Famous Cricketers No 65 - Len Hutton

Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Test matches 1 0 10 0 - - - - Other matches 23 1 98 2 1-20 49.00 - - Tour (8-ball) 24 1 108 2 1-20 54.00 - - Career (6-ball) 847.5 173 } 2691 85 6-76 31.65 2 1 (8-ball) 24 1 1939 This was another wonderful season for Len Hutton as he finished second, fractionally behind Walter Hammond, in the batting averages, scored half as many centuries again as his nearest rival, Denis Compton, and his aggregate of runs was over 400 more than these two great batsmen who were his nearest rivals. He would undoubtedly have scored 3,000 runs in a season for the first time, if other rather more pressing matters had not caused the cancellation of the Scarborough Festival and an abrupt end to the season. He now seemed to be the complete batsman, as to his already impressive technique and beauty of style he had added further to his ability to dominate the attack and score at whatever rate the situation demanded, whether at county or Test level. He had a particularly successful Test series against the West Indies with two centuries in the three matches and an average of 96.00 overall. At Lord’s, with that other young champion, Denis Compton, he had a partnership of 248 in 140 minutes, displaying “a grand array of strokes,” scoring his last 96 in 95 minutes with 14 boundaries, whilst at the Kennington Oval he added 264 with his captain, Wally Hammond, in three hours. He and Denis Compton also took part in an exhilarating partnership for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord’s when they added 141 in 80 minutes with Hutton scoring 86 and Compton 70. After an unexceptional start for Yorkshire he was into his stride by the end of May with rarely a failure for the rest of the season. At the beginning of June he had a wonderful match against Hampshire at Bramall Lane when he scored 280*, which was to remain his highest-ever score for Yorkshire, and then proceeded to take four second innings wickets. For the second time in three years he took part in an opening partnership of 315 with Herbert Sutcliffe who, now in his 45th year was having a wonderful season himself. To add to his batting triumphs, this was by far his best season with the ball, as he finished third in the bowling averages for Yorkshire behind that great duo of Bill Bowes and Hedley Verity and eighth in the national figures of those with over twenty wickets. In consecutive matches in August he took five wickets in an innings and, as Wisden expressed it, he “bowled his leg-breaks with increasing skill … and so added to his laurels gained in batting.” This last pre-war season saw him reach several statistical landmarks: 10,000 career runs; 1,000 runs in Test cricket; 100 County Championship matches, 100 first-class wickets and 100 catches. He was on the threshold of even greater achievements when the curtain came down on first-class cricket for an unknown length of time on September 1st at Hove in what must have been a surreal atmosphere. The game is rightly remembered for Hedley Verity’s astonishing 7/9 in his final appearance, but Hutton also signed off emphatically with his twelfth century of the season and thirty-sixth of his career. More important responsibilities were to follow. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 145. Yorkshire v Oxford University, The Parks, May 3, 4 (Yorkshire won by ten wickets) c R.Sale b D.E.Young 12 322 4 1 12 1 S.Pether b 102 did not bat - 9-0 4 1 21 0 228 1 146. Yorkshire v MCC, Lord’s, May 6, 8 (Yorkshire won by nine wickets) b C.I.J.Smith 4 148 92 not out 31 59-1 114 22