Alec Bedser Always A Trier

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29384, 10 December 1960, Page 5

Alec Bedser Always A Trier

WHEN modern cricket was in * ' its infancy Alfred Mynn was known throughout England as the "Lion of Kent.’’ It might have been a recollection of this which persuaded a London newspaper to head its story of the retirement of A. V. Bedser as "AlecGiant and Gent.” Cricket has pursued a long and sometimes tortuous path between Mynn and Bedser, but there is some sort of relationship there.

Just on a hundred years ago. there was a poem on Mynn, who had in his lifetime won the respect and affection of all England. The last verse began: “With his tall and stately presence, with his nobly moulded form,

“His broad hand was ever open, his brave heart was ever warm.”

The lines belong to Bedser, too. From the time he first appeared for Surrey with his identical twin, Eric, in 1939, he won the regard of all those who watch cricket. He was a genial sort of giant, bowling his medium-paced swingers and leg-cutters with such skill that Sir Donald Bradman regarded him as the superior of Maurice Tate.

Now he has retired, and although he expects to play an occasional game for Surrey as an

amateur, his career is almost at an end. Bedser was great, and he was probably never greater than during the first post-war tour of Australia, when he was a member of an extremely weak bowling side, having to attack the strong Australian batting on pitches which stultified his art. In those tests he had only 16 wickets, and they cost nearly 56 runs each, but it was clear that England had found a first-class bowler; in his first test appearances, in 1946, he had won instant success against the Indians. In Australia, Bedser bowled 246 eight-ball overs in the tests, D. V. P. Wright bowled 240, and no-one else bowled half as many as either of them. It was a tremendous burden, cheerfully accepted. Triumphs There were triumphs later. Bedser was England’s best bowler against the visiting Australians in 1948, and in Australia two years later he was in tremendous form. This time the pitches were not so unhelpful, and in the series he had 30 wickets at 16 runs each. The final test gave England its first victory over Australia in 27 matches. and it was but fitting that Bedser should have a match analysis of 10 for 105. But Bedser was to enjoy an even greater triumph. In Coronation year. 1953. the Australians were in England, and he set a record for - the series with 39 wickets—a mark since passed by J. C. Laker. Bedser took 14 for 99 in the first test; in the first innings of every test. Bedser dismissed A. R. Morris, the Australian opening batsman, over whom he enjoyed a marked superiority. Five times Bedser took five wickets or more in a test, and he brought his test aggregate to 235 before he was done, and that is still a record.

Bedser was also a useful batsman—seldom elegant, sometimes very hard to get out, and in one test against Australia in 1948 he was sent into play out four balls, but stayed next day to make 79. In all his great career. Bedser has taken nearly 2000 wickets and scored 5700 runs. Like Tate before him, his career for England all but ended when he was dropped from the test team during an Australian tour. But Bedser kept trying, and that is how he will be remembered.