Doing a Bradbury. We all remember our own Steven Bradbury winning a gold medal in the Winter Olympic Games at Salt Lake City in 2002,when all the competitors in front of him fell over in the final 50 metres. From that time,“doing a Bradbury” has meant triumphing,against the odds,in large part because of the misfortune of your competitors. (And,by the way,one of my favourite tweets of all time was in January 2020,when @ballparkmusic posted:“Just heard the airline page Steven Bradbury. He’s late to board his flight,but we all know he’s gonna f---in’ make it.”
A Garry Owen.Often used in rugby union and league to describe an up-and-under,it was actually perfected by the Garryowen Rugby Club in Ireland in the 1920s. Despite not being named for a person,I include it because these days it must be close to being called a “Nathan Cleary”. Has anyone ever put the ball higher than the Panthers five-eighth,to catch more wind,to come down swirling and whirling on the poor bastard waiting below – expected to catch it even while hearing the thundering hooves of the men of Penrith about to smash him?
Steven does a Bradbury to win Australia’s first Winter Olympics gold medal.Credit:Stephen Munday
Now,let’s widen it further from just specific actions.
Doing an Edgar Britt.Britt was an Australian jockey who made his fame in Britain,and his name was popularised by rhyming slang. As to what it rhymes with,don’t ask. Much more acceptable is “your Wally Grout,” as in “your shout”,named for the great Australian wicketkeeper in the Bill Lawry years.
Rhyming slang also gave us“having a Barry Crocker,” which has become synonymous in sport with “having a shocker.” It was no reflection on Crocker himself,it is just that the rhyme worked. Meanwhile,in another crossover of the names of famous people coming into sports terminology,a “Michelle” – short for “Michelle Pfeiffer” – has become cricket terminology for getting five wickets in an innings,as in afive-for,five-fer,Pfeiffer! For the record,my Missus interviewed Pfeiffer last year and when she brought that to the actress’s attention,she was thrilled and honoured,having never heard it.
The Barassi Line. An imaginary line across Australia,it was named for the great Ron Barassi and invented by historian Ian Turner who first used it in 1978 to delineate that part of the country where Aussie Rules is dominant from where rugby league and rugby union hold sway. Very broadly,the Barassi Line goes from the coastal border of Victoria and NSW to the eastern coastal border of Queensland and the Northern Territory. Or at least it used to. These days,I suspect the whole Barassi Linehas shifted to the north-east. They’re coming for us.
The horse they called Big Red still resonates with Australians almost a century on.Credit:Charles Daniel Pratt
A heart as big as Phar Lap.Nearly a century on,that reference to Australia’s most beloved racehorse remains part of the vernacular.
A drongo. I never knew this either,but Drongo was an Australian racehorse of the 1920s,that never accomplished anything,and mostly finished last. Sadly Drongo,who indeed once contested a Melbourne Cup,retired the year before Phar Lap was born – it would have been a lovely bit of historical symmetry if they could have raced together just once.
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Bradmanesque.The phrase speaks for itself. An innings or sporting feat “of Bradmanesque” quality is one so extraordinary,so out of the box,it can be compared to the feats of the GOAT of cricket,Sir Donald Bradman.
For the record,Sir Donald defended Mankad himself,noting in his biography,“For the life of me,I can’t understand why[the press] questioned his sportsmanship. The laws of cricket make it quite clear that the non-striker must keep within his ground until the ball has been delivered. If not,why is the provision there which enables the bowler to run him out? By backing up too far or too early,the non-striker is very obviously gaining an unfair advantage.”
We’re done.
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