All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

98 Billy Bestwick born left-hander Harry Tomlinson then helped Bates take the score to 48 before he became Bestwick’s third victim, caught by Harry Storer. Thirty- five-year-old local club professional Tomlinson had made his first-class debut in the previous match. He had started well, top scoring with 36 against Somerset, but he never surpassed this score and his first-class career would be over after eight matches. When he left Bestwick bowled with such devastating effect that he had taken all ten wickets before lunch, the last three in four balls, as the home side slumped to 106 all out. Bestwick’s final victim, 49-year-old Harry Creber, was, like Nash, a key part of Glamorgan’s pre-war Minor County success that led to the county’s promotion to the first-class ranks. Bestwick hit the stumps seven times. Bates had top scored again but couldn’t find anybody to partner him for long. He had played for Yorkshire before the War and as a reliable batsman and useful bowler would serve Glamorgan well for ten years. Sport was in his blood. His father played cricket 15 times for England in the 1880s; his son was Ted Bates, legendary Southampton Football Club manager. Bestwick had a set a county record that still stands, beating William Mycroft’s nine for 25 against Hampshire in 1876. It might have been his second all-ten. The previous month he dismissed nine Warwickshire batsmen for 65 at Edgbaston, but unfortunately Sam Cadman picked up the opener Leonard Bates (no relation) who had batted throughout most of the innings. Wisden ’s match report makes no reference to Bestwick’s nine wickets. Given what had gone before, 192 to win was a considerable target, and at 116 for eight a Derbyshire defeat seemed inevitable. However, Watford footballer Bill Carter (50 not out) and wicketkeeper Harry Elliott (20 not out) then attacked the bowling so effectively that victory was achieved by 5 o’clock, a perhaps unexpected outcome given that neither Carter nor Elliott yet had a first-class fifty to his name, and both had failed to score in Derbyshire’s first innings. Fortunately the number eleven batsman (W.Bestwick, final career average 4.71) was not required to bat! Elliott would eventually play 520 matches for the county and, returning in an emergency for four matches in 1947, was one of two players in the match to play after the Second World War. The other was Johnnie Clay who in 1948, aged 50, would appropriately take the final Hampshire wicket that sealed Glamorgan’s first Championship title. The Derbyshire Committee decided to reward Bestwick for his achievement at Cardiff with collections at the next two home games. As players then only received match fees in the summer he generously gave half of the sum collected to his minder, Arthur Morton, to help him out during his spell out of the side. Bestwick finished his 323-match career with 1,457 wickets at 21 apiece, all but five of which were taken for Derbyshire, a total still only exceeded for the county by the redoubtable pair of Cliff Gladwin and Les Jackson. In 1922 he uniquely bowled in tandem with his son Bob while Warwickshire’s Willie Quaife and son Bernard batted together. Perhaps surprisingly in view of his apparent unreliability, Bestwick became