He was out of the reckoning for Test places in the hot summer of 1947 but responded with one of his best county seasons. For Lancashire in Championship matches, he took 131 wickets, with the next best total being 74. In all matches, he took 144 wickets at an average just below 20 runs per wicket, the second best figures of his career. The season produced both his career-best bowling performance and his highest first-class score. The two feats came in consecutive matches, both at Old Trafford. First, in the match against Derbyshire, he made 63, the only time he passed 60 in his career; he shared a seventh wicket partnership of 148 with Alan Wharton. Then in the next game against Northamptonshire, bowling unchanged in the first innings with Phillipson, he took 8/33. The 1948 tour of England by the Australian team captained by Donald Bradman, and subsequently labelled The Invincibles, provided convincing evidence of the weakness in international terms of English cricket at the time. Two heavy defeats in the first two Test matches led to a recall for Pollard, then 36 years old, for the third match, which was played at Old Trafford. The move was a success, for England were well on top until rain intervened and the match ended in a draw. Pollard's most significant contribution as a batsman in Tests was a "full-blooded pull" from the off spin of Ian Johnson, which caught the Australian opening batsman Sid Barnes, who was fielding at short leg on the edge of the pitch, under the ribs. Barnes was carried off on a stretcher, batted low in the Australian order and then had to retire hurt. He spent 10 days in hospital after the match and missed the next Test. The Australians were made uncomfortable by the accuracy of Alec Bedser and Pollard. Pollard's three wickets included Bradman, leg before wicket for just seven runs. The draw at Old Trafford encouraged the selectors to persevere with the same fast-medium combination in the fourth Test, at Leeds, but in a high scoring match on a good pitch the lack of spin bowling was decisive. Pollard's contribution was to take, in the space of three balls in the first innings, the wickets of Hassett and Bradman, the latter bowled for 33. But that was the extent of his success, and Australia made 404 for three wickets to win the