LANGLEY, GILBERT ROCHE ANDREWS, OAM, died in Adelaide on May 14, 2001,
aged 81, having for several years suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Though his renown
as a cricketer, and his 26 Test appearances for Australia, resulted from his wicketkeeping,
Gil Langley first came to notice as a free-scoring batsman with the Sturt
club in Adelaide, where he was coached by Vic Richardson, the former Australian
captain. He also played Australian Rules football for Sturt, going on to represent
and captain South Australia, and in later life he was a successful lawn bowler with
the club.
After war-work on munitions in Melbourne - by trade he was an electrician - Langley
made his first-class debut for South Australia in 1945-46 as a batsman, and it was
1947-48 before he donned the gloves for the state, with such success that next season
he was the country's leading wicket-keeper, with 31 dismissals. He went on to play
55 matches for South Australia, his last in 1956-57. It was an exceptional time for
Australian wicket-keeping, with both Don Tallon and Ron Saggers available, and
Langley was 32 when he won his first cap, against West Indies at Brisbane in
1951-52. He had gone to South Africa as Saggers's understudy in 1949-50, and now,
given his chance, he claimed 16 catches and five stumpings to equal the world Test
record for a series.
Between then and 1956-57, he played 26 Tests. In his three against England in 1956
- he missed the other two through injury - Langley dismissed 19 of the 44 batsmen
to fall, including nine at Lord's, then a Test record. All in all, he played 122 first-class
matches, hitting 3,236 runs (374 in Tests) at an average of 25.68 and with a highest
score of 160 not out for South Australia against the 1953-54 New Zealanders on their
way home from South Africa. He closed his first-class career with a fourth century.
Langley's best Test effort was 53, batting at No. 10, in an Australian total of 668 at
Bridgetown in 1954-55. He caught 292 and stumped 77 batsmen, including 83 caught
and 15 stumped in Tests. His average of 3.76 dismissals per Test compares favourably
with the 3.66 of Wally Grout or - England's best - Jack Russell's 3.05.
Compact, a shade tubby, balding, not very agile and déshabillé in dress, Gil Langley
was no cynosure of elegance. Ray Robinson described his stance as akin to "a boy
scout grilling a chop at a barbecue". However, unshowy and solid, he brought to the
exacting task of wicket-keeping the inestimable virtue of safety, day in, day out. Always
a most genial and popular figure, he made what seemed a natural career move when
he forsook the gauntlets for the hustings and became Labor member for Unley in the
South Australia House of Assembly. There, effective and well liked, he enjoyed another
kind of quiet success and eventually found himself umpiring the House as its much
respected Speaker from 1977 to 1979. He also served in South Australian cricket
administration from 1978 to 1989.