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.
Early life of Keith Miller
Sunshine offered open fields, and the three Miller boys quickly took a liking to sport during their childhood, playing Australian rules football in winter and cricket in summer. Their father had played cricket for Warracknabeal, winning a premiership in the local league in 1900. Les taught the boys to play with a side-on stance and underlined the importance of orthodox batting technique, reminding his sons to maintain a high leading elbow when hitting the ball. They were taught to rely on a solid defence, concentration, and self-control in the mould of the leading Victorian and Australian Test batsman of the era, Bill Ponsford. Miller began his schooling in Sunshine, where he quickly became known for his diminutive height; he was one of the smallest children in the school. At the age of seven, Miller moved to the inner-eastern middle-class Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick, where his parents had purchased a two-storey house with a spacious garden that allowed the children to play sport. By this time, his elder brothers had given him the derisive nickname "Weedy". Miller's small size and age deficit meant that he conceded a strength advantage to his brothers in backyard cricket matches. This forced him to develop his technique rather than rely on power, which held him in good stead for his future career. Whenever Miller managed to dismiss his brothers and earn himself some batting time, he typically played with a straight bat in a watchful manner, as it was difficult for him to remove his brothers, meaning that his opportunities with the bat were rare. Miller and his friends would loiter outside Ponsford's home, just away, in the hope of catching a glimpse of their hero. Like Miller in his backyard, Ponsford was known for his powers of concentration and was the first person to score two quadruple centuries in first-class cricket. Miller often practised for hours by himself; he put a tennis ball inside a stocking, before suspending it from a clothes line and hitting it back and forth. Indoors, Miller developed a lifelong love of classical music through a cousin who liked to play Mozart. He played flute in the Elsternwick school band but could not read music.