BRADMAN COLLECTION: State Library of South Australia, North Tce Adelaide

The outpouring of public emotion following the death of Sir Don Bradman earlier this year was yet more proof that "The Don" remains Australia's greatest sporting hero. Since his death, the State Library has dropped its admission charge to the Bradman Collection, ensuring that many more sports lovers will come to understand the achievements of a man whose feats on the cricket field galvanised a young country and gave it heart during the black days of the Great Depression. The bat from one of his greatest Test innings, 334 against the old enemy England at Headingly in Leeds in 1930, takes pride of place in the collection.

"Bowlers from the other side, the English side, would have a word to the captain and say, well look this guy's hitting the ball well towards Covers and the captain would turn around and say take the guy from Square Leg and put him in Covers. When that occurred The Don would turn around and hit the ball to Square Leg. They'd move a guy from Point to Square Leg and The Don would turn around and hit the ball to Point".

"Pretty hard to combat that."

"Isn't it?"

"Well it is. And he was doing so well at the time, that the English put up a semi-circular field around him and The Don started hitting the ball then to the heaviest man on the field and he kept hitting it that way until he tired that man out".

For many years it remained a test match record and while it has now been bettered by the likes of West Indians' Brian Lara and Sir Garfield Sobers, and equalled by former Australian Captain Mark Taylor, 334 remains a benchmark in cricket, one of the many set by The Don. The Collection's in-house video gives a fascinating insight into the man's many achievements. Guide Alex Mericka has devoted much of his life to researching the achievements of Sir Donald Bradman and while The Don's test average of 99.94 speaks for itself, it's the lesser known stories that Alex has uncovered which make one of his tours so special.

"A lot of people ask me about Sir Donald's fastest century. Sir Donald made his fastest century up at Black Heath in the Blue Mountains in 1930 between a Blue Mountains composite side and a Nippean composite side. He hit one hundred runs in three 8-ball overs".

"Pretty good effort that".

But no man is infallible and in 1932 the English hatched a plot called Bodyline to stop this run machine. The Adelaide test in 1933 saw tensions boil over.

"I understand that there were Mounted Troopers asked to come down. Mounted Police and on one occasion there were 147 of these Troopers and they had bayonets ready to fix in case some of the crowd jumped the fence and rushed over to have a go at the English players".

Sir Donald Bradman established a special relationship with the State Library, making this one of the great collections in the cricketing world.

"Sir Donald was a great hoarder. Over the years he donated many of his precious scrapbooks to the Library. You can still see those as part of a White Gloves Tour, but now many of the images have been digitised for all South Australians to enjoy".

You can flick through a great man's life story, from his earliest sporting achievements when he burst onto the cricketing scene.

"Bowral Monday - the district record score three hundred by Don Bradman, a lad of seventeen".

Sadly, the man is no longer with us, but the legend lives on at the Bradman Collection in the State Library on the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue. Admission is free. Specialised guided tours are available by appointment. Cost is $6.00 per adult. Phone 8207-7595. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au