Playing in Australia, England have won four Ashes series out of 15 since the first post-War tour in 1946-47. It is a famous progress: Frank Tyson and Brian Statham in 1954-55; John Snow in 1970-71; Bob Willis and Ian Botham in 1978-79; Graham Dilley and Botham – with some help from the spinners – in 1986-87. Alec Bedser toured Australia three times from 1946 to 1955, taking 47 wickets in 11 Tests. He, too, has a place in this pantheon. Bowlers do seem to live longer than batsmen, and their longevity means that we can learn at first hand how to bowl at Australia on Australian pitches. Only Brian Statham is no longer able to explain what is required to beat Australia in their backyard. From Bedser bowling Bradman for a duck with an unplayable leg-cutter at Adelaide in 1946-47 to Dilley having Steve Waugh caught behind for nought at the Gabba 40 years later, they teach lessons that England must learn if they are to have a chance of victory this winter. Here is a masterclass on how to regain the Ashes.

Pitches
If England's bowlers board the plane to Australia this year with trepidation, Bedser and his team-mates could not get there quick enough when they left Southampton docks on August 31, 1946. After six years of war the chance to play cricket anywhere, let alone Australia, was heavenly. "I hadn't played cricket for three years," says Bedser, now a sprightly 84. "We were very grateful to be able to go there. We were up against it but I didn't care; I just loved it." England lost 3-0 with Bedser, not for the only time, carrying the side's pace attack. He remembers the pitches and the outfields being rock-hard. "Off-spinners and slow left-armers never turned it at all then," he says. He had to change his normal spikes on his boots to running spikes, which he filed down, because the ground was so hard.

But they do not necessarily remain the same. John Snow, who had been central to England's 2-0 victory in 1970-71, thinks the pitches were a "a yard quicker" on England's next tour in 1974-75 when Lillee and Thomson wreaked havoc. Nor do they necessarily stay fast. Bob Willis, who toured Australia five times, thinks the pace of Australian pitches is mythologised. "People get a bit kidded about Australian wickets being fast and bouncy," he says. "If you're thrown a 35-over-old Kookaburra without a seam on it, you'll find out how fast and bouncy they are."

Frank Tyson was plucked from Northamptonshire as a promising county player for the 1954-55 tour and in a matter of weeks was transformed into `Typhoon' Tyson. He now lives near Brisbane and knows about length. "In Australia you have to bowl at least a foot shorter than you do in England," he says. He observes that the pitches are much harder to bowl on now than on that famous mid-fifties tour. They were even harder to bowl on when he got back to work on the featherbeds at Northampton. "Len Hutton used to say to me that I'd be out of Test cricket in three years if I stayed at Northampton. He was right. The ball used to bounce twice before it reached the keeper."

Experience says that sheer pace is not enough. Inconsistent wickets require guile and variation.

Partnerships
Bedser's great series in Australia was 1950-51 when he took 30 wickets at 16.06 and was still on the losing side. "We picked a very poor side," he says. "We should have won the Ashes but there were too many youngsters. If we'd taken Bill Edrich we might have won." Seven of the 19 players on that tour were under 26 compared to only two in Douglas Jardine's successful side of 1932-33. Two years later in England Bedser took 39 wickets at 17.48 as England regained the Ashes. He is the only bowler from any country to have taken 30 wickets in a series against Australia at home and away.

Bedser laments the lack of support at the other end in his first two tours to Australia. Indeed, in a career of 51 Tests – he took the new ball in every one – he had 15 different new-ball partners. Willis, who did not always take the new ball, had only 13 partners in 90 Tests. Once he hooked up with Ian Botham in 1978-79 he had only six different partners in 57 Tests.

Willis opened the bowling with Botham in 24 Tests. "I really believe in partnerships," says Willis, now returned to Australia as a Sky Sports commentator. "In England's most successful periods they have generally had a regular new-ball pairing. Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick have bowled together for a few years now and England have had some success – certainly with the ball – in that time. I wish that earlier in my career I'd had a longer run-out with John Snow but that didn't happen. I was lucky to have `Beefy' at the other end for much of my career. He would keep going for long periods while I could bowl in short bursts."

Experience says it is important that Gough and Caddick are fit. Or that Simon Jones or Steve Harmison can come in at the pace of a typhoon.

Captaincy
Willis believes the handling of quick bowlers is crucial, particularly in severe heat. He is convinced that the genuinely quick bowlers should be given the opportunity to make something happen with the new ball. "I felt sorry for Alex Tudor at The Oval when he was given the ball when it was 20 or 30 overs old." But when Willis was captain on the 1982-83 tour he remained loyal to his belief in partnerships and opened the bowling with Botham. Norman Cowans, Middlesex's young tearaway who was the Jones or Harmison of the team, got the new ball only once. He was first change until the final Test after he had taken 6 for 77 in the second innings of the fourth Test at Melbourne.

Tyson believes that Hutton's shrewd handling of his quick bowlers and his hard-nosed tactics were vital to their success. "Len got criticised for slow over-rates, sometimes 10 or 11 an hour," says Tyson. "But that will happen if you're using four fast bowlers." The selectors picked a pace-oriented party for that tour and, according to Tyson, once Hutton realised what he had at his disposal, he utilised his bowlers with ruthless efficiency. "He used me in very short spells. He would say: `Give me all you've got for five overs.'" Experience says Hussain should not try to please the crowd and that Ashley Giles is not going to see much action this winter.

Know your enemy
Tyson, a university graduate, was mentally sharp. He bounced Ray Lindwall in the first Test at Brisbane and got one back in the next match at Sydney which struck him on the back of the head. "From then on he was expecting me to bowl another one back at him," says Tyson. "But I never did; I yorked him four times in the rest of the series."

