CAREER CHECKED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23092, 18 July 1938, Page 7

CAREER CHECKED

ENGLISH CRICKETER BAKEWELL'S MOTOR CRASH [from a spkcial correspondentJ LONDON, June 25. A cricketer who might have been an opening batsman for England in the present series of test matches with Australia, but who has been out of the game for nearly two years owing to injuries in a motor accident, will know very soon if he will ever play again. He is 29-year-old Alfred Bakewell, the famous Northamptonshire player who lias scored 29 centuries in county matches and one century for England. For many years he was one of England's opening batsmen. His future seemed assured. Then came the motor crash. To-day, with his right arm encased in a plaster cast, he can earn only 10s a day for four days a week, coaching boys at the Northampton Town and County School.

"The world changed for me in August, 1936," said Bakewell this week. "That motor crash has. affected my whole career and. has kept mo out of cricket over since. I had a fractured skull, facial paralysis and a lacerated shoulder in that crash, but I got over them.. The injury that has not healed was that to my wrist. "I have had six operations on the wrist, the last being about four months ago. 1 am placing all my hopes on it. but until the plaster cast is removed in a few weeks L will not know whether 1 have finished with cricket for good or whether I will be able to resume next summer."