All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

200 Jim Laker pitch eased, and with the usually aggressive Benaud and McDonald still there at tea, England were worried again. Benaud’s pugnacious 97 at Lord’s was Australia’s highest score of the series. This time he was in defensive mode. However, the sun reappeared and at 181 McDonald’s great vigil was finally ended, a lifting off break providing Sussex’s 6 foot 5 inch Alan Oakman at short leg with his fifth catch of the match. This was the second time in the summer that the courageous McDonald had top scored with 89 whilst Laker ran through his team-mates. Could Laker get another all- ten? With Johnson complaining about the sawdust blowing in his eyes the Australians were time-wasting ingeniously, and there was no let up at the other end from the attacking Lock. Benaud and Lindwall who had resisted for 105 and 40 minutes respectively, were eventually prised out and just before five thirty, and with an hour to go, Laker hitched up his trousers and licked his fingers for the umpteenth time before jogging in to Len Maddocks who, hemmed in by three short legs, fatefully played back and umpire Frank Lee raised his index finger. Laker’s final twisted-ankle appeal is one of cricket’s most famous images. Outwardly unemotional as ever, he then slung his jersey over his shoulder, exchanged a few handshakes and strolled off. They knew how to celebrate in those days. So many new world records: 19 wickets in a match, all-ten in a Test innings, all-ten twice in a season and an eventual Ashes record 46 wickets in a series. Poor Lock, who himself had taken an all-ten at Blackheath earlier in the month, had repeatedly beaten the bat, but with no luck. And of course two other greats, Brian Statham and Trevor Bailey, also had nothing to show for their labours. Laker drove south after the match. He was playing for Surrey at The Oval next day. His opponents - the Australians! In seven matches that year he would take 63 wickets against them. Famously he stopped on the way back for a beer and sandwich and, whilst other customers discussed the Test, nobody recognised him. It’s fair to say that the Australians, who had come to Britain with a side picked to counter the menace of Frank Tyson whose pace had devastated them eighteen months before, were a weak batting side who on uncovered pitches didn’t play off spin well. Laker himself thought that his best ever bowling had been his five for 88 from 65 overs in gruelling Bombay heat for the Commonwealth XI against a powerful Indian batting line-up in December 1950. Feeling hard done by the conditions that they encountered in 1956, the Australians vowed revenge on Laker when England came out in 1958/59 to play on their pitches. However, although Australia won the series easily, their batsmen never got on top of Laker who finished England’s leading bowler with 15 wickets at 21.20 in four Tests. Laker was unafraid to air grievances and in 1960 his, ghost-written, second autobiography Over to Me caused considerable offence to the establishment, and his honorary MCC and Surrey memberships were withdrawn. They were later restored and he would become Chairman of Surrey’s Cricket Committee. He also became a popular and knowledgeable