All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

182 Ken Graveney Goddard and Cook took 243 Championship wickets between them in 1949 and so Graveney needed to keep getting wickets next morning in order to stay on. Fortunately he did, with Rhodes soon caught by the younger Graveney at extra cover for 65 and wickets six and seven following quickly after. A stubborn eighth wicket partnership then developed, led by the Derbyshire captain David Skinner. As Skinner was to average below 14 in a first-class career that lasted just 23 matches, his 39 was a commendable performance. Graveney was about to be rested but Allen decided that as he had all seven wickets he had better keep going, and he took two more wickets in the next five overs. With nine wickets down, another nuisance partnership developed, this time between Bill Copson and Les Jackson, not two of cricket’s greatest with the bat (848 innings between them, no fifties!). Allen told Graveney that he had three more overs to get his tenth wicket. Fortunately soon after, with the score 167, Copson lofted a shot into the safe hands of George Emmett at extra cover and the deed was done. Goddard and Cook had hardly been needed. Graveney is still the only non-spinner to have taken all-ten for Gloucestershire, and the only bowler to have done so at Chesterfield. As he had previously taken just 38 wickets in his 16-match career his success must have caused some surprise. Although he played less than a full season in 1949 Graveney took 59 wickets and scored 505 runs. Gloucestershire seemed to have found a promising allrounder. However, despite much treatment he had never fully recovered from a back injury sustained while he was with the Commandos and only two years later to his great regret he had to give up. But he would be back. By the early 1960s the county’s captaincy had been a bit of a problem for some time. Tom Graveney had been captain in 1959 and 1960 but had been controversially deposed and after 13 years’ service left to join Worcestershire. The Committee really still wanted the side to be led by an amateur and appointed Old Etonian Tom Pugh who had been playing for the county with modest success for two seasons. Leadership was in his blood, his uncle Peter Eckersley having twice led Lancashire to the County Championship in the 1930s. And as one of the best racquets players in the world he didn’t lack competitive spirit. However, although a commendable fourth place was achieved in 1962, Pugh’s batting was not up to standard and after two seasons it was decided that a change was needed. The appointment of Ken Graveney in 1963 at the age of 38 was surprising. Having made a successful career in the catering business, he was still playing cricket locally and had been captaining the Second Eleven, but was he up to the first-class game again? Unfortunately the move wasn’t a success and in his two seasons in charge the county slipped from fourth to eighth to last. Graveney himself only contributed 39 wickets and just over 800 runs in the two seasons and he returned to business, handing over the reins to off-spinning allrounder John Mortimore. Graveney would later go on to perform further service for Gloucestershire as chairman and as president. His son, slow left-armer David, would also captain the county, and later Durham in their early years as a first- class county, and go on to become a leading figure in English cricket as