Lives in Cricket No 3 - George Duckworth

Indians in a promising position. V.M.Merchant, the premier Indian opening bat, shaped to leg glance Gubby Allen’s quick delivery, pleased, as he believed, to commence hostilities with a boundary. George Duckworth flashed across to take the ball inches from the turf and four yards outside the leg stump. It was a rare duck for the shining Indian star - and it was a match-turning feat, as destructive of psychological buoyancy as it was preventive of utilitarian run-making. India were skittled out for 93 and England won by nine wickets. George Duckworth’s last Test was at The Oval in 1936 and again England won by nine wickets. He stumped a couple in the first innings, off the bowling of Hedley Verity, while S.Wazir Ali – caught off the bowling of G.O.Allen for a single - has the distinction of being his last Test victim. He played in 24 Test matches. He found time for some gutsy batting performances, his best 39, not out, at Sydney on the 1928/29 trip, and he made 234 runs for his country, at an average of 14.62, very close to his 40 The Cricket Fame indeed. Duckworth and his fellow players with Ronald Coleman and Douglas Fairbanks jun., Aubrey Smith and company on the Hollywood set of The Prisoner of Zenda in April, 1937. The cricketers were returning from the 1936/37 tour of Australia and New Zealand.