserve). He did not enjoy his time in the military, and along with most of his peers, regarded the commanding officer as inept. O'Reilly was a non-conformist who did not enjoy taking orders, and was unimpressed with the firearm drills, because the recruits were armed only with wooden sticks. However, he signed up for a second year to raise money for his education. Fed up with military routines he considered to be pointless, O'Reilly volunteered to be a kitchen hand.

During a vacation, O'Reilly caught the train from Sydney back to Wingello, which stopped at Bowral mid-journey. There, Wingello were playing the host town in a cricket match, and O'Reilly was persuaded to interrupt his journey to help his teammates. This match marked his first meeting with Bowral's 17-year-old Don Bradman, later to become his Test captain. O'Reilly himself later described thus:

How was I to know that I was about to cross swords with the greatest cricketer that ever set foot on a cricket field ? ... by the close of play, 17-year-old Don Bradman was 234 not out. The match resumed a week later, according to the local custom ... I bowled him first ball with a leg-break which came from the leg stump to hit the off bail. Suddenly cricket was the best game in the whole wide world.

First-class career

Debut

O'Reilly was selected for the New South Wales practice squad based on his performance in a single match for North Sydney against Gordon in 1927–28. In this game, he bowled Moyes—a state selector—with a medium paced leg break. At state training, O'Reilly's new teammate and Test leg spinner Arthur Mailey advised him to adopt a more conventional grip, but the 19th century Test bowler Charles Turner, known as "Terror Turner" and famous for his unorthodox ways, told O'Reilly to back his self-styled technique. O'Reilly decided to listen to Turner.

After taking a total of 3/88 in a Second XI match against Victoria, O'Reilly made his first-class debut in the 1927–28 season, playing in three matches and taking seven wickets. In his first match, against New Zealand, O'Reilly took 2/37 and 1/53. He then played in what would be his only Sheffield Shield match for several years, going wicketless against Queensland, before returning figures of 4/35 against Tasmania.

Rural teaching post and absence from cricket

In 1928, O'Reilly was transferred by the New South Wales Education Department to Griffith, an outback town in the south-west of the state, and he was unable to play first-class cricket. Over the next three years he moved around the country, including postings to Rylstone and Kandos.

Teaching duties may have cost O'Reilly an early entry into Test cricket, as many young players were introduced in the 1928–29 home series against England following a large number of retirements of older players. In the meantime, O'Reilly taught English to primary school children in Griffith, as well as singing—most of the pieces were Irish. At Rylstone he taught book-keeping and business, and he was promoted to the high school at Kandos. During this time he supplemented his income by travelling from town to town, playing in one-off cricket matches at the expense of the host's club. He worked on his bosie during the period and regularly dismissed outclassed opposition batsmen. O'Reilly regarded his cricketing isolation as highly beneficial as he regarded coaches to be ill-advised and detrimental to development.

Return to Sydney

In late 1930, O'Reilly was posted to Kogarah Intermediate High School in the southern Sydney suburb of Kogarah, where he taught English, history, geography and business. O'Reilly resumed playing for North Sydney, confident that with an improved bosie, he was much more potent than before his rural teaching stint. As he only arrived back in Sydney in the second half of the 1930–31 season, O'Reilly was not considered for first-class selection, but he took 29 wickets at 14.72 for North Sydney.

In the 1931–32 season he emerged as the successor to Mailey in the New South Wales side. Within half a dozen games, he was one of several young players introduced to the Australian cricket team for the Fourth Test in a badly one-sided series against South Africa. However, matters could have been rather different. O'Reilly had broken into the team for New South Wales' away matches against South Australia and Victoria while the Test players were on international duty. He totaled only 2/81 in the first match and was then informed that he would be dropped after the second fixture. O'Reilly responded by bowling with a more attacking strategy, taking 5/22 and 2/112. At the end of the match, New South Wales' stand-in captain, the leg spinning all rounder Reginald Bettington, declared O'Reilly "the greatest bowler in the world", and although few agreed with this claim, Bettington made himself unavailable for selection so that O'Reilly would not be dropped. The reprieved leg spinner took a total of 8/204 in his next two matches, and while the figures were not overwhelming, they were enough to ensure a Test berth; with an unassailable 3–0 lead, the selectors wanted to blood new players.

O'Reilly took four wickets on his debut at the Adelaide Oval, two in each innings, supporting the senior leg-spinner, Clarrie Grimmett, who took 14 wickets in the match and with Bradman scoring 299 not out, Australia won the match. O'Reilly retained his place when the selectors kept the winning side for the final match of the Test series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. On a pitch made treacherous by rain, he did not bowl at all when South Africa were bowled out for just 36 in the first innings, and came on only towards the end of the second innings, when he took three wickets as the touring side subsided to 45 all out. He ended his first Test series with seven wickets at 24.85. In Sheffield Shield cricket in the 1931–32 season, O'Reilly took 25 wickets at an average of 21 runs per wicket, highlighted by his maiden ten-wicket haul, 5/68 and 5/59 in a home match against South Australia after the Tests were over as New South Wales took out the title.

