- Sam Palmer is a cricketer about to play the final test match of his career. His schoolboy son Reggie is a budding poet who disappoints him by not attending the penultimate day's play. Unexpectedly, Reggie is invited to the home of poet and writer Alexander Whitehead. Reggie fears he will also miss the final day--and therefore Sam's last innings--but it turns out that Alexander is a cricket lover.—Brian Henke <Cincy43235@aol.com>
- The scene opens with a US Senator arriving in Britain to study post-war conditions. He soon picks up the vibes from overhearing conversations: England is in deep trouble. As he investigates further, it becomes clear that people are not talking about the country, but the national cricket team, who are facing a tricky task in the penultimate day of the final test against Australia at the Oval. Sam Palmer (Jack Warner) is a successful veteran professional cricketer on the point of retirement; in fact the final test is his last game for England and the last match of his career. A widower, he lives with his sister, who keeps house for him, and his son Reg, a teenage aesthete, whose artistic interests include drama and poetry but not cricket. Despite his aunt's pressure, Reg would rather compose deathless verse to send to his hero, the dramatist Alexander Whitehead (Robert Morley), than watch his father's last outing for England. Sam is in at number 5 and isn't required to bat on the fourth day, and, disappointed that Reg has failed to attend and lied to him into the bargain, extracts a promise that Reg will attend the final day, when Sam will be definitely be batting. He then takes his trouble to girlfriend Cora, who is getting frustrated at the lack of progress in her relationship with Sam. Meanwhile Reg is invited to meet the irascible Whitehead at his house outside London. He goes down in the morning but Whitehead has changed his mind, until, that is, he realises that Reggie Palmer is the son of the great Sam Palmer. Reg and Whitehead rush to the Oval and are in time to see Sam's last innings. Taking the crease just before lunch, he survives three balls but is out LBW on the fourth. To the Senator's astonishment, this losing performance is greeted by a wildly enthusiastic standing ovation by the Australian players and the entire crowd. After the match, a suddenly humble Whitehead explains how the 'non-creative' art of the great cricketer is superior to the creative art of the writer - it leaves no objective record behind so will grow in stature as the years pass. Reg rediscovers his respect for his father and Sam plucks up courage to propose to Cora.
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