Famous Cricketers No 45 - Hedley Verity

Wisden ’s Five Cricketers of the Year, as was his great friend and lethal partner Bill Bowes. The season was a very wet one which provided conditions ideal for his type of bowling. The highlight was the taking of all ten Warwickshire wickets at Headingley on his twenty-sixth birthday, when the fiery George Macaulay, straining every muscle and bowling only four fewer deliveries, was left wicketless - a foretaste of Lock and Laker at Old Trafford in 1956! Three weeks before his Test debut, playing for his county against the New Zealanders, he took eleven wickets in the match, a feat which receives no mention in Wisden ’s match report. By the end of the season he had taken five or more wickets in an innings eighteen times and ten or more in a match four times. He had truly arrived. In spite of so many astonishing bowling figures he impressed all by his great modesty and by his willingness to learn, especially from those Yorkshire high priests Wilfred Rhodes and Emmott Robinson. Wisden comments on his great powers of spin and length, but suggests that to be an even better bowler he must acquire more control of flight. One minor set-back he had was when he was confronted by the great Frank Woolley at Bradford (a fortnight after his all ten at Headingley) on a sticky wicket. Woolley scored 188 in two and three-quarter hours and left Verity with figures of 12-0-70-0 which Hedley put down to “a learning experience”. To add a further gloss to his wonderful season Yorkshire (in spite of losing 17 complete days through rain) won the County Championship after a five-year gap in which Lancashire had won it four times. During the season he took the prized wickets of W.R.Hammond, K.S.Duleepsinhji and G.E.Tyldesley three times each. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 13. Yorkshire v M.C.C., Lord’s, May 2, (4), 5 (Match drawn) did not bat - 277-8d 24 8 42 5 J.W.Hearne c E.Robinson 112 1 E.H.Hendren c P.Holmes P.T.Eckersley c and b I.A.R.Peebles c M.Leyland W.E.Bowes b 6 3 7 0 65-1 14. Yorkshire v Oxford University, The Parks, May 6, 7, 8 (Yorkshire won by an innigns and 92 runs) not out 2 385 26 7 58 1 R.S.G.Scott c A.Mitchell 213 12 5 22 2 P.G.van der Bijl b 80 E.M.Wellings lbw 15. Yorkshire v Essex, Leyton, May 9, 11, 12 (Yorkshire won by an innings and 8 runs) not out 6 329-8d 11.5 3 29 2 J.A.Cutmore c and b 106 3 T.P.B.Smith b 32.3 11 77 7 J.A.Cutmore b 215 J.O’Connor c F.E.Greenwood J.R.Sheffield c E.Robinson G.W.Hockey lbw H.M.Morris b A.B.Hipkin c M.Leyland A.G.Daer c G.G.Macaulay 16. Yorkshire v Cambridge University, Fenner’s, May 13, 14, 15 (Match drawn) did not bat - 376-6d 16.1 3 42 5 G.D.Kemp-Welch c P.Holmes 179 R.H.C.Human c M.Leyland 93-3 A.Ratcliffe b A.G.Hazlerigg lbw A.H.Fabian lbw 5 4 6 0 93-3 17. Yorkshire v Warwickshire, Headingley, May 16, 18 (Yorkshire won by an innings and 25 runs) b J.H.Mayer 7 298 32.3 11 61 3 J.A.Smart b 201 C.F.Tate lbw G.A.E.Paine b 18.4 6 36 10 R.E.S.Wyatt b 72 1 A.J.W.Croom c F.E.Greenwood L.T.A.Bates c A.Mitchell N.Kilner c A.Mitchell J.H.Parsons c M.Leyland W.A.Hill c A.Wood J.A.Smart c A.Mitchell D.G.Foster st A.Wood C.F.Tate lbw G.A.E.Paine c and b 9