The Bedsers

Alec was deadly accurate. He was literally bowling fast leg-breaks.

WALTER HADLEE

A merger of Surrey lionhearts was affirmed when Alec Bedser was installed in an illustrious triumvirate at The Oval. Shepherding him through two post-war seasons was the veteran, Alf Gover, whose own monumental efforts in the 1930s cast him in the lineage of the Victorian stalwart Tom Richardson. In 1936 and 1937, Gover bowled 2,379 overs and twice took 200 wickets to become the first English fast bowler to achieve this feat since Richardson in 1897.

Alec Bedser would summon his powers of endurance, as he singlehandedly held sway before Surrey’s years of plenty. Michael Barton, his captain from 1948 to 1951, readily accepts that Bedser was overbowled in his formative seasons: ‘Alec really carried us during that time. There is no question that he was the man who contributed most to our successes. Alec was a very hard worker, with great stamina, and he was a brilliant bowler, particularly on a bad wicket.’

Testimony to Bedser’s workload is indelibly contained in the statistical lists. The figures almost crush belief. Between April 1946 and September 1947 – two English seasons and one overseas tour – he bowled 17,395 balls. In five summers on Test and county duties at home, he busily accumulated an aggregate of 5,636 overs, well over 1,000 each season. Throughout the long haul of post-war summers, Alec was unflaggingly both wicket-taker and stock bowler.

The ‘huge, quick, lifting leg-spinners’, as one contemporary described them, would ultimately divide Bedser from the rest of his breed as incomparably a world-class bowler. The ascent to greatness was accomplished without a settled partner. Fast bowlers traditionally hunt in complementary pairs. Bedser, however, was called upon to shoulder his burden unaccompanied until the arrival of Bailey, Trueman and Statham – all companions of the requisite steel.

Juggling their meagre resources, the England selectors discovered and discarded a variable contingent of new-ball allies, 17 in all, through Alec’s Test career. These included Bill Bowes, Bill Voce, Dick Pollard and Alf Gover in 1946; Bill Edrich, Jack Martin, George Pope, Cliff Gladwin, Alec Coxon, Allan Watkins, Derek Shackleton, Freddie Brown, John Warr and Frank Tyson.

The platform was established for the ensuing great years at The Oval during the stewardship of Michael Barton. He had taken over the captaincy from Errol Holmes midway through the 1948 season. Glamorgan, with 172 points, won the championship for the first time. Surrey finished second, only four points in arrears. It was their best position since 1925, when they were runners-up to Yorkshire. In an exciting finale, Glamorgan, Surrey and Yorkshire were all in contention less than a fortnight from the end of the season.

Eric Bedser and Jim Laker had earlier helped to orchestrate two thrilling back-to-back wins over Gloucestershire and Lancashire at The Oval. The first was a one-day affair after rain had prevented play on the Saturday and Monday. Goddard and Cook bowled out Surrey for 133. Tom Barling, on the verge of retirement and coaching duties at Harrow School, was top scorer with 45. The Gloucestershire innings was also dominated by one batsman, Jack Crapp, who hit 65 in the battle for the lead. Laker, at his most venomous on a spiteful pitch, took eight wickets, and Surrey won by two runs in the last over.

The nerves of the Surrey partisans tingled again in the following match against Lancashire. Laurie Fishlock and Dave Fletcher shared a century partnership and Lancashire narrowly avoided the follow-on. Ken Cranston, with seven wickets, produced tremors of anxiety. These were reinforced when Winston Place scored a century to take the visitors within sight of their target of 248 runs.

Eric Bedser was the saviour in the winning cause. He brought his match tally to eight wickets, taking three of the last four in a rousing conclusion. Only two minutes remained when Fishlock, out in the deep, held on to a steepling catch off Bedser. The relief of the Surrey men matched the prolonged sighs of the spectators. Victory by one run left everyone struggling for breath.

Surrey’s title challenge in 1948 foundered in Stan Squires’s benefit match against Middlesex in August at The Oval. Laurie Fishlock hit 82 out of 156 when George Mann put Surrey in to bat. His duel with the wily left-hander, Jack Young, who took 14 wickets in the match, was a lesson in faultless strokeplay. The mastery of Fishlock, then in his 40s, showed why he had twice toured Australia in 1936–37 and 1946–47. Fractures of identical fingers on both tours deprived another audience of a glimpse of his talents.

