I once went down to the Bradman Museum in Bowral to check out all the Bradman memorabilia, old bats ‘The Don’ used, scorebooks, balls and stumps. It was amazing to see all the gear.
Bradman was a hero to many, and none moreso than my father, so I grew up with great stories of Bradman from Dad. Even though I never saw him play, I felt as though I knew his game well.
One of the pieces on display was a black clay ball the size of a golf ball. I was intrigued. It turns out during an early test match at the SCG Bradman picked up a stray chunk off the pitch as a fielding mark. It was a piece of Bulli soil used to make the famous SCG pitch. Over the course of the next few days Bradman played with, spat on and moulded this chunk of Bulli soil into a perfect, shiny golf ball. He kept it as a memento of that test and it now sits in the Bradman Museum under glass. I thought this was a great idea.
When I started on ‘Backyard Blitz’ in 1999 I dug a lot of holes all around Australia, thousands of them in fact, over hundreds of shows and mostly in clay. So I started collecting different coloured clays from around Australia and moulded them into Bradman-style golf balls with a bit of a shine.
After I had a few I started to look for something to put them in. I found a classic printer’s drawer at a secondhand auction and the compartments fitted my clay balls to perfection. I’ve got 98 different balls in the drawer now and have them on display on my sideboard in the dining room at home. Take a look.
