All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

96 Billy Bestwick Derbyshire v Glamorgan, 1921 County Championship Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff on 18, 20 June 1921 (3-day match) Toss won by Glamorgan Derbyshire won by two wickets Umpires: GP Harrison, JP Whiteside Glamorgan 168 and 106 (W Bestwick 10-40); Derbyshire 83 and 193-8 (A Nash 5-56) Glamorgan second innings *TAL Whittington b Bestwick 0 WN Gemmill b Bestwick 2 WE Bates b Bestwick 48 H Tomlinson c Storer b Bestwick 20 +GE Cording b Bestwick 4 HG Symonds b Bestwick 1 WLT Jenkins c Elliott b Bestwick 6 AE O’Bree c Storer b Bestwick 16 JC Clay b Bestwick 5 H Creber b Bestwick 1 A Nash not out 0 Extras (b 1, lb 2) 3 Total (all out, 37 overs) 106 Fall of wickets 1-0, 2-9, 3-48, 4-60, 5-71, 6-80, 7-89, 8-105, 9-106, 10-106 Derbyshire bowling: W Bestwick 19-2-40-10, WJV Tomlinson 6-0-17-0, H Storer 6-1-24-0, W Reader-Blackton 6-1-22-0 Derbyshire: GM Buckston (capt), W Carter, GR Jackson, G Curgenven, SWACadman, H Storer, JMHutchinson, WReader-Blackton, WJV Tomlinson, H Elliott (wk), W Bestwick At 46 years 116 days, Billy Bestwick is the oldest man to take an all-ten. He played for Derbyshire from 1898 until 1925 with, remarkably, a five year first-class ‘career-break’ from 1910 until 1914. Born in Heanor in 1875, one of 14 children, Bestwick was a miner when not playing cricket. Well- built, bowling fast-medium off a short run-up, with a strong body action, usually making the ball move away after pitching, he could extract life from most wickets. He made his first-class debut for Derbyshire in 1898 and, together with Arnold Warren, provided the cutting edge of the Derbyshire attack until he was released in 1909. Like many cricketers of the day he had a liking for drink, and the committee finally decided that they had had enough and that, fine bowler though he was, he had to go. Two years previously he had been involved in a pub brawl at Heanor resulting in the death by knife wound of a William Brown, but was acquitted of manslaughter on the grounds that he acted in self-defence. His first-class career apparently ended, Bestwick moved to south Wales in 1912 to find work in the mines