Lives in Cricket No 3 - George Duckworth

and Les Ames, and Keith Hayhurst has confirmed, from his several conversations with Les Ames, how highly George Duckworth was esteemed. In Les Ames’ own book Close of Play , he refers at some length to the competition between George Duckworth for the England wicket-keeping berth. He quotes his rival as saying, ‘If you are the lucky one, it will make no difference to our friendship’. When the railway mislaid Les Ames’s kit on his journey to Manchester for the New Zealand Test there in 1931, ‘within half an hour Duckie turned up at the ground and offered to lend me his own cricket togs’. George Duckworth later appointed Les Ames to captain the side in the 1950/51 Commonwealth tour. Incidentally, Ames claims that George Duckworth used a steak inside his gloves, a story that circulated about several wicket-keepers of the day. Frank Bryan Ltd advertised George Duckworth Gauntlets in Wisden from 1933 to 1942, although the meaty extra was excluded. In 1933 The Cricketer advertisement for these ‘gauntlets’ describe them thus: ‘Designed in conjunction with George Duckworth. Made from best Horsehair, rubber finger cups, well padded cuffs. Price 30/- per pair.’ L.E.G.Ames, the only wicket-keeper/batsman to have scored a hundred centuries, is in a class of his own, if one is looking for an all-rounder, for he was regarded as an excellent and very safe wicket-keeper. Even so, George Duckworth was preferred in 1930 to assist in taking up the Australian challenge. He played in all five matches, but did have an off day, by his own exacting standards, in the Oval Test. In what Neville Cardus called ‘an eternity of misery’, he dropped Woodfull on six and Ponsford on 23 and 45; the former went on to 54 and the latter proceeded to 110. A chance from Bradman, on 82, after which he went serenely on to 232, is mentioned in some reports. Australia won by an innings and 39 runs. His captain, R.E.S.Wyatt was not at all critical: ‘it was one of George’s rare off days’, he gently mused. And he was right so to do, for, in the Lord’s Test of that rubber, George Duckworth had kept so tidily that only three balls eluded him, as the Australians assembled the colossal total of 729. MCC presented him with the ball, mounted with a silver inscription. Neville Cardus continued the same notice about the Oval Test with the comment that chances are relative to the ability of the catcher. He suggested that George Duckworth entered territories unknown The Cricket 37