Test regular

O'Reilly became a regular member of the Australian Test side in the 1932–33 season and he played in all five Tests against England in the infamous Bodyline series. The Australian selectors perceived that O'Reilly would be their key bowler, and as he had never played against the English, omitted him from the early tour matches so that the tourists would not be able to decode his variations. As a result, he missed the Australian XI match against the Englishmen in Melbourne. In two Shield matches ahead of the Tests, he took 14 wickets, including a total of 9/66 in an innings win over Queensland. Although the national selectors had hidden him from the Englishmen, New South Wales declined to do so, and he played for his state a week ahead of the Tests. The hosts were bombarded with short-pitched bowling and heavily beaten by an innings; O'Reilly took 4/86 as the visitors amassed 530, dismissing leading English batsman Wally Hammond in the first of many battles between the pair.

The Tests started at the SCG and O'Reilly was the team's leading wicket-taker for the series with 27 wickets. O'Reilly not only took most wickets but he also bowled by some distance the most overs on either side, and he achieved a bowling economy of less than two runs from each of his 383 eight-ball overs. In the first match, he took 3/117 from 67 overs as England amassed 530 and took a ten-wicket victory. While his figures suggested that he bowled poorly—none of his wickets were those of batsmen—he beat the batsmen repeatedly. Between Tests, O'Reilly took 11 wickets in two Shield matches.

In the Second Test in Melbourne, O'Reilly opened the bowling as Australia opted to use only one pace bowler on a turning pitch. After Australia had made only 228, O'Reilly trapped Bob Wyatt leg before wicket (lbw) before bowling both the Nawab of Pataudi and Maurice Leyland to leave England at 4/98. He later took two tail-end wickets to end with 5/63 and secure Australia a first innings lead. Defending a target of 251, O'Reilly bowled the leading English opener Herbert Sutcliffe for 33 with a textbook perfect leg break that pitched on leg stump and clipped the top of the off stump. According to English team manager Plum Warner, Sutcliffe had never been defeated so comprehensively. O'Reilly also removed Hammond on the way to ending with 5/66 and securing a 111-run win. The ten-wicket haul was O'Reilly's first at Test level and the start of his strong career record over the English. However, Australia were not to taste further success. The controversial "fast leg theory" bowling used by England under newly appointed captain Douglas Jardine brought the touring team victories in the last three matches: Australia were handicapped not only by the tactics, but also by a lack of quality fast bowlers; O'Reilly also opened the bowling in both the Third and Fourth Tests in Adelaide and Brisbane respectively due to the selection of only one paceman. He was hindered by a decline in the form of Grimmett, who was dropped after the Third Test. O'Reilly took 2/83 and 4/79 in Adelaide, collecting the wicket of Sutcliffe for single figures in the first innings of a match overshadowed by near-riots after captain Bill Woodfull was struck in the heart. Australia were crushed by 338 runs, and lost the series in Brisbane. After O'Reilly had taken 4/101—including Sutcliffe and Jardine—in the first innings to keep Australia's first innings deficit to 16, the hosts collapsed to be 175 all out. O'Reilly took one wicket in the second innings of a six-wicket loss. The final Test in Sydney took a similar course; O'Reilly took 4/111 in the first innings including Sutcliffe and Jardine again, as the tourists took a 14-run lead before completing an eight-wicket win after another Australian collapse. O'Reilly was wicketless in the second innings and bowled 72 overs in total in the match. Reflecting on the performance of O'Reilly in the series, R Mason said "here we saw the first flexing of that most menacing genius".

Senior bowler

With Bradman's appointment as captain of the Australian team after the South African tour, Clarrie Grimmett was dropped, leaving O'Reilly as the hub of the Australian bowling attack for the MCC Ashes tour in 1936–37.

O'Reilly was strongly aggrieved by the removal of his long-time bowling partner, and maintained that it was an "unpardonable" error that heavily weakened Australia's bowling attack. However, he remained vague about why he thought Grimmett had been removed, even though suspicion dogged Bradman. Grimmett continued to dominate the wicket-taking on domestic cricket, while his replacements struggled in the international arena.

O'Reilly responded by becoming the leading Australian wicket-taker in the series taking 25, with Bill Voce taking 26 for England. However, he almost failed to take to the field; O'Reilly and several players had threatened to withdraw after vice-captain Stan McCabe's wife was forbidden from sitting in the Members' Stand in the First Test. The Australian Board of Control backed down, but it was the start of a tumultuous season.