Fishlock’s career aggregate of 25,376 runs included 56 centuries. The fervour of his batting did not waver in the post-war years leading up to Surrey’s renaissance. His was the blade which provided the cutting edge in many victories. In his benefit year of 1950, he displayed remarkable form. In 16 innings he hit 908 runs, including four centuries, at an average of nearly 65. He was sturdily resistant against the all-conquering Australians in 1948. His 81 out of a Surrey total of 141, was a display to remember.

Alec Bedser and Jim Laker seemed to have countered the Middlesex advance at The Oval in 1948. They shared seven wickets, as the visitors trailed by 38 runs on the first innings. Middlesex required 142 to win and lost half their wickets for 39. Mann and Robins then scattered the pigeons with exhilarating strokes. They put on 62 in half an hour. Jim Sims caught the mood of adventure and scored 36 in an unbroken last-wicket stand of 41 runs. He was dropped when only 10 runs separated the teams.

Laker was the culprit, failing to hold on to a return catch. ‘Jim never said very much, but he was silent that day. He was obviously deeply upset at the lapse,’ recalls Michael Barton. In 1949, however, Sims was permitted no second chance. Laker, this time, took a brilliant one-handed catch as the ball was struck fiercely back at him. ‘One year too late,’ he said – a droll aside couched in self-rebuke.

The long years of waiting ended in 1950 when Surrey tied with Lancashire to gain their first championship since 1914. It was the second year in succession that the title had been shared. Yorkshire and Middlesex were linked at the head of the table in 1949. Surrey ended their season of triumph with a flush of seven successive victories, one first-innings lead and another win in their last nine championship matches.

Lancashire, for their part, seemed assured of winning the championship outright until rain interfered with their game against Warwickshire. The necessary four points eluded them in a crucial and wary encounter at The Oval. The zeal of the 20-year-old Peter May confounded the Lancastrians. His innings of 92 was rewarded with the county cap. Just as importantly, it nudged Surrey towards the title goal.

Michael Barton recalls his exhortation to Alec Bedser in the following decisive match against Leicestershire, when the intervention of rain had effectively reduced the duration of the match to two days: ‘Alec had become a little stale towards the end of this season. I said, “Now, I know I’ve bowled you too much, but I want a real effort.”’ Barton remembers the defiant heave of Alec’s shoulders at his unintended slight. ‘Alec was annoyed but my only thought was to provide a stimulus.’

The audacity of the Surrey captain produced a devastating counter. Alec swung the ball ever more sharply into the leg trap to take 8 wickets for 53 runs in Leicestershire’s first innings. His match tally was increased by 4 in the second innings. In 54 overs his 12 wickets cost him only 8 runs apiece.

One of the assets of any captain worth his salt is to know when and how to direct the conductor’s baton. ‘If we’ve any hope at all, it will have to be you to get them out’ is a well-proven gambit. Barton did not quite address Alec in such terms. But the intention of the command was the same, and the trick worked.

Surrey, bolstered by a first innings century by Fishlock, did, in the end, need only one ball to win by 10 wickets. It was a gentle half-volley, bowled in a pre-arranged ‘scene’ to Barton by his opposing captain, Charles Palmer.

Other ‘enthusiastic scenes’, laconically reported Wisden, greeted the long-delayed championship honour. A straightforward victory did first have to disable the resistance of Leicestershire opening batsman, Les Berry. Neither was it helped by fielding confusion, which gave the redoubtable Berry a prolonged stay at the wicket. Barton recalls: ‘Les Berry got going in the second innings and it looked as if Leicestershire might save the match. He hit a skier off Tony Lock which went straight towards Laurie Fishlock fielding at mid-off.’ In the custom of the time, Barton called out the surname of his intended catcher to distinguish him from others with identical Christian names. Fishlock failed to respond to the appeal: he was rather deaf and he only heard the word ‘Lock’. The ball fell harmlessly between him and the bowler.

Alec Bedser has often thought it unfair that the fruits of his – and Eric’s – endeavours should have fallen to him alone. It might have been supposed that Alec’s superiority as a cricketer would lead to friction, even an estrangement between the brothers. Not the least remarkable feature of their relationship is that each of them took the utmost pleasure in their respective achievements. Criticism was not withheld in their many post-match cricket conversations. Stressful occasions brought sympathy. At all times, both lean and bountiful, they took comfort in each other’s counsel. ‘I was always more concerned at what Alec was doing than with my own performances,’ insists Eric.

