All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

215 Jack Bannister Universties or the tourists, as well as meeting the Public Schools annually at Lord’s (non-first-class), a match which must have had a slight element of Players versus Gentlemen about it. Although they fielded decent teams they weren’t usually a match for their more experienced opponents and won just six matches (Northants, Glamorgan twice and Worcestershire three times) after the War, and none after 1952. They mostly met their opposition away, but if not, ‘home’ was military grounds at Portsmouth, Aldershot, Gillingham, Catterick, or Uxbridge. Bannister soon established himself in the Warwickshire side but back injury threatened his career. After remodelling his action he slowly regained form, but competition for places in the side had intensified and by the time of the Combined Services match at the end of May 1959 he had played just one Championship match in the season. In a glorious summer Warwickshire captain Mike Smith was to become the first batsman in ten years to score 3,000 runs in a season and, against expectations, Warwickshire rose to fourth in the Championship, only 20 points behind Yorkshire who had finally broken Surrey’s seven-year hold on the title. Mitchells and Butlers was a local brewery. The ground was familiar territory for Bannister. Having hosted first-class cricket during the 1930s it had dropped off the circuit after the War before returning briefly in 1957. The Services were led by Yorkshireman Lieutenant-Commander Gerry Tordoff, a talented amateur sportsman who had also played for Cambridge University and Somerset. In 1955 the navy had allowed him to answer Somerset’s call for an amateur captain. However the venture was not a success. They finished in last place (for the fourth successive season!) and he returned to the navy, playing for the Services until 1962. The Combined Services team was not a strong one. Four of the side never played first-class county cricket. All four were making their first-class debuts (including England rugby international Evan Hardy for whom it was his only only match). On the opening day the Services’ attack was put to the sword by the Warwickshire batsmen, especially by opener Jim Stewart who scored a run-a-minute 151. He hit five sixes, a modest total for someone who two months later would clear the boundary 17 times in the match against Lancashire at Blackpool. After an early declaration the Services, struggling against Bannister’s sharp lift, finished the day on an unpromising 64 for seven. Talking to the Birmingham Post , Bannister recalled the match: ‘It was a wet wicket, right up my street. I had taken seven overnight but the footholds had gone. You could hardly stand up in them. But I knew the groundsman, Ray Weston, from when I played for Combined Services (sic) and I had a word and he put some new sods in for me. Strictly speaking it was against the rules but Dai Davies, who was umpiring at my end, let it go and the opposition didn’t mind. It was a big help but I knew that, even with the new sods, the footholds wouldn’t last long.’ Bannister took another wicket with the second ball next day, leaving Services 68 for eight. As well as Tordoff they had some useful batsmen,