Bill Lawry
Lawry was born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. He was given the names William Morris after the early Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes. His father Alfred played amateur cricket until the age of 51. Bill never saw his father play, who was aged 47 when Bill was born. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team. He spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's district competition playing for Northcote's fourth team, working his way up to the First XI by the age of sixteen. At the time, he was apprenticed as a plumber and attending Preston Technical College. Lawry was selected for Victoria's Second XI at the age of seventeen. He made a duck against the South Australians and did not see any further action for the Seconds for the rest of the summer of 1954–55. The following season, Lawry was recalled to the Seconds and scored 183 against South Australia.
Rockley Wilson
In a disastrous series in which the Australian cricket team won all five Tests, Wilson made his Test debut at the age of 41 years and 337 days, the second oldest debutant in English cricket (after James Southerton in the first Test match of them all in 1877). He scored five in each innings and took three wickets cheaply, but England still lost the match. Wilson also ran into trouble on the tour for filing reports back to the "Daily Express" newspaper. As a result, when he subsequently encountered Lord Harris in the Long Room at Lord's, the encounter was frosty. Harris offered him only the most cursory of handshakes, leaving him to observe loudly enough for Harris to hear as he moved on: "Lucky to get a touch really, lucky to get a touch."