All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

216 Jack Bannister notably Glamorgan’s Private Alan Jones who would score 36,000 first- class runs but never play for England (except in a 1970 Rest of the World series whose Test status was retrospectively removed; he kept the cap and blazer though!) and Aircraftmen Brian Roe and Richard Langridge, Somerset and Sussex respectively. However on this occasion the main contribution came from Essex off-spinner Aircraftman Paddy Phelan who hit 41 before he was caught behind, an edged drive fumbled then held by Jackie Fox, having added 46 for the ninth wicket with debutant Sergeant Douglas Meakin. Meanwhile Billy Ibadulla had been bowling at the other end and according to Bannister hadn’t given up trying: ‘Jack you wouldn’t want a cheap wicket, would you?’. However Bannister got his man, and it was Ibadulla who took the catch at short leg! Last man, Senior Aircraftman Rodney Pratt had so far batted 22 times in first-class cricket with a highest score of nine. Not surprisingly he didn’t stay long. More surprisingly, two months later he made 80, for Leicestershire, against Essex. Improving on Hollies’ figures, Bannister’s figures are still a Warwickshire record. Interestingly he never hit the stumps, and apart from one lbw all his wickets fell to catches: three by Ibadulla and another three by County Durham-born wicketkeeper Fox who was standing in for Dick Spooner, another son of County Durham, who was in the last year of an outstanding career. Fox was playing in his third first-class match, but these were his first victims. The match was over in two days, but the Services made a slightly better fist of it second time around mainly thanks to a captain’s innings of 75 from Tordoff. Bannister took three more wickets (for 43) as the spoils were shared around a bit more evenly. The only wicket that Warwickshire lost knocking off the handful of runs needed for victory was the first-innings hero Stewart, who was bowled by Meakin for 151 runs fewer than he made in the first innings. And Bannister’s reward for his all-ten? He was dropped. ‘M.J.K. Smith came over and said “Well done but hard lines”. I had no problem with that because Ossie Wheatley and Roly Thompson were our first choices’. He got back later in the year, became a fixture in the side, and took over 100 wickets in each of the next three seasons. Bannister missed most of 1963 with injury, but there was consolation the following season with an £8,847 benefit, and an appearance in the second Gillette Cup Final at Lord’s, albeit that Warwickshire slumped to a disappointing defeat. He was back again two years later, this time on the winning side against local rivals Worcestershire. Warwickshire returned once more in 1968, but unfortunately without Bannister whose pulled calf muscle in the quarter-final had virtually ended his season and his first-class career (although he played a few limited-overs matches the next season). Bannister’s contributions off the field were considerable. In 1953 Warwickshire had started direct broadcasting of play at Edgbaston to local sanatoria and Bannister was one of several players who volunteered their services. The experience was invaluable as he later commentated on