Famous Cricketers No 87 - J.H.Wardle

September when Wardle’s 52 overs brought him figure of three wickets for 236 runs as L.B.Fishlock, M.P.Donnelly and F.R.Brown all hit centuries in a South innings of 570 for 6 declared. To add to the indignity, Brown actually hit Wardle’s last over before the declaration for 25 runs. Wardle was not a great success in the West Indies although he did make his Test debut in the Second Test at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. He made four and two not out as a batsman but was given only three overs with the ball taking no wickets for nine runs in a West Indian score of 497. Returning to the Yorkshire team in 1948, he headed the bowling averages taking 129 wickets at an average of 17.62. He was to take more than 100 wickets in every season until his first-class career ended in 1958. In 1950, making his Test debut in England against West Indies at Lord’s he dismissed J.B.Stollmeyer with his first delivery in a Test in England. In a match with Middlesex in 1950 he took eight wickets for 26 runs although he was upset with the Middlesex beneficiary, Jim Sims. Wardle bowled Sims a full toss to give him “one off the mark” and Sims promptly hit it for six! Wardle was frequently overbowled. In the 1951 match against Middlesex at Lord’s he bowled unchanged from 11.00am until 4.15p.m for an analysis of 53 overs with five wickets for 66 runs. In 1952 he was called upon to bowl 1847.2 overs in the season. In all Wardle took 1280 wickets for Yorkshire at an average of 17.81. He took his 1000th wicket for them in 1954, the tenth Yorkshire bowler to achieve this feat. In 1954 he took nine wickets for 25 in the Roses match at Old Trafford against Lancashire, the first Yorkshireman to take nine wickets in an innings in this fixture since Emmott Robinson took nine for 36 at Bradford in 1920. He was selected as one of Wisden’s “Five Cricketers of the Year” in 1954. Wardle was the first top-class English left-arm spinner to bowl googlies and chinamen as well as orthodox spin. This made him a very effective bowler on overseas pitches. He would have played many more than twenty-eight Tests for England had he not been a contemporary of the Surrey left-armer, Tony Lock, who was often preferred to Wardle for home Test Matches. Wardle was not too happy at his omissions as he considered Lock to have a dubious bowling action. In the Tests that he played, Wardle took 102 wickets at an average of 20.39 and scored 653 runs at an average of 19.78. His best bowling performance in England was to take seven for 56 against Pakistan at Kennington Oval in 1954. In 1955, against South Africa, he headed the bowling averages, his eighteen wickets costing 18.20 each. Against Australia at Old Trafford in 1953 he took four wickets for 7 runs in Australia’s second innings score of 35 for 8. This did not stop him being omitted in favour of Lock for the next Test at Headingley. He took eight wickets in the match for 130 at Sydney in the Fifth Test against Australia in 1954/55 but his greatest Test performance came in the Second Test against South Africa at Cape Town in 1956/57 when he took twelve wickets in the match for 89 runs. In that series, in just four Test Matches, Wardle took twenty-six wickets at an average of 13.80. In all matches in South Africa that season he took 90 wickets at 12.25. His first-class career ended in bitterness in 1958. Yorkshire announced on 30th July that they would not be employing him next season. Wardle reacted by publishing a series of articles in the Daily Mail in which he criticized his County captain, Ronnie Burnet, as well as many of his colleagues. This action breached his existing contract with the Club and his services were dispensed with immediately. The MCC also, as a result, withdrew his invitation to tour Australia in the winter of 1958/59. Had he not written the offending articles he would certainly have gone to Australia and probably would have done very well there. He could have joined another County, too, as Willie Watson had done earlier and as Brian Close and Ray Illingworth were to do in the next decade after disputes with Yorkshire. His loss to the MCC team, itself, was incalculable and was at least partly responsible for the side’s heavy defeat. 4

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