Famous Cricketers No 58 - Trevor Bailey

and 1960s only Garfield Sobers and Keith Miller rivalled him as match winners either with bat or ball. One of the minor mysteries must be why Bailey was never made captain of England. He was, after all, Hutton’s vice-captain in the Caribbean in 1953/54 but never succeeded to the highest position when Hutton retired. Perhaps he was considered too outspoken for the job. Bailey continued to play for Essex until 1967. He was appointed vice-captain to Doug Insole in 1953 and captain from 1961. Overall he played in 482 matches for the County scoring 21,460 runs at an average of 34.50, taking 1593 wickets at 21.99 and holding 320 catches. He hit 22 centuries and took five or more wickets in an innings on 110 occasions. These are staggering figures and his career aggregates of 28641 runs and 2082 wickets have been bettered only by W.G.Grace, G.H.Hirst and W.Rhodes. Bailey began writing for the Financial Times whilst still playing for Essex, and upon his retirement from the game he became that paper’s cricket and association football correspondent. In 1966 he made his first broadcast on the BBC’s Test Match Special programme, a job which has taken him all over the cricket playing world. He has also had involvement, both financially and administratively, in the Ilford indoor cricket school. Another accomplishment has been the now thriving Wrigley Soft Ball Cricket Tournament for the very young. He enlisted support for this project from the National Cricket Association and the English Schools Cricket Association and helped to obtain commercial sponsorship for the scheme, begun in 1980. He helped run the Rothmans Cavaliers who played a series of forty overs a side cricket matches on summer Sundays before the John Player Sunday League was born. He continues to write articles for the Daily Telegraph and The Cricketer magazine and has written a number of books on the game which always give excellent insights into cricket and its players. Besides excelling at cricket, Bailey was also a very good amateur footballer, obtaining a “Blue” at Cambridge and later playing for the Isthmian League side, Leytonstone, and for Walthamstow Avenue. The latter was a very successful side in the early 1950s, winning the FA Amateur Cup in 1952 and reaching the third round of the FA Cup itself the following season before losing in a replay to the reigning League Champions, Manchester United after holding them to a draw at Old Trafford. In the course of the cup run they had beaten League sides in Stockport County and Watford. He was an outside-right in the old fashioned days before the 4-4-2, Christmas Tree formations etc., had been thought of. Trevor Bailey married Greta in 1948. They have three children Justin, Kim and Sharon. He still lives in Westcliff-on-Sea in a road appropriately named The Drive. 1945 Bailey played his first first-class match at Lord’s towards the end of the 1945 season. He scored 20 runs in his only innings and took his first two wickets at a cost of 103 runs. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 1. Under 33s v Over 33s, Lord’s, September 1, 3, 4 (Match drawn) b G.H.Pope 20 421-7d 18.3 3 70 1 J.A.Young c J.R.Bridger 335 9 1 33 1 J.G.W.Davies c A.W.H.Mallett 100-5 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Other match 1 1 0 20 20 20.00 - - - 5