All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

146 behind. One of county cricket’s outstanding leaders, Sellers was deputising for the unavailable Frank Greenwood and would be officially appointed captain the following season, a position he held with great success until 1947. Notts settled in to play for a draw and openers Walter Keeton and Frank Shipston were not parted until after lunch with the score 44. Seven years later Keeton would score 312 not out against Middlesex, still the only triple-century scored for the county. Shipston had a less eminent career, but lived until 2005, dying a few days short of his 99th birthday, an anniversary that remarkably Willis Walker, the Notts’ number three, did live to see (although without quite making his century). The sun having come out on a drying pitch the ball was beginning to bite and Verity, bowling from the building site end, had brought up more close catchers. Two more wickets fell quickly, but with the score 63 for three and a Notts’ lead of 134, a draw still looked a good bet. However, in an echo of Verity’s all-ten the previous season, a collapse of epic proportions then ensued. It started with a hat-trick in Verity’s 18th over. The first two victims were Walker and Harris, both caught in the slips, followed by George (G.V.) Gunn, leg-before to a well disguised faster arm-ball. G.V. was the son of the great George, still his county’s leading runs-scorer, who the previous week at the age of 53 had played his final match for them. After this the wickets fell in such a rush that the excited 2,000 crowd had hardly had the chance to discuss the possibilities of another Verity all-ten when, by 3.30 pm, it had happened, Sam Staples overbalancing first ball, Wood doing the rest. Scenes of wild enthusiasm followed. The last seven wickets had fallen for four runs, and Verity had taken ten wickets in just 52 balls. He conceded just five scoring shots and his is still the only all-ten to include a hat-trick. Interestingly, as with Verity’s previous all-ten, eight batsmen were caught, one stumped and one leg-before. Another similarity was that again it was Macaulay who bowled at the other end and went wicketless in helpful conditions, although it wasn’t for the want of trying. He did however contribute to the record by taking three sharp slip catches. He didn’t always field there, but regular slipper Mitchell had retired from the match with a damaged hand, courtesy of a Larwood bouncer. Three batsmen had failed to score in either innings, Bill Voce, Sam Staples and skipper Arthur Carr, who was twice caught just in front of the sightscreen by Wilf Barber as he attempted to open his account with a six. A fine attacking batsman who made 45 first-class centuries, the combative Carr had captained the county since 1919 and would go on to do so until 1934 before being deposed in controversial circumstances related to his uncompromising support for the county’s Bodyline bowlers Larwood and Voce. It wasn’t a good match for the captains with the bat: in his only innings Sellers also failed to open his account. The only batsman to evade Verity was wicketkeeper Ben Lilley, who had also been undefeated, with 46, in Nottinghamshire’s first innings. As he had made 200 not out for Notts Second Eleven in 1925 against Hedley Verity