Lives in Cricket No 3 - George Duckworth

In his first season he stumped or caught 51 of his opponents, and he emulated that feat in the next season of 1924. He never once fell below that mark in any season; and seven times he had more than sixty victims. The wicket-keeper, inevitably, is at the frustrating behest of the bowler, awaiting him forcing the snick or tempting the batsman out of his ground. It is true that George Duckworth frequently transformed a batsman’s choicest leg glance into a catch, but there is patently a limit to the making of the silk purses of stumpings and catches out of the sows’ ears of moderate bowling. Predictably, George Duckworth’s sunniest months were enjoyed when the bowlers were afire or, in Richard Tyldesley’s case, gently simmering. It was in that middle period, when Lancashire were making such victorious progress, that he most effectively profited from the skills of his team-mates. In 1929 he had 94, in 1930, 81 and in 1934, 87 first-class victims. It was, however, in another championship year, 1928, that the wicket-keeper’s dream came true. He passed the hundred mark, with a sum of 107 wickets to his name. In all, he also realised the larger wicket-keeper’s ambition, with over a thousand victims – 1,098, to be precise – in first-class cricket, of which 925 were credited while playing under the Lancashire standard. That is the best return for a Lancashire wicket-keeper, although a word should be added about the more modern exploits of the very able Warren Hegg, who played fewer matches – 337 appearances between 1987 and 2005 – and approached his predecessor closely with 920 catches and stumpings. There was much speculation among the aficionados when, late in his last season, injury robbed Warren Hegg of a chance to overhaul George Duckworth. An inner point about those two collections of cricketing casualties is the ratio of catches to stumpings. Warren Hegg stumped 94 of his 920 conquests (826 catches), just over a tenth, whereas George Duckworth stumped 290, with 635 catches, a more sizeable proportion, inclining towards a third. The obvious explanation lies in the preponderance of medium and fast-medium seam, as opposed to slow spin, bowling in the modern era, but there may be another note to be cogitated over the relative qualities in wicket-keeping as an offensive or a defensive office, both in general and, apropos George Duckworth, in particular. He was everlastingly an attacking wicket-keeper. 32 The Cricket