discipline on the team to prevent his players staying out late to drink alcohol, neither Cranston nor Hardstaff backed him. With many players indisposed and his options limited, Allen requested reinforcements and the MCC sent out Len Hutton in time for the third Test; in the meantime, Allen asked S. C. Griffith, not a highly regarded batsman, to open the batting for England in the second Test. Griffith responded by batting the entire first day and scoring 140 runs in total, his maiden century in first-class cricket. The West Indies won the last two Tests (the first two having been drawn) to win the series; the MCC team did not win a single match on the tour. Allen later regretted accepting the invitation to lead the team. In three Tests, he scored 94 runs and took five wickets. Allen did not play any more Test cricket; in 25 matches, he scored 750 runs at an average of 24.19 and took 81 wickets at 29.37. Although Allen appeared four times for Middlesex in 1948, most of his remaining cricket was played for the Free Foresters against Cambridge University. On very good batting pitches, the matches lacked a competitive edge, but in 12 games between 1948 and his retirement, he scored four centuries and averaged over 80 with the bat. In 1948, he scored 180 in the fixture, the highest score of his career; in combination with his success in Middlesex matches, he finished on top of the English batting averages that season. He played his final Middlesex games in 1950, captaining the team in four matches in the absence of the regular captain, and made his final first-class appearance for the Free Foresters in 1954. In all first-class cricket, he scored 9,233 runs at an average of 28.67 and took 788 wickets at 22.23. Cricketing technique Allen was capable of bowling unusually quickly. Critics judged him to have an excellent bowling action, through which he achieved his pace. He bowled from sideways on, and according to his Wisden obituary, had "a rhythmical run-up and full follow-through". R. C. Robertson-Glasgow described Allen in 1943: "Of no more than medium height, he has a solid yet elastic strength, every unit of which is used in the delivery and in a follow-through which is the finest I have ever seen." Robertson-Glasgow continued: "His bowling, though it varies from piercing accuracy to almost ludicrous irrelevance,