Famous Cricketers No 65 - Len Hutton

Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Test matches 4 1 23 0 - - - - County Championship 89 25 242 7 3-23 34.56 - - Other Yorkshire matches 9 3 21 0 - - - - Season (6-ball) 102 29 286 7 3-23 40.85 - - Career (6-ball) 1182.5 237 } 4728 164 6-76 28.82 4 1 (8-ball) 263.7 40 1950 The winter of 1949/50 had been the first since the end of the war in which England had not undertaken a tour abroad. Hutton, therefore, took the opportunity to enter the business world by opening a sports business in Bradford to help secure his future. 1950 was also to be the year of his benefit of which more anon. The weather at the start of the season was very poor with wet pitches and slow outfields predominant but in these bowler-friendly conditions his greatness was just as apparent as it had been on the dry wickets and fast outfields of the previous summer in England. In the traditional opener at Lord’s against the MCC he scored 52 in an all-out Yorkshire total of 113 giving “a fine display when many of his colleagues got themselves out.” Against the West Indians at Bradford his 67 was scored whilst the rest of the team only managed another 49 off the bat between them. In the amazing Test Trial at Bradford when Jim Laker’s 8-2 in The Rest’s first innings total of 27 gives an indication of the spitefulness of the wicket, his 85 in a score of 229 by England before being bowled by the young triallist Trueman was a prime example of his skill in these conditions: “… superlative batting by Hutton [who] gave a dazzling display of batsmanship on a difficult pitch.” His innings did in fact account for a quarter of the runs scored in the game. Rain was also very conspicuous in the fixture with Middlesex at Headingley in July when he took his benefit. In spite of the poor conditions and the absence of Denis Compton from the visitors, such was the esteem in which “our Len” was held that nearly 30,000 attended on the first day when Middlesex batted. There was only time for Hutton to score an unbeaten 5 out of 17 for 0 wicket before the last day was totally washed out. In spite of these setbacks, however, he managed to make a total of £9,713 from all sources which in 1950 was a great sum of money. Two other county games of particular interest in the season were the ones with Derbyshire at Bradford and the second one with the West Indians at Bramall Lane. In the former his 107 in 73 minutes was the fastest century of the season, whilst his 104 at Sheffield was yet again “a glorious exhibition” while the others struggled. As we have seen, the visitors were the West Indies who overwhelmed England 3–1 in the four-match Test series. Their strength was obvious on G.O.B.Allen’s tour there in 1947/48 with the rise of the three W’s, but nobody could have foreseen the impact that would be made by the two 20-year-old spinners, born three days apart, Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. Totally unknown in England before the tour began they took 59 wickets in the Tests and caused problems to all the batsmen, including Len Hutton. This did not prevent him, however, from heading the England Test averages just in front of Cyril Washbrook with most runs (333) at an average of 66.60. Most of these runs came from another of his classic innings when he carried his bat at the Oval for 202 out of a score of 344, an innings noted for his powers of application and scorching cover drives. Although he rose magnificently to the occasion, others were unable to do so and England were beaten by an innings. Earlier in the series in the First Test at Old Trafford, England’s sole win, he showed his technique in scoring 39 and 45 on a spinner’s paradise when batting virtually one-handed in all the second innings and most of the first after being struck on the hand and thus heavily bandaged. He finished the season with his usual flourish at Scarborough scoring three fifties in his last three innings “with his customary delightful strokes all round the wicket”. Stern tests lay ahead of him and 43