Famous Cricketers No 45 - Hedley Verity

Foreword By Mr.W.A.Brown, former opening batsman for Australia 1934-48 My memories of Hedley Verity are of a tall dark man who obviously took his cricket very seriously. From memory he did not laugh a lot on the field and even his appeals to the umpire were done extremely quietly, unlike some of the more modern appeals which are accompanied by interesting body language as well. Of course there was no swarming all over the bowler or fieldsman in those bygone days. I would not have liked to have been the man to rush up and throw his arms round big Bill O’Reilly; I don’t imagine he would have been received very cordially! Hedley had wonderful control of a cricket ball when he was bowling. I particularly remember a Test match in 1934 when on the wet Lord’s wicket he speeded up a yard or so, but for one moment never lost his pinpoint accuracy and took 15 wickets in the match. His batting was also indicative of his personality. As I remember it he was a quiet back-foot player, not easy to get out, but with not a lot of scoring shots. He went about his cricket in a quiet, dignified manner and he was very highly respected both as a cricketer and as a man by all players. It was a great pleasure to have played against him and to have seen his immaculate style of playing close-up. One of my fondest memories of the game is Hedley coming up to bowl, his run-up almost obscured by the umpire and then his lovely rythmic high left-arm delivery pitching the ball exactly where he wanted it. It was with great regret and sadness that we learned of his death as a prisoner-of-war. Cricket was much the poorer for the loss of this gentleman of the game. 4