Hedley Verity
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 England (Eng) |
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman (RHB) | |
| Bowling type | Slow Left-Arm Orthodox | |
| Tests | First-class | |
| Matches | 40 | 378 |
| Runs scored | 669 | 5,603 |
| Batting average | 20.90 | 18.07 |
| 100s/50s | 0/3 | 1/13 |
| Top score | 66* | 101 |
| Balls bowled | 11,173 | 84,219 |
| Wickets | 144 | 1,956 |
| Bowling average | 24.37 | 14.90 |
| 5 wickets in innings | 5 | 164 |
| 10 wickets in match | 2 | 54 |
| Best bowling | 8/43 | 10/10 |
| Catches/stumpings | 30/0 | 269/0 |
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Test debut: 29 July 1931 |
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Hedley Verity ( born 18 May 1905 in Headingley, Leeds, died in Caserta, Italy 31 July 1943, of wounds received in action in Sicily, where he was taken prisoner) was a prolific left-arm spinner he was also a skilled batsman and sharp field at short leg. He was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1932.
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[edit] Ten years the Apprentice
Fittingly, he was born close to Headingley cricket ground in Leeds but the young Verity had to serve a long apprenticeship before he graced the ground in a first class game. He attended Yeadon and Guiseley Secondary School, which had a strong team, and Rawdon Cricket Club, his father having moved there to establish a coal supply business. In his first match for Rawdon, substituting for a senior player, he scored 47 and took seven cheap wickets. On leaving school he started work at his father’s coal depot, but at 15 persuaded his parents to support him as he set his sights on a cricket career with Yorkshire, a process which was to take ten long years. He trained obsessively, keeping fit even through the long northern winters.
At the age of 16, in 1921, his deeds for Rawdon began to gain fame in the local papers. He bowled left arm inswing at medium pace but as he experimented with both pace and orthodox slow left arm he found his forte lay in a hybrid of quick left arm spin of the type later personified by another England great, Derek Underwood.[citation needed]
He played for Horsforth Hall Park from 1924 to 1926, establishing a reputation as a quality all-rounder[citation needed] and earning an invitation to the Yorkshire nets where he first met his mentor, the great George Hirst. With Wilfred Rhodes still wheeling away for Yorkshire there was no prospect of immediate advancement however and, recommended by Hirst, he played as a professional with Accrington in the Lancashire League in 1927.
He had a difficult season, handicapped by an arm injury, and moved to Middleton the next year to gain an assurance that he would be released for Yorkshire duties if needs be. Here he made the final change from a good medium-pace swing bowler to a unique left-arm spinner on the advice of Hirst and Rhodes, anticipating the latter’s coming retirement. He was offered a trial by Warwickshire who rejected him after a short trial in the nets on a perfect pitch.
In 1929 he happened to be at Headingley when a vacancy arose in the county colts team and he grabbed this rare opportunity with relish, taking five wickets for seven runs. That season he took 100 wickets for Middleton and also scored a century.
[edit] “He’ll do.”
1930 was Rhodes’s final season for Yorkshire and finally the call came for Verity as efforts to find a replacement were made. He first played in a friendly match against Sussex on 21 May, three days after his 25th birthday, taking three for 96 in 46 overs. He made his County Championship entrance ten days later against Leicestershire at Hull. Enjoying some helpful damp pitches, he finished top of the national bowling averages in his debut season and never looked back. His main rival was the Arthur Booth, who in the end had to wait until the age of 43, in 1946, to win a regular place in the Yorkshire side, and then only through Verity’s death in the Second World War.[citation needed]
Comparisons with the colossus of Rhodes were inevitable but Verity was taller and quicker through the air, a style which annoyed the purists as much as it flummoxed opposing batsmen. Thanks to his countless hours of youthful practice he had an easy action and superb control of length and flight and, like Schofield Haigh before him, was dangerous on bad or drying pitches. He took nine for 60 against Glamorgan on such a pitch – only to be told by Emmott Robinson it should have been nine for 20. At the end of the season Rhodes retired, endorsing the succession with the comment “He’ll do.” There could be no higher praise from the old master.
In 1931 Verity claimed 35 wickets in his first five matches, including a magical all ten against Warwickshire at Headingley, a feat not even Rhodes had achieved and somewhat ironic after his earlier rejection by the Bears. He was selected for two Test matches against New Zealand in only his second season and there loomed the possibility of him winning his England cap before his Yorkshire one. As it was Yorkshire capped him on 13 June a month before his Test debut in which he took four for 75.