A more vexed point at issue is the situation in which the senior Bedser twin was placed in the Surrey ranks. Eric had, as related earlier, opted for off-spin in order to marshal different bowling resources to those of his brother. As events were to prove, it set him in opposition to Jim Laker. The consequence was restricted opportunity to demonstrate his worth. Brother Alec, in Twin Ambitions, presented this ruling:

I have no doubt that, had Eric not been destined to compete with the genius of Laker, his reputation would have been much higher. He had to be content with being a fine all-rounder, getting the most of his opportunities when Jim was away playing for England or when batting conditions were good.

The respective merits of both bowlers have been acknowledged in Surrey quarters and elsewhere in cricket. Temperamentally, Laker was judged to be suspect in certain circumstances. Peter Walker, the former Glamorgan all-rounder and a later broadcasting colleague, vigorously responds to those critics who seek to present Laker as a bowler who was quick to surrender: ‘Any bowler with an ego which he had would have always tried. If you gave him a wicket to bowl on, and he didn’t take five or six wickets, you could sense that he had let himself down, never mind the team. There was no question that luck had not gone with him.’

It is undoubtedly true that the phlegmatic Yorkshireman, for all his superior gifts, was regarded as someone who received preferential treatment as a Surrey bowler. Getting the right end, as with all great bowlers, was a prime requirement. It was a matter of consequence for leading batsmen, too. They would want to dominate the strike in propitious circumstances.

Eric Bedser, as his figures show, generally bowled better when Laker was not in the Surrey team. Brother Alec confirms this and says that Eric would then have first use of responsive wickets. On other occasions, in the same prevailing conditions and when Laker was also on county duty, Eric very often would not even get a bowl.

The advantage did markedly accrue to the elder Bedser in two periods – from 1947 to 1952 and again from 1956 to 1959. Test calls for Laker allowed Eric greater scope; he was then granted a choice of ends. Given a fairer crack of the whip, he outbowled Laker in 1951 and in 1956, when his colleague was preoccupied with other remarkable deeds for England.

Jim Laker has been derided as a member of the awkward squad. His austere demeanour masked a highly emotional man. If the prima-donna allegations are true, it does need to be emphasised that he was not alone in this category in a highly combative team led by Stuart Surridge in the 1950s. His rapid promotion to the first team did, as he himself admitted, usurp the spinning role earmarked for the elder Bedser. He was not without sympathy: ‘Eric was forced to take a back seat because of my involvement. On helpful pitches he held a watching brief, and on good wickets one could easily imagine what went through his mind when he was tossed the ball after the rest of us had toiled in vain. With his enormous hands, Eric could spin the ball like a top.’

Geoffrey Howard, the former Surrey and Lancashire secretary. remembers one conversation at the outset of the careers of Bedser and Laker. His companion was Bob Gregory, the Surrey batsman, who was a member of the MCC party which toured India under the captaincy of Douglas Jardine in 1933–34. ‘If I had been captain,’ said Gregory, ‘Laker would not have got into the Surrey team.’ Gregory considered that Eric Bedser possessed spinning attributes which could have matched those of the Gloucestershire maestro, Tom Goddard.

Peter Richardson, the former Worcestershire, Kent and England batsman, is another supporter of Bedser’s claims. He takes the view that his old Surrey rival should never be underestimated: ‘Eric was a high-class bowler. If Jim wasn’t playing, you didn’t actually jump in the air with delight.’ Richardson, in his assessment, says that Eric has to be judged on the role – often as an ‘odd-jobbing’ bowler – that he was given and his opportunities within the Surrey team. He tellingly adds: ‘Eric was a bowler who batted, not a batsman who bowled.’

Trevor Bailey is also sympathetic in expressing concern at Bedser’s misfortune. ‘Eric,’ he says, ‘was a good all-round cricketer who was unlucky to be an off-spinner at a time when we had two great bowlers, Jim Laker and Tony Lock, with their contrasting spins. There really wasn’t a place for him, either as an all-rounder, or as a spinner at the highest level.’ Bailey subscribes to the general view that in other eras, and especially at the present time, Bedser would have been an automatic choice as an England player.

Michael Barton is another key eye-witness in an intriguing debate. Eric Bedser was strongly advocated as a candidate to tour Australia in 1950–51. In 1949 he scored 1,749 runs and took 88 wickets. It was a season of high achievement in which his all-round talents were acknowledged by the Wisden correspondent: ‘Bedser’s batting has improved beyond all recognition, and besides imparting considerable off-spin he flighted the ball skilfully.’

The Bedser twins were linked as batsmen and bowlers in the victory by 52 runs over Middlesex at Lord’s. It was Surrey’s second win in