Leonard Stuart Darling (14 August 1909 – 24 June 1992) was an Australian
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
er who played in 12
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (associa ...
from 1933 to 1937.
Darling once told a story of fielding on the boundary at the
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park, New South Wales, Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australi ...
and positioning himself to catch a big hit from
Don Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...
. While the ball was still in the air, according to Darling, the crowd yelled at him to drop the catch. This occurred in Bradman's last innings for
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
in 1934. Darling did in fact take the catch to end Bradman's innings. Bradman was out for 128, with him hitting three sixes in the over, and getting caught while trying to hit his fourth.
Len Darling married his wife Phyllis ("Bobby") in 1937. They had two daughters. He served in the Australian Army with the 24th Australian Anti-Aircraft Battery in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
References
External links
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1909 births
1992 deaths
Australia Test cricketers
Victoria cricketers
Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers
Australian cricketers
Cricketers from Melbourne
People educated at Trinity Grammar School, Kew
Australian Army personnel of World War II
Australian Army soldiers
People from South Yarra, Victoria
Military personnel from Melbourne
20th-century Australian sportsmen
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