O'Reilly's wickets were at increased cost—his average increased to 22 runs per wicket—and he took five wickets in an innings only once, in the First Test at the 'Gabba in Brisbane, which England won convincingly. The circumstances of the series determined O'Reilly's role: after England won the first two Tests, O'Reilly appeared to have been given the job not just of bowling the opposition out, but also of containing them, and he was criticised in Wisden for defensive bowling. Wisden even went as far as to describe it as "leg theory". If the intention was to stifle England batsman Wally Hammond in particular, then it appears to have worked, but O'Reilly's figures for the series suggest he was consistent but not always penetrative. Morris Sievers, from fewer matches, outperformed his average; Leslie Fleetwood-Smith, a slow left-arm spinner, got more eye-catching individual figures, including 10 wickets in the victory at Adelaide. Whatever the methods, they were successful: having lost the first two Tests, Australia proceeded to win the final three to retain The Ashes they had regained in England in 1934, and O'Reilly's five for 51 and three for 58 were the best figures in the decisive Fifth Test in Melbourne.

In the 1937–38 season, O'Reilly returned to more regular state cricket, and New South Wales duly won the Sheffield Shield for the first time in five seasons. He took 33 wickets at an average of just over 14 runs each, and against South Australia at Adelaide he repeated his feat against Somerset in 1934, taking the last nine wickets of the first innings at a cost of 41 runs. This time, he followed up with five for 57 in the second innings.

1938: Final tour of England

O'Reilly's second and final Ashes tour to England as a player in 1938 again saw him as the most effective bowler in the team. His final record of 22 wickets at an average of 27.72 in the four Tests—the Third Test was rained off without a ball being bowled—was marginally less than 1934, and in all matches he took 104 wickets at 16.59. In its report of the tour, however, Wisden's 1939 edition noted that "it was nothing short of remarkable that despite the moderate support accorded to him he bowled so consistently well and so effectively." Again, O'Reilly was often used defensively where there was no help from the wicket, but, Wisden added, "when... the wicket gave him the least encouragement he robbed the greatest batsmen of initiative, and was most destructive".

O'Reilly took 3/164 on a batting paradise in the First Test at Trent Bridge as England scored 8/658 and forced Australia to follow on and hold on for a draw. In the Second Test at Lord's O'Reilly took 4/93 in the first innings and trapped Eddie Paynter for 99 to end a 222-run partnership with Hammond. In reply to England's 494, Australia were in danger of being forced to follow on; O'Reilly came in and made 42, featuring in a partnership of 85 in only 46 minutes with Bill Brown that enabled Australia to save the match: having been dropped by Paynter, he hit Hedley Verity for consecutive sixes to take Australia past the follow-on mark. Brown recalled "It was a nice day, and a nice wicket. O'Reilly came in, and I told him I'd take the quicks—Wellard and Farnes—and Tiger [O'Reilly] took Verity." Australia reached 422 and O'Reilly took 2/53 in the second innings as the match petered into a draw.

In an otherwise high-scoring series, O'Reilly's greatest triumph was in the low-scoring Fourth Test at Headingley, where he exploited a difficult pitch to take five wickets in each innings as Australia secured the victory that enabled them to retain the Ashes. With the series level at 0–0, England captain Hammond elected to bat first; O'Reilly's 5/66 was largely responsible for ending England's innings at 223. He removed Hammond, who had top-scored with 76, Bill Edrich and Denis Compton, all bowled in quick succession. England were 1/73 on the third day, an overall lead of 54, when O'Reilly began a new spell after Bradman had switched his ends. Joe Hardstaff junior hooked him for four and the next ball was no-balled by the umpire. O'Reilly was reported to have become visibly enraged; he bowled Hardstaff next ball and then removed Hammond for a golden duck. This precipitated an English collapse to 123 all out, and O'Reilly ended with 5/56 and a total of 10/122. O'Reilly effort proved to be crucial as Australia scraped home by five wickets just 30 minutes before black clouds brought heavy rain, which would have made batting treacherous. The victory ensured the retention of the Ashes, and O'Reilly ranked it as his finest performance, alongside his ten wickets in the Second Bodyline Test of 1932–33.

