All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

220 Tony Pearson it certainly was for Pearson who bowled another 19.3 overs and took the remaining nine wickets at a cost of 39 runs to become only the second bowler after Sammy Woods to take all-ten for Cambridge University. He had soon got among the wickets on Friday morning, first breaking the overnight partnership by bowling Stanley Jayasinghe, a belligerent batsman who had played for Ceylon, and then in quick succession having Robin Gardner caught behind without scoring, and then bowling Birkenshaw and 20-year-old wicketkeeper John Mitten, who was making his first-class debut. Mitten’s first-class career would be a short one. He had greater success as a professional footballer, although not as much as his more famous father Charlie, a skilful left winger who found post- war fame with Manchester United before controversially defecting to play in Colombia in 1950. Hallam did his best to hold the innings together but when he eventually played on all hopes of a decent total were gone. Unsurprisingly the Leicestershire tail didn’t last long. The last three batsmen would eventually play nearly 600 matches between them, but didn’t share one fifty. Only two other batsmen reached double figures, one of whom, Rodney Pratt, had been Jack Bannister’s last victim when he took his all-ten two years before. Pearson hit the stumps five times, all top order batsmen, and was well supported by Brearley who took three catches (in a season in which he would finish with a career-best haul of 47 catches plus three stumpings), and didn’t concede a bye in either innings. The ground would eventually host 16 first-class matches, the last in 1965. Only Pearson, and Hampshire’s Butch White, with seven in each innings in 1963, ever took more than six wickets in an innings there. Although Cambridge only needed 107 to win, the pitch was by now taking considerable spin and the University players apparently thought that off- spinner John Savage, who would take 122 wickets in the season, might be too good for them. In the event, although Savage took four cheap wickets, Cambridge knocked off the runs needed for victory fairly easily thanks to another dominant display from Craig (80 not out). Meanwhile Oxbridge was also having a good day in the Third Test at Headingley with Raman Subba Row, Colin Cowdrey, Peter May and Ted Dexter, plus Lancashire professional Pullar, all scoring solidly to help England to a first-innings lead over Australia for the first time since 1956. Pearson performed modestly in the rain-affected University match in July with just one wicket in the only Oxford innings but, replacing the injured Ken Biddulph, he made an impressive debut for Somerset later in the month taking seven Worcestershire wickets in their second innings for 63 runs. In his few appearances for Somerset that season he took 23 wickets and headed their bowling averages. However, despite this promising beginning, his first-class county career was already nearly over, ending with just one more match against Kent two years later. He remained a mainstay of the Cambridge attack during his three years there, eventually taking 112 wickets for them, although never again taking five wickets in an innings.