10 for 10 by Chris Waters

Author:Chris Waters [Waters, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472908919
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

After dismissing Staples and Larwood, Verity was on another hat-trick at the start of his 20th over. Only once in the game’s history had a player taken two hat-tricks in the same innings – Albert Trott claiming four wickets in four balls, followed by three in three, during his benefit match for Middlesex against Somerset at Lord’s in 1907. One of the best all-rounders of the Golden Age, Trott was a powerful batsman and round-arm bowler who played for his native Australia and later England before committing suicide in 1914, aged 41. Suffering from dropsy, and living alone and penniless in London digs, he wrote his will on the back of a laundry ticket before shooting himself.

Trott’s record survived – just. To gasps from the crowd, which dissolved into groans, Ben Lilley thrust out a hopeful bat at the hat-trick ball, which took the inside edge and missed leg stump by a whisker, running away for three to fine-leg. Bill Voce kept out the second delivery of the over but edged the third to Holmes at second slip to depart for a duck. It left Nottinghamshire nine down and brought to the crease last man Sam Staples. As a 2,000 crowd looked on spellbound, Verity’s first ball to the No. 11 was devilishly flighted, Staples over-balanced in an effort to reach it and Wood broke the stumps with a showman’s flourish. Nottinghamshire were all out for 67 and Verity, incredibly, had 10 for 10. “There were scenes of great enthusiasm when Verity got Sam Staples stumped and completed the string of ten wickets,” said the Nottingham Guardian, “and every player on the Yorkshire side rushed to congratulate him.” The Nottingham Evening News referenced “scenes of wild excitement when the last wicket fell”, while the Yorkshire Post said “the crowd rushed from the terraces to applaud his wonderful work”.

After his 10 for 36 against Warwickshire in 1931, Verity had called his 16th over – in which he’d taken four wickets – “an avalanche from heaven”. It was a sweet turn of phrase but more suited to this follow-up. Having taken three for seven with his first 103 balls, Verity claimed seven for three with his final 15. Of the 118 deliveries he sent down in total, a staggering 113 were not scored off. Verity was only the third man after “Tich” Freeman and Middlesex slow underarm bowler Vyell Walker to take 10 wickets in an innings more than once. His was the 45th 10-wicket haul in first-class cricket and, as against Warwickshire, eight of his victims were caught, one lbw and one stumped. Nottinghamshire’s innings lasted 130 minutes and the wickets fell in a 60-minute spell after lunch. One minute, the visitors had been batting to a dreary draw; the next, they were crushed beneath the wheels of a juggernaut they simply couldn’t stop and never saw coming.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.