On 12th July 1932 he took all ten wickets for just 10 runs against Nottinghamshire at Headingley on a rain-affected pitch, including a hat-trick and 113 consecutive balls without conceding a run. At one stage he took seven wickets for three runs in 15 deliveries, including the hat-trick. George Macaulay, ever hungry for wickets at the other end, refused to bowl wide of the stumps to assist Verity in gaining a record which stands to this day. The best first class figures ever.
[edit] The Bradman Years
He toured Australia on Douglas Jardine's infamous, and very successful, ‘Bodyline’ tour. Although the tactic to pepper the Australian run machine was a success Bradman still ranked slow left armer Verity as his most dangerous foe. “I could never claim to have completely fathomed Hedley’s strategy, for it was never static or mechanical” wrote the Don.[citation needed]
Verity bowled with consummate patience and control, tying up one end to rest Harold Larwood and the pacemen in the heat. Starting the tour on the periphery of the Test side he became a key part of it and topped the tour averages with 44 wickets at less than 16. He proved a dogged supporting partner with the bat as well, supporting whatever major batsman was left with the tail. He developed a friendship with his supposedly aloof captain and held Jardine as the finest captain he had played for. He named his second son after him; his first had been named after Rhodes.[citation needed]
Jardine said Verity had the 'oldest head on young shoulders in England' and doubted whether any other bowler of his type had proved such a master on all types of pitches. “No captain could have a greater asset on his side than Verity. He would make a great captain himself.” Verity did not like ‘bodyline’ but backed his captain to the hilt. He was the only player from the bodyline series to tour India under Jardine the following winter. On this tour he struck up a close friendship with Gloucestershire batsman Charlie Barnett, who knew "of no other cricketer upon whom one could rely whatever the state of the match. He really was a ‘rock’ when the chips were down. Nothing seemed to flurry him." Verity took 72 wickets at 15 each on the sub continent's dust bowls, 23 in three Tests at just 16. His 11 wickets in the third Test was the main factor in England’s decisive victory.[citation needed]
1934's clash with the Australians proved Verity’s greatest series. as he took 24 wickets in the five high-scoring Tests at a cost of 24 apiece. His superb bowling on a wet pitch at Lord’s won the match for England, their only success against Australia at headquarters in the 20th century. Verity proved his guile by baiting a trap for the linchpin, Don Bradman. He left wide stretches of the leg side untenanted, daring Bradman to hit against the spin, and the great Australian duly skied a catch and departed. He took Bradman’s wicket twice in the match, a Test best 15 in all and a remarkable 14 in the space of a single June day.
Many thought Verity had the ability to become a genuine all-rounder. Bob Wyatt felt that his style at the crease owed much to the sublime Herbert Sutcliffe, and R. C. Robertson-Glasgow wrote he might be mistaken for Sutcliffe a little out of form.[citation needed] He chose to dedicate himself to his bowling but made runs when they mattered most and though he never quite achieved "the double" he took 216 wickets and scored 855 runs in 1936. He ended up averaging a handy 20 for England and like Wilfred Rhodes before him he found himself opening the batting in a Test match, against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on the 1936/37 Ashes tour when G.O. Allen could find no opening pair to take the shine off the new ball. He sent Verity in first with his great friend C.J. Barnett in the fourth Test and they put up partnerships of 53 and 45.
Statistically he had a poor second tour of Australia, taking only 10 wickets in the series at 45 each, but he was ‘hidden’ from Australia on the sticky pitch at Brisbane as England were winning already, and spent most of the series blocking up an end on fine batting pitches.
Australia returned to England in 1938 and Verity sparred with the Don once again in a succession of enthralling duels. He relished the test of wits and skills like few others and in 16 Tests dismissed Bradman eight times, more than any other bowler. Bradman said of him, “With Hedley I am never sure. You see, there’s no breaking point with him.” On the billiard-table wickets of the first two Tests in 1938, he was the one bowler to pose any problems.
His final full Test series was a tedious affair in South Africa in 1938/39 which finished with the ultimate Timeless Test having to be abandoned to allow England to catch their boat home. Again he was England’s most economical bowler with his 19 Test wickets costing 29 each on plumb batting pitches.
In all Verity played in 40 Test matches between 1931 and 1939, taking 144 wickets at 24.37.
[edit] A decade of dominance
Yorkshire won seven championships between 1931 and 1939, thanks in large part to the contrasting attack of Verity and fast bowler Bill Bowes. Len Hutton said, “They knew how they wanted their field and how to bowl to it when they got it. Bill would get ‘one-two-three’ out with the new ball and give us a start and Hedley would then take over if the conditions were right for him.” In 1933, against Essex at Leyton, he took 17 wickets in a day for 91 runs.
