SPORTSMAN OF THE WEEK

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27125, 22 August 1953, Page 9

SPORTSMAN OF THE WEEK

A. V. BEDSER

Except among the most cynical, ultimate reward for persistent effort is always welcomed, and the merit of A. V. Bedser’s performance in taking 39 wickets in this year’s England-Aus-tralia test cricket series will therefore be appreciated, not because it set a new record, but because Bedser, as big of heart as he is of hand, deserved nothing less. Since the war, on unsympathetic pitches, on helpful ones, in the white heat of an Australian summer or the cool breezes of his own country he has been England’s leading bowler, very often her only one, It is quite impracticable, in assessing performances after a test series, to attempt to establish that any one player on either side was responsible for success or failure. Ths year, Hutton again batted finely, Evans did some wonderful things as wicket-keeper, Trueman burst on the Australians, at the end, with disturbing fury, Lock took quick wickets at the Oval and Bailey, time and again, showed a defiance which was quite invaluable. Others, at various stages and times, did well, but when the English victory of 1953 is recalled, Alec Bedser’s name will be the first to come to mind. From beginning almost to the end, he was England’s main attacking weapon; her batsmen were seldom capable of much more than holding on precariously to the advantages he won them, and, although he took but three wickets in the last test, he finished with three times as many victims as any other English bowler. Without Bedser, England’s poor record in post-war tests against Australia would have been indefinitely worse. He has lived for cricket ana this season, he has helped cricket to live. With his twin brother Eric, he was just entering county cricket when the war started, and just what he would have done, statistically, with an extra

five years on his career is a matter of conjecture. The Bedsers served in the Royal Air Force in several theatres of war, and apart from one fine performance in a war-time match with a West Indies team, there was little to hint at the arrival of a new test bowler. A team from India was the first to tour England after the war and Bedser, included in the England side for the first time, took 22 wickets in the first two tests. Since then, he has gone on steadily, bowling innumerable overs_ until, in the tests just ended, he beat Maurice Tate’s record of 38 for a series, and brought his total in all test matches to 221, five more than the previous record established by C. V. Grimmett. Often Overworked Because he has been so indispensable to England’s test teams, Bedser has frequently been grossly overworked, and there was a time, a year of two ago, when his bowling became mechanical and stale, and he had to be rested half-way through one series. That he has now returned to his best is indisputable, and although he is now 35. he should again be a major force when England and Australia again join battle in the season after next. For so outstandingly successful a cricketer, Bedser yather lacks glamour.

He does not have the rhythmic runup or the explosive pace of a Lindwall, nor does he have the appeal a ipin bowler wins with his subtlety. For Bedser, quite often, it is a matter of length at a good pace maintained in the most discouraging circumstances, but just as often there is the whip off the pitch, and the late swing or cut which reduces the most adequate looking defensive stroke to the category of too late and too little. Bedser is always a trier, but when he is on ton there is a spring in his step, and his rather nautical looking approach to the wicket is, in a moment, as charged with menace as the most fearsome of his contemporaries. Bedser’s bowling action may look almost careless, but at tne moment of delivery he has everything in the right place, and his follow-through should be adequately recorded for posterity. Bedser, today, is probably the best bowler in the world, regardless of type. During the last few weeks, his merits were often compared with those of Lindwall. Bedser has taken more wickets, Lindwall has the better average. Either set of figures proves nothing. But Bedser has never had the support Lindwall enjoyed, nor did he bowl against the class of batsman Lindwall often claimed among his victims. There is little doubt that in the last few years Australian batting has been ’ much stronger than England’s, and Bedser’s performances correspondingly more meritorious. Bedser’s value is not confined to his bowling. His ample hands have held some extraordinary catches, and his batting is never to be under-esti-mated. In the 1948 series, he was sent in at the end of a day to play out four balls. He stayed almost until lunch next day, when he was run out, with a score of more than 70. In the Oval test this week, his last-wicket partnership with Bailey gave England a ©lender but invaluable lead. This determined little innings of Bedser’s offered considerable consolation to those who were disappointed at his failure, after such successes, to take a wicket in ■ the last innings of the series. Bedser is comparable with the greatest of other days, because he has done great things on pitches designed primarily to keep batsmen in for the full duration of matches. He has done more than that. He has given, to the game he loves, admirable skill and determination, and a cheerful personality. Bedser is big in every sense. May he continue to prosper, and when he takes his sweater for the last time, may there be others to fill in every way, his ample boots. Their will be no easy assignment.