Famous Cricketers No 87 - J.H.Wardle

SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 50 Ct Players v Gentlemen 2 3 0 53 31 17.66 - 1 Championship 27 33 8 503 50 20.12 1 15 Other Yorkshire matches 6 9 0 117 46 13.00 - 4 Other match 1 2 0 10 6 5.00 - - Season 36 47 8 683 50 17.51 1 20 Career 186 241 35 3577 79 17.36 9 134 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Strike RunR Players v Gentlemen 104 43 223 8 5-75 27.87 1 - 78.00 35.73 Championship 1512.2 686 2707 158 7-49 17.13 17 3 57.43 29.83 Other Yorks matches 212 71 497 11 3-43 45.18 - - 115.63 39.07 Other match 19 10 33 0 - - - - - 28.94 Season 1847.2 810 3460 177 7-49 19.54 18 3 62.62 31.21 Career 8424.5 3453 16770 823 8-26 20.37 66 12 61.42 33.17 1953 Wardle started the 1953 season in a blaze of glory taking eleven wickets for 48 runs in an innings victory for Yorkshire over MCC at Lord’s. He came down to earth in his next match for Yorkshire against the Australians at Bradford bowling a marathon 64 overs to take two wickets for 103 runs. Once again, this season, he bowled a lot of overs for his wickets, 1606.3 in all. His 146 wickets were taken at an average of one every eleven overs. By comparison Roy Tattersall took 164 wickets in the season in 1181 overs. Although he bowled more maiden overs than anyone else - 603 in all with no other bowler bowling more than 500 - his balls per wicket figures were higher than most other major wicket takers. He often had to be used as a stock as well as a strike bowler by Yorkshire, the absences of Trueman, Appleyard and Close having left a big gap in the bowling resources. He took eleven for 147 against Worcestershire at Huddersfield bowling 86.3 overs in the process and eleven for 128 against Leicestershire at Leicester a match Yorkshire still managed to lose by six runs. In the Roses match at Old Trafford he took ten for 131. Against Worcestershire at Worcester he bowled no fewer than 76 overs to take five for 136. He played in three Tests against Australia. His main contribution in the First Test at Trent Bridge was the second highest score of 29 not out in England’s first innings. He dismissed Keith Miller a feat he repeated in both innings at Lord’s where he dismissed Miller, Hole and Benaud in the space of ten balls in Australia’s first innings. At Old Trafford he took four wickets for seven runs as Australia collapsed to 35 for eight in their second innings. In the season he scored 580 runs in all matches at an average of 17.57 and took 146 wickets at 24.24. He took nineteen catches and well merited his selection to tour West Indies with MCC in the winter of 1953/54. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 187. Yorkshire v MCC, Lord’s, May 2, 4 (Yorkshire won by an innings and 14 runs) lbw b J.B.Statham 2 183 24 13 25 6 R.T.Simpson c H.Halliday 87 J.M.Parks c J.V.Wilson D.B.Carr b D.C.Morgan b R.Tattersall b J.B.Statham lbw 13.3 5 23 5 R.T.Simpson c and b 82 1 J.M.Parks lbw D.B.Carr b G.L.Willatt b F.D.Parr c M.J.Cowan 188. Yorkshire v Australians, Bradford, May 6, 7, 8 (Australians won by an innings and 94 runs) b R.Benaud 22 145 64 28 103 2 R.N.Harvey c J.V.Wilson 453-6d J.H.de Courcy b b J.C.Hill 12 214 28