he did not play in the Tests without too much fuss. New South Wales vs MCC The next stop was in Sydney to play the champions New South Wales. Ian Craig was captain of Australia as well as New South Wales, which had won the Sheffield Shield 8 times since the war, the last 4 in succession, and would go on to win another 5. On a wicket known to take spin Jim Laker was unfit to play, as was Peter Loader, Willie Watson, still recovering from his knee surgery, Fred Trueman had a cold, but volunteered to play and Peter May had recovered sufficiently to captain the team. Craig won the toss and batted on a sunny day on a good wicket. After Sid Carroll was bowled by a Trueman outswinger in the first over Jim Burke made a ponderous 104 and Neil Harvey a somewhat quicker 149 to finish the day on 243/1. Taking the new ball the next day Trueman (2/62) had Harvey caught off a skyer, which brought in Norm O'Neill, who stroked his way to 84 not out. The other batsman went for runs and Lock (4/121) picked up the wickets of Burke, Craig (who looked very unwell) and Brian Booth for ducks and Alan Davidson for 8. Richie Benaud was caught and bowled off a Trevor Bailey long-hop and Craig declared on 391/7 before O'Neill could complete his century. The MCC openers were soon out; Arthur Milton (10) bowled by the huge Gordon Rorke (1/15) and Peter Richardson (21), caught by Harvey off Peter Philpott. Peter May (29) and Tom Graveney (36) saw out the second day, but the next highest scorer was last man Brian Statham with 27 as the New South Wales leg-spinners Richie Benaud (5/48) and Philpott (4/87) worked their way through the order, leaving "Barnacle Bailey" on 14 not out in a total of 177. The improvement of Benaud's bowling since his great tour of South Africa was evident just two weeks before the first Test. Craig enforced the follow on, but the MCC recovered as Richardson (87) and Milton (81) put on 170 for the first wicket, easily their best effort of the tour. Philpott took 5 catches in the match and removed both openers, one off Davidson (2/37) and the other off Benaud (2/84) and the MCC slumped to 217/4. Tom Graveney (59), Roy Swetman (52) and Colin