Verity was well served by sharp close fielders with Arthur Mitchell, captain Brian Sellers, Ellis Robinson and Cyril Turner eager to snap up every edge or bat pad chance. Wicketkeeper Arthur Wood seldom missed a thin tickle and pounced when the batsman strayed out of his ground. Inevitably he was collared on occasion on flat tracks by fine players such as Frank Woolley and Eddie Paynter but, like all spinners, he was philosophical under fire. His greatest attribute was his willingness to counterattack, luring the batsman out of his crease or changing his pace to force a catch in the outfield.[citation needed] Others have turned and flighted the ball more but few possessed his bounce, accuracy and consummate knowledge of the game.[citation needed]
After his untimely death Wisden praised both his skill at the bowling crease and demeanour on the field of play. "The balance of the run up, the high ease of the left-handed action, the scrupulous length, the pensive variety, all proclaimed the master. He combined nature with art to a degree not equalled by any other English bowler of our time. He received a handsome legacy of skill and, by an application that verged on scientific research, turned it into a fortune. There have been bowlers who have reached greatness without knowing, or, perhaps, caring to know just how or why; but Verity could analyse his own intentions without losing the joy of surprise and describe their effect without losing the company of a listener. He was the ever-learning professor, justly proud yet utterly humble."
In 1935/36 Yorkshire toured Jamaica and Verity tied down the 'Black Bradman' George Headley and dismissed him twice as Jamaica were beaten at home for the first time in ten years. In the drawn match which ended the tour Verity enjoyed himself with the bat and recorded his only first-class century.
Fine test bowler though he was, it is his phenomenal county record which remains the true testimony to his talent. He took at least 150 wickets every year from 1931 to 1939, and over 200 between 1935 and 1937. His best tally was 216 taken at an average of just 13.18, in 1936. In 1931, Verity took 10-36 against Warwickshire at Headingley Stadium, and the following season produced the extraordinary innings analysis of 19.4-16-10-10 (including a hat-trick) against Nottinghamshire at the same ground, this feat is unlikely to ever be beaten. This latter performance remains a world record in a first-class match.[2] In 1933, against Essex at Leyton, he took 17 wickets in one day, one of only three occasions in the history of cricket when this has been done. In 1933, 1935, 1937 and 1939 he had the lowest bowling averages in England.
In 378 first class matches he took 1956 wickets at the astonishing average of just 14.90.
[edit] The last gallant steps of Hedley Verity
On 1 September 1939, the very last day of county cricket before the competition was suspended during World War II, Verity was playing against Sussex at Hove, in Jim Parks' benefit game. George Cox later said that the tension was awful as everyone knew that war was about to be declared, but that there was also a festive air as the players were determined to enjoy what they were sure would be their last taste of freedom for years.
Yorkshire had already sealed the championship title and sat back as Sussex totalled 387 on a fine batting pitch. Other county matches were abandoned as Hitler invaded Poland, but Yorkshire secured an agreement to continue playing for Parks' sake. On a drying pitch, the sort that suited him so well, Verity took seven wickets for nine runs in just six overs in the Sussex second innings as Yorkshire skittled the home team for just 33 and raced to victory. His final ball in the game brought a wicket. It was the last ball bowled in County Cricket before the war and Verity himself would never bowl another ball for Yorkshire in the first-class game. He finished his career as he had begun it, less than a decade before, top of the first-class averages.
Upon the outbreak of war, Verity joined the Green Howards, and was sent to Northern Ireland, where he played some cricket as part of military XIs. He then spent time in Madagascar, India, Persia, Palestine and Egypt before joining Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. By this time a captain, he was mortally wounded during the Eighth Army's advance on Catania and was taken prisoner by the Germans.
Wisden's obituary described his final battle in moving terms.
"The objective was a ridge with strong points and pillboxes. Behind a creeping barrage Verity led his company forward 700 yards. When the barrage ceased, they went on another 300 yards and neared the ridge, in darkness. As the men advanced, through corn two feet high, tracer-bullets swept into them. Then they wriggled through the corn, Verity encouraging them with "Keep going, keep going." The moon was at their back, and the enemy used mortar-fire, Very lights and fire-bombs, setting the corn alight. The strongest point appeared to be a farm-house, to the left of the ridge; so Verity sent one platoon round to take the farm-house, while the other gave covering fire. The enemy fire increased, and, as they crept forward, Verity was hit in the chest. "Keep going," he said, "and get them out of that farm-house." When it was decided to withdraw, they last saw Verity lying on the ground, in front of the burning corn, his head supported by his batman."
After being transferred into Italian hands, he died at Caserta a few days later as a result of his wounds. He was buried in a military cemetery there. On 27th March 2007 he became the 7th cricketer to be elected into Yorkshire County Cricket Club's 'Hall of Fame'.