After going for 1 for 160 in the innings defeat at Brisbane, Tyson cut his 30-yard run-up almost in half. He lost none of his pace and took 27 wickets in the remaining four Tests including 7 for 27 in the third Test at Melbourne. Statham took 18 in the series at 27.72. Bedser, who played only one Test on that tour after an attack of shingles, points out that the wickets at Sydney and Melbourne for the second and third Tests were "two of the worst Test wickets I've ever seen". Because the MCG pitch was cracking up early in the match it was watered after the second day – although this was denied at the time – to hold it together. Watering played right into Tyson's hands.

Times have changed and Tyson believes Australia is a harder place to bowl nowadays. "Pitches are much better now. Perth, for example, is still quick but has lost much of its dangerous bounce," he says.

Experience says expect to improvise.

Don't waste the new ball
Both Willis and Dilley, now the England bowling coach, identify a vital window of opportunity with the new ball and the second new ball. It must not be wasted. "There is pace and bounce when the ball is hard and that's when England have to take advantage," says Willis. "In recent tours they have been too slow off the mark. Remember the staggeringly inept performance of Phil DeFreitas and Martin McCague at the start of the 1994-95 series."

"It's all about discipline," says Dilley. "You can't just run up and let go of it. The Kookaburra ball does swing early on but it won't stay hard for long if it's crashing to the boundary in the first few overs. Jones and Harmison must bowl to their strengths but in a disciplined way. The more disciplined you are, the longer it gives you to put the batsmen under pressure." Bedser agrees: "The first thing is bowling it where you want to. It doesn't matter how fast you are if you don't make the batsman play." Snow says: "You have to be very precise about where you're bowling. There is a smaller margin for error in Test cricket compared to county and there is an even smaller margin for error playing overseas."

Experience says accuracy is more crucial in Australia than England.

Cut the ball
Tyson ranks Snow as one of the best fast bowlers he has ever seen in Australia. Why? "Because he had the ability to cut the ball. He could vary it so much and it slipped on to them quicker than the batsman expected." It was Bedser's ability to bowl cutters at less than express pace that was the key to his success. "Alec used to bowl this enormous leg-cutter," says Tyson. "He would close his huge right hand round the ball and bowl this ball that curved towards leg stump because he was actually spinning it so vigorously. The seam was pointing normally towards first slip and it was cut back from middle, middle and leg towards off stump. That's how he used to get Bradman." Bedser dismissed The Don six times in Tests, five in consecutive innings.

Variation is the key, says Tyson, between, for example, Glenn McGrath and Caddick. "They are physically similar and neither is express but Caddick gives the impression that he just puts the ball there whereas there is some devil in McGrath's bowling. He has the capacity to pitch it middle and leg to left-handers and bowl off-cutters that they have to play. Most modern bowlers have not worked out how to do that."

Experience says that England's bowlers have something to learn from the Aussie pacemen.

Attitude and psychology
Snow is unequivocal: "Test series in Australia are always hard and aggressive and, if you win, that makes it better at the end." The spectators are harder too, says Snow, who knows from personal experience. In 1970-71. He hit Graham McKenzie in the face during the fourth Test at Sydney, and in the final game, also at Sydney, Snow hit Terry Jenner on the head for good measure. When Snow walked back to the boundary at the end of his over, a spectator leaned over the fence and grabbed his shirt. "I thought about striking out myself until I realised he was drunk," Snow wrote in his autobiography Cricket Rebel. "Cans and bottles were flying past me from all directions until I managed to get out of range. I waved at them as if saying, okay get on with it if you must. I was still looking at them waiting for them to calm down when Bob Willis came charging up and told me Ray Illingworth was taking us off the field. I needed no second invitation to join him."

Willis, who made his debut on that tour as a replacement for the injured Alan Ward, took 12 wickets at 27.41 in four Tests. He believes that making an early impression on Australians is a vital ingredient to a successful tour. "Part of the Australian psyche is not to rate the opposition," he says. "It was a help for me to make a contribution in that first victory in 1970-71 because I was rated by them after that and it stayed with me for the rest of my career. It takes the pressure off you when you have a lean patch." Of England's current bowling attack only Gough has bowled a ball in a Test in Australia.

Experience says nil carborundum bastardi, or don't let the bastards grind you down.

Fitness
The heat never changes; nor does the need to be fit enough to cope with it. Snow fell out with the England management in 1970-71 because of a perceived lack of effort in the nets. "You still need to bowl but management now appear to be much more aware of the need to keep people fresh. Just make sure you're fit and ready to go for the Test matches." says Snow. The 1979-80 tour for Dilley, as a raw 20-year-old, was a shock to the system. "I'd never even spent a whole day in the field," he says. On the first day of the three-match series – the Ashes were not at stake – at Perth, Dennis Lillee walked to the wicket with an aluminium bat. There was a long delay berfore the umpires persuaded him to change it. "I was the most relieved man on the field because it meant I could sit down for 10 minutes," says Dilley.

When Willis found he had "run out of steam" in the Centenary Test at Melbourne in 1976-77, he knew he must improve his stamina. He started distance running, which is unpopular these days with sports scientists because of the strain on bones and joints. Willis believes it transformed his career.

Experience says what you already know: there is no chance of beating these Aussies if you're not fit.

	Tests	Wickets
Alec Bedser	11	47 @ 31.68
Frank Tyson	7	31 @ 25.83
John Snow	6	31 @ 22.83
Bob Willis	24	72 @ 29.80
Ian Botham	18	69 @ 28.44
Graham Dilley	7	22 @ 34.36

John Stern is the deputy editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly.

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