SIR Alec Bedser, the great Surrey swing bowler who claimed what was then a record 39 wickets in the 1953 series when England reclaimed the Ashes at the Oval after 19 years, does not understand what all the fuss is about. He is certain that Michael Vaughan’s team will have won back the treasured urn by the end of the fifth Test, which starts on Thursday.

“I don’t know why people get so worked up about this Oval match — I think we’ll win easy,” Bedser, 87, mused from his home in Woking, Surrey, yesterday. “The Australians have a problem with their batting, unless they change their method of play. They keep chasing these wide balls. Take (Damien) Martyn, who plays so far away from his body that if you bowl consistently there you’ve only got to place two gullies and wait.

“(Matthew) Hayden goes hard at the ball and (Ricky) Ponting plants that front pad until he gets in. They keep saying they’re great players, but they don’t compare with Sid Barnes, Arthur Morris and Don Bradman. They all played the ball close to them in those days. I spoke to Arthur the other day and he said the trouble with this team is that they’re all forward-lungers instead of being great back-foot players. ”

For Bedser, what he considers the “ridiculous” starting date to such an important game — the 1953 counterpart began on August 15 — could mean a lot of early movement because of dew at the Oval. “The dew was bad enough in August in my time and with this 10.30 start they’ve got now, the ball could do a lot before the sun dries things out. England have much better fast bowlers — the Australian back-up bowling is nothing.”

While England’s pace attack will go into Thursday having bowled not one competitive over since the end of the Trent Bridge Test 11 days earlier, Bedser chuckles when he recalls his heavy workload during the lead-up to the 1953 Oval Test. England won by eight wickets to clinch the series 1-0, but not because they were well-rested.

Bedser had bowled 21 overs for Surrey against Leicestershire in Loughborough on the day before the Test began. After the county match finished at about 6pm, he drove back to Woking, arriving at 10pm. The next morning, it took him an hour to travel to the Oval, whereupon he found himself in the field again, bowling a further 29 overs after England had lost their fifth toss of the series. In the ten days before the Oval Test, he had played three championship matches and bowled a total of 135 overs.

“You didn’t think anything of it in those days,” Bedser said, “but I suppose I was a bit tired going into the Oval. There were a few thousand people in the streets outside the ground before play but it wasn’t the same feeling of euphoria as there is now. After all, it was only a cricket match, if an important one.

“We all had a beer in the Australian dressing-room at the end of every day, and again after the match. It ended just before 3 o’clock and I went home at about 5, although I imagine the likes of Keith Miller were there for quite a lot longer. We all had our counties to play for.” Australia stayed on for a further month, their last match taking place over a rainy weekend in Edinburgh on September 18 and 19.

Bedser remembers that the crowd was “wonderful, but not as noisy as today. They were very excited when we won,” he said. “Both captains (Len Hutton and Lindsay Hassett) addressed them from the pavilion balcony, and after that people didn’t stay long.” The combined attendance of 115,000 would have been higher, according to Wisden, had stories of long, all-night queues not frightened away would-be spectators on the first day, when a “comfortable” 26,300 turned up.

SECOND HELPINGS PLENTIFUL AT OVAL

OVAL RESULTS

Apr 13-16: Sussex 370; Surrey 402-5 dec. Drawn

May 6-9: Surrey 217 and 404; Nottinghamshire 692. Nottinghamshire won by an innings and 71 runs

May 11-14: Surrey 444 and 425-4 dec; Glamorgan 345 and 248. Surrey won by 276 runs

Aug 10-12: Surrey 336-5 dec and 332-6 dec; Bangladesh A 336 and 113-1. Drawn.

Aug 16-19: Gloucestershire 350 and 294; Surrey 463. Drawn.

Aug 24-27: Surrey 378 and 302; Hampshire 361. Drawn