Conflict with Bradman

Despite the mutual admiration between Bradman and O'Reilly for their cricket skills, personal relations between the pair were strained. In Australian society at the time, sectarian tension existed between Catholics, mostly of Irish descent, of whom O'Reilly was one, and Protestants, like Bradman. Bradman was a non-drinker and a reserved character, often preferring to read quietly, rather than socialize or drink with his teammates. Coupled with his on-field dominance, this led to perceptions that Bradman was cocky and distant from his teammates. In the late 1930s, the Australian Board of Control summoned O'Reilly, Stan McCabe, Leo O'Brien and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, all Catholics of Irish descent to a meeting to discuss the apparent schism in the team. Jack Fingleton, a trained journalist, was not invited to the meeting, but after the deaths of both Fingleton and O'Reilly, Bradman penned a letter in which he accused the former of being the ringleader. O'Reilly's eventual departure also raised speculation that a purge had occurred. In 1995, after both Fingleton and O'Reilly had died, Bradman wrote: "With these fellows out of the way, the loyalty of my 1948 side was a big joy and made a big contribution to the outstanding success of that tour"; the Australians went through the 1948 English summer undefeated.

O'Reilly became a journalist, and together with Fingleton, he often criticised Bradman. They were in the press box when Bradman was bowled for a duck in his final Test innings, when they were reported to have become hysterical with laughter. Nevertheless, O'Reilly kept most of his strongest feelings about Bradman to himself and suppressed them from his autobiography; he would say of Bradman that "You don't piss on statues". Before his death, O'Reilly gave a series of interviews to the National Library of Australia, in which he accused Bradman of purging Grimmett from the team because Grimmett had joked that Bradman had ensured his own dismissal in a match against Victoria, to avoid facing the express pace of Ernie McCormick.

According to cricket historian Gideon Haigh, "O'Reilly was a man of embedded prejudices". In retirement, O'Reilly complained to a board member that "You have to play under a Protestant to know what it's like". The Test umpire Col Egar recalled that O'Reilly never talked to him in their decades in cricket until a third party informed the bowler that Egar was a Catholic.

Despite their conflicts, a few years before his death O'Reilly wrote that, compared with Bradman, batsmen like Greg Chappell and Allan Border were mere "child's play".

Off-field life, mentoring and legacy

In 1933, O'Reilly married Mary Agnes "Molly" Herbert, after less than six months of courtship. Of Irish stock, Molly had been introduced to O'Reilly through one of his teaching colleagues at Kogarah, who married Molly's elder sister the following year. The couple then moved to the southern Sydney suburb of Hurstville. The couple had two children, a girl followed by a boy.

O'Reilly continued to work as a school teacher after he broke into international cricket, but at the end of 1934, after missing more than six months of the year in England, he resigned from his government post, reasoning that his career could not progress if he was going to be overseas so often. However, he had not made any plans for his future employment. Soon after, O'Reilly received an offer to work as a sportsgoods salesman for the department store David Jones with sporting leave entitlements. The Premier of New South Wales, Bertram Stevens, tried to coax O'Reilly into staying in the government education system, offering him a post at Sydney Boys High School if he returned to STC to complete the Bachelor of Arts that he had abandoned a decade before.

In 1935, O'Reilly took up an appointment at Sydney Grammar School, one of the leading private schools in the state, having been offered 50% paid leave for his cricket commitments. There he taught English, history and business. In 1939 he took a job in the sports store of close friend, teammate and fellow Irish Catholic Stan McCabe, which was located on George Street, the city centre's main thoroughfare. O'Reilly was a financial partner in the business, but following the outbreak of World War II, the sales revenue began to suffer and O'Reilly left as the store would not be able to support two stakeholders.

O'Reilly then accepted a position as a manager of the Lion Tile Company at Auburn, in Sydney's western suburbs. He remained in the position until 1976. O'Reilly was responsible for the financial and accounting affairs of the firm, which expanded to employ more than 200 workers. He was held in high regard and granted full paid leave when he thrice went overseas for six months to cover tours of England as a journalist. Doc Evatt, a leading Australian Labor Party politician attempted to recruit O'Reilly into politics, but was unsuccessful.

During the late-1930s, O'Reilly mentored the then-teenaged Arthur Morris and Ray Lindwall at St. George. He converted Morris from a left arm unorthodox spinner into an opening batsman, and exhorted Lindwall to become a specialist express paceman. Both had long Test careers and captained their country and are regarded as all-time Australian greats in the fields that O'Reilly chose for them—both were chosen with O'Reilly in the ACB Team of the Century. The pair credited O'Reilly as being the main influence in their careers, and Lindwall made his Test debut in O'Reilly's last Test in 1946.

Statistical summary

In his 18-season first-class career, O'Reilly took 774 wickets at an average of 16.60. In his 27 Test matches, O'Reilly took 144 wickets at 22.59, 102 of them in his 19 Ashes Tests against England.

Career rankings and ratings

It has been retrospectively calculated by the International Cricket Council's LG Ratings that he was the best bowler in the world for much of his career.

Song tribute

Folk musician Ted Egan released the song "The Tiger and the Don" about O'Reilly and Don Bradman; it was a track from the 2003 album The Land Downunder.