Famous Cricketers No 45 - Hedley Verity

48. Yorkshire v The Rest, Kennington Oval, September (12), 14, 15 (Match drawn) b F.R.Brown 0 209 24 10 49 3 G.T.S.Stevens c F.E.Greenwood 124 W.R.Hammond c G.G.Macaulay E.Paynter c H.Sutcliffe did not bat - 56-1 28 12 48 4 R.E.S.Wyatt lbw 290-9d 1 V.W.C.Jupp c H.Sutcliffe D.R.Jardine c G.G.Macaulay F.R.Brown c F.E.Greenwood SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Tests 2 - - - - - - - - Players v Gentlemen 3 3 1 35 13* 17.50 - - 2 Championship 24 18 3 183 28 12.20 - - 12 Other Yorks matches 6 4 2 16 11* 8.00 - - 2 Other matches 1 - - - - - - - 1 Season 36 25 6 234 28 12.31 - - 17 Career 48 39 9 398 32 13.26 - - 22 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Tests 34.4 12 85 4 2/33 21.25 - - Players v Gentlemen 74.3 16 197 10 5/41 19.70 1 - Championship 789.2 251 1703 138 10/36 12.34 13 3 Other Yorks matches 199.3 67 446 31 6/67 14.38 4 1 Other matches 39.3 10 111 5 3/66 22.20 - - Season (6-ball) 1137.3 356 2542 188 10/36 13.52 18 4 Career (6-ball) 1543.4 510 3337 252 10/36 13.24 24 6 1932 After a slow start Yorkshire retained the Championship they had won in 1931 by winning 18 of their last 21 matches, including ten by an innings and two by 10 wickets. An outstanding feature of their cricket was the bowling of Bowes and Verity. Bowes took 190 wickets in all, 169 in the Championship with Verity taking 162 overall including 135 in the Championship. To Verity’s attributes of spin and accuracy had been added that of gaining lift through making greater use of his height. The statistical highlight was, of course, his repeat of his 1931 feat of taking all ten wickets in an innings at Headingley. This time his opponenets were Nottinghamshire at a cost of a mere 10 runs which remains the record low analysis to this day. Included in this was his first hat-trick, of Walker, Harris and G.V.Gunn, and he finished off the innings with seven wickets in fifteen balls for 3 runs. Yet again Macaulay was the frustrated bowler at the other end and did in fact bowl twenty more balls; he did, however, take three of the ctaches. As in his all ten in 1931, Verity had 8 caught, one lbw and one stumped. In addition he took eight wickets in an innings three times; against Lancashire (which may may been some consolation for losing by an innings!) and Northamptonshire and also for the M.C.C. Australian Team against The Rest at Folkestone. In another historic game at Leyton when Holmes and Sutcliffe put on 555 for the first wicket Hedley took 5-8 and 5-45. Perhaps to keep Verity on his toes Horace Fisher, another left-arm spinner, in consecutive matches took 6-11 against Leicestershire (Verity 2-0-10-0) and 5-12 (including an all lbw hat trick; Verity did not bowl in this innings) and scored 76* against Somerset. In this season, for the first time, Verity opened the batting for Yorkshire in two matches, against Essex at Scarborough and Surrey at Kennington Oval. Although not selected for the inaugural Lord’s Test against India, there was little doubt that he would be chosen for the winter tour of Australia after he finished second in the bowling averages to Harold Larwood with the same number of wickets (162). He thus joined his fellow Yorkshiremen Herbert Sutcliffe, Maurice Leyland and Bill Bowes in what was to become the most sensational Ashes tour of all time in which the leader of the bowling averages was to figure prominently! 13