by Chris Waters
The historic scorecard signed by Verity. (William H. Roberts)
Yorkshire’s ninth victory of the season sent them top of the table with 160 points from 17 games, two points ahead of Kent, who managed only three points as their match against Surrey at Blackheath was drawn. Sussex were third on 128 after their win over Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire fourth on 127. At the Bath Festival, where Somerset thrashed Glamorgan by an innings and 31 runs, Jack White almost emulated Verity’s feat of taking 10 wickets, returning nine for 51 – and catching the other batsman. Elsewhere, Gloucestershire thumped Northamptonshire by 262 runs, Derbyshire trounced Essex by an innings and 171 runs, Middlesex beat Hampshire by nine wickets and Lancashire defeated the Indians by six wickets, rain consigning Warwickshire’s game against Leicestershire to a draw.
At Headingley, where the forecast rain never materialised, Carr was the first to congratulate Verity. “It is a great performance,” he told him, “but I wish you had done it on somebody else instead of Nottingham.” Verity signed spectators’ scorecards before saying the rest must wait for another time. Before returning home, he posed for a photograph outside the ground in the only record of his red-letter day. Dapper and debonair in his Yorkshire blazer, with the white rose emblem above the left pocket, he is pictured shaking hands with Bright Heyhirst, the Yorkshire masseur, a small, avuncular figure wearing spectacles and a smile. Verity, his face turned towards Heyhirst, is smiling too but looks stiff and awkward, as though he can’t wait for the fuss to be over. To his left is Arthur Mitchell, the lower half of his left hand tucked into his trouser pocket and his bandaged right hand hidden from view, and to his left is Frank Dennis, who strikes a near identical pose. Also in the photograph is Arthur Wood, caught in profile on the far left of shot, and George Macaulay, who stands between Wood and Heyhirst and smiles directly at the camera, his fingers pressed into his blazer pockets and his thumbs poking out of them, as though there wasn’t sufficient room for them too.
Verity is congratulated on his 10 for 10 by Yorkshire masseur Bright Heyhirst as, from left, Arthur Wood, George Macaulay, Arthur Mitchell and Frank Dennis share his triumph.
History does not record how Verity celebrated his 10 for 10. Len Hutton said he was “never a man for the taproom”, pointing out that Verity “liked a drink – a glass of wine or a pint of beer at the close of play – but he was really a temperate man”. Hutton added: “He was fond of a pipe. But he didn’t smoke heavily, perhaps just the odd cigarette at the tea interval or after the match.” According to Douglas Verity, the Verity family have never been drinkers. “When grandfather won a bottle of sherry in a church raffle, grandmother poured it straight down the sink. She didn’t want alcohol in the house. A Verity celebration has always been food, cups of tea and mineral water. If Dad celebrated that night, I rather fancy he’d have had a nice cup of tea.”
7
Reflections on the Record
Verity, Verity, I say unto you,
How is it your wickets cost you so few?
— A batsman’s soliloquy
Appreciations and accolades flowed in abundance after Hedley Verity’s world record feat. The above rhyming couplet, from the Nottingham Journal, was typical of tributes paid to the bowler. Headline writers and newspaper subeditors played on the fact that “Verity” means “truth”. The definition is somewhat ironic considering the record was so far-fetched. The Yorkshire Evening Post pronounced, “Verity of Verities, all is Verity”, while the Sphere said, “Truth is stranger than fiction. Truth is Verity. Therefore Verity is stranger than fiction.” The Sphere added: “Magnus est Verity et praevalebit” – a reworking of the Latin “Magna est veritas et praevalebit” from the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible, meaning “Truth is great, and it shall prevail”. Frank Stainton, of the Leeds Mercury, simply called it “the greatest bowling performance cricket has ever known”, adding: “Verity clearly stands head and shoulders above every other left hander in the country at present and is drawing attention to his claims for inclusion in the winter’s touring side.” Stainton predicted: “If this latest achievement has not booked his passage for him, I shall be very much surprised.” The Daily Sketch also considered Verity’s performance a nudge to the selectors. “Such a feat as Verity’s cannot fail to bring him once again very strongly into the running for the Australian tour. There are several good judges who insist that the England XI is incomplete without him.” The Nottingham Journal felt Verity’s display “reminiscent of the halcyon days of Wilfred Rhodes at his best”. However, the paper made clear that “even that great bowler had never achieved anything so amazing as this”. The Yorkshire Evening Post said, “Verity, right at the start of his county career, is among the immortals”, while the Yorkshire Post ventured into nautical territory when it posed the question, “Verity’s pace?” and answered with the classic, “Ten Notts, of course”. The Post also published a leader on Verity:
For the second time in his career Verity has taken all ten wickets in an innings. Such a feat may be only a picturesque accident; in such circumstances as yesterday’s it is much more than that. It is a great piece of bowling which the Fates permitted, for once, to be as good as it possibly could be. A slow left-hander is always likely to be dangerous on a rain-affected wicket; being dangerous is one thing, and disposing of a first-class batting side in this decisive manner is quite another … Verity does one thing supremely well; he bowls the left-hander’s “going-away” ball irresistibly, as none has since his great predecessor. There is another aspect of the matter: to take an opportunity with both hands, to make the utmost of it, demands those qualities of resolution and self-certainty on which greatness must be founded. In short, we have reason to believe that we have not yet by any means seen the best of Verity. If, as we all hope, he goes to Australia this winter, the full revelation of his quality may be “down under” there.
How the Nottingham Journal reported the 10 for 10.
Just as Verity’s performance provoked editorial reflection, so it drew comment from newspaper readers, with several writing to the Nottingham Journal in the days that followed the 10 for 10. The letters, naturally, had a Nottinghamshire bias and the first to have their say was someone called “Disgusted”, whose opinions sparked a deal of debate:
Sir,
The present Notts XI has been described as a team without a tail. Anyone present, as I was, at the Headingley ground this afternoon would have amended the description, making it a team without a backbone. I have followed the fortunes of Notts for more years than I care to remember, but I shall waste no more time watching the performances of the present team. So inept, so puerile – one might say, so disgraceful – a display as theirs in this match I have never seen in first-class cricket. Verity may be a competent bowler, but he is not in the same class with his great predecessor in the Yorkshire team, Rhodes, or with the late Colin Blythe, or with Parker (at his best) or Freeman as a slow bowler. The Notts “batsmen” (one has to put the term in inverted commas) simply gave themselves to him.
If these youngsters to whom the Notts committee have recently given caps are the best of the young entry, would it not be better to recall George Gunn and Payton and the genial Barratt for another season or so?
I hope the person or persons responsible for persuading Voce to leave his initial style of bowling to become an indifferent “swinger” are satisfied with their handiwork.
Finally, I understand the Notts captain wanted 200 sixes hitting last season. Might I suggest that a few humble ones and twos would be very acceptable this season.
“Disgusted”, however, was in a minority. Most readers recognised Verity’s brilliance and tempered their criticism accordingly.
L. R. Keating, of Nottingham, wrote:
Sir,
I also was present at Headingley all three days. Far from “Disgusted” being correct, we were fairly and squarely beaten. In addition, I saw a piece of bowling such as will never be repeated. Verity may not be a Blythe or Rhodes ordinarily, bu
t he was on Tuesday.
If “Disgusted” is a sample of the club’s supporters, it is a bad lookout for Notts cricket. His is an attitude which confers neither dignity nor decency on the game, and I hope the majority of cricket lovers will resent it.
With regard to the youngsters, did he see Harris’s stand with Walker at Trent Bridge against Yorkshire last year, and the same lad take six wickets for eighty at Manchester, or the way he kept his end up at the Oval, to say nothing of his first innings score in this match? How has Keeton managed to get a batting average of forty-odd and be an England candidate? What about GV Gunn’s 86 at Worcester last week? Voce, with his “indifferent swingers”, has taken eighty-odd wickets this year and is in the first five in the averages.
The grip that made history.
A. J. Allcock, of Edwalton, agreed:
Sir,
I should like to refer to a letter from a person who signs himself “Disgusted”.
The letter in itself is hardly worth reading, much less replying to, were it not for the fact that the majority of members are heartily sick of those grumblers and grousers who can see good in every team but their own, and who always know exactly how the game should be played, and what should have been done.
If the writer of the letter referred to knows so much about cricket, I think that the Notts committee will gladly arrange a day next week, when there is no county match, in order that he can come to the wicket and demonstrate how the game should be played, and I will guarantee that all the team will be present.
May I remind him of 1901 when such giants of the game as AO Jones, JA Dixon, W Gunn, G Gunn, J Iremonger and J Carlin were all dismissed for 13 against Yorkshire? Let us all support and encourage our county team in reverses as well as successes, and at the same time give praise to our opponents when they deserve it, as Verity did last Tuesday.
Finally, Edith M. Butler, of Eastwood, declared:
Sir,
I have read in your correspondence column the letter of “Disgusted” on Notts v Yorkshire.
Much as every supporter and follower of Notts – and there are still many loyal ones, despite the fact of their ghastly batting failure at Headingley – will be disappointed after Verity’s sensational performance, such letters of public condemnation can serve no good purpose. The reference to the Notts youngsters and their county caps is the unwarranted injustice of a narrow-minded person, who would do well to remember the countless runs and boundaries these young players have saved by their alertness in the field during the present season – a fact which George Gunn, Payton and Barratt would be the first to acknowledge in all fairness to youth.
Furthermore, the remark about the Notts captain and sixes is worthless and childish. Every lover of cricket enjoys watching big hitting and, as much as “Disgusted” would welcome “humble twos and ones”, some of us find too many of them a trifle boring.
May I remind the writer that even county cricketers are, at best, only human, and that human nature is by no means infallible. Their failures in the realm of sport are the property of the general public, whilst the average individual who is not in the limelight can hide his shortcomings from a not too sympathetic world, and so escape unjust criticism.
Amid the weight of words written on Verity’s feat, whether by cricket correspondents or newspaper readers, one thing stood out like a sore thumb – the lack of comment from Verity. The Yorkshire press did not interview him, and his only quotes were in the Sporting Chronicle, which simply stated: “Seen after his fine feat, Verity said that all he could hope for before lunch was to keep the batsmen quiet while the moisture in the wicket was drying. ‘Afterwards,’ he went on, ‘it was a different matter. The sun came to my aid just long enough to make things difficult and, well, I took advantage of it. As the batsmen succeeded each other I was able to get sufficient spin on the ball to prevent them settling down. That is all the explanation I can offer.’”
Nowadays, if somebody took 10 for 10, there would be reams of quotes from the horse’s mouth. Newspapers would publish special pull-outs and the player’s friends and family would be interviewed. Today’s cricketers are sought for their comments even after quite mundane performances: if, say, when a batsman has top-scored with 46 out of 217 for nine, or if a bowler has claimed his team’s best figures of four for 45. The contrast is remarkable, the change in style revealing. Cricket writers of yore were neither encouraged to obtain player quotes nor expected to give more than their own observations, a concept that would be considered anathema by many journalists and sports editors now. Verity, in fact, was more widely quoted after his 10 for 36 against Warwickshire, as though there was a feeling he’d been there, done that and got the T-shirt in terms of recording a 10-wicket haul. Indeed, the sports pages of Wednesday 13 July 1932 gave more prominence to the fact the British Olympic team were that day departing for America than to Verity’s world record. Coincidentally, given that record, it was the 10th Olympiad and 10th Street in Los Angeles was renamed Olympic Boulevard in honour of the Games.
As well as the lack of reaction from Verity, only one former cricketer was reported giving comment. Sir Stanley Jackson, the former Yorkshire and England all-rounder, who won all five tosses and topped the batting and bowling averages in the 1905 Ashes, described the feat as “the most brilliant I have known” while speaking at the opening of the new King’s School in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. Sir Stanley said he’d been invited by a newspaper to contrast the cricket of today with the cricket of his era, but had declined, telling delegates: “If I had undertaken the task, I would have been able to say that I remembered nothing of my day which could possibly have beaten Verity’s feat.” His words occasioned “loud applause”.
Verity was also back at school the day after taking 10 for 10. He joined a group of Yorkshire cricketers at Barnard Castle School, County Durham, alma mater of George Macaulay. Each year, Macaulay took a strong Yorkshire side to challenge the school in a gesture appreciated by staff and students. Verity claimed two wickets as Barnard Castle scored 193 for eight declared, Macaulay’s men sailing to a seven-wicket win. Herbert Sutcliffe was not among them, however, for he was turning out for the Players – alongside Harold Larwood and Bill Voce – against the Gentlemen at Lord’s. The trio had travelled to London by train straight after the Headingley match for one of the showpiece games of the season. Sutcliffe hit 16 in the Players’ first innings 301, Larwood starring with four for 54 as the Gentlemen replied with 430 for eight declared. Sutcliffe scored 22 second time around as the Players were dismissed for 320, the match ending drawn. Although Yorkshire had no first-class game the day after Verity’s 10 for 10, Nottinghamshire were back in action against Essex at Trent Bridge. After Arthur Carr lost the toss, his side made a sensational start, reducing Essex to 54 for eight as the Staples brothers ran amok. Sam took five for 50 and Arthur four for 47 as Essex were ejected for 147. When Nottinghamshire replied, Walter Keeton hit 141 and Carr – with the bat borrowed from Larwood – an unbeaten 132 before the hosts declared on 306 for five. George Vernon Gunn, whose second string leg-spin wasn’t used at Headingley, returned a career-best seven for 44 as Essex responded with 98 to lose by an innings and 61 runs.
Verity’s next cricket came on Friday 15 July, when he played for Yorkshire in their annual match against the Yorkshire Cricket Federation at Headingley. He took six for 26 from 10 overs in a game that finished drawn. Verity returned to first-class action the following day when Yorkshire hosted the Indians at Harrogate. He claimed five for 65 and two for 40 as Yorkshire prevailed by six wickets, Macaulay following his wicketless haul in the 10 for 10 with a career-best eight for 21 in the tourists’ second innings.
The return match between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire took place at Trent Bridge a fortnight after the 10 for 10. It was Sam Staples’s benefit game and 17,000 spectators – Nottinghamshire’s biggest crowd of the season – turned out for a man who’d foregone the honour the previous year to help raise funds for “Dodge” Whysall’s
widow. After winning the toss on a perfect pitch, Nottinghamshire scored more slowly than they had at Leeds. They made 168 in 108.1 overs, Verity recording two for 34 and Macaulay capturing five for 49. It had been 41 years since Yorkshire lost in Nottingham, and the Yorkshire Post reported that “the weight of every one of those years seemed to be on the home side’s batsmen”. After day two was washed out and the third rain affected, Yorkshire closed the game on 169 for six, achieving first-innings points by a single run. Verity scored 26 as nightwatchman before falling lbw to Sam Staples, who lost around £500 due to the weather (roughly £17,500 today). Yorkshire softened the blow with their own donation to his benefit fund – the magnificently apposite £10 10s.
The draw at Trent Bridge was the only Championship match Yorkshire failed to win between the 10 for 10 and the end of the season. In fact, they won 14 of their last 15 Championship games, a run that went back to 1 July. After their shocking start, when they sat second-bottom of the table after the first quarter, Yorkshire went unbeaten for the rest of the summer, winning 18 of 21 fixtures, including the last nine. As Wisden observed: “The contrast between the early fortunes of the side and the triumphant performances which characterised the efforts of the team subsequently was startling to a degree.” Such consistency could hardly fail to bring the title, which Yorkshire won by beating Hampshire at Bournemouth in their penultimate match. It was their seventh Championship in 14 seasons since the war. In their final game, Yorkshire thumped second-placed Sussex by 167 runs at Hove, Verity taking six for 48 in the second innings as the home side lost for the only time that season. Although Yorkshire’s title was richly deserved, with Brian Sellers’s men finishing 53 points above their nearest rivals and winning five more matches, one London paper had provocatively claimed that “whilst Yorkshire’s success as champions would be welcomed by three-quarters of the country, Sussex’s would be acceptable to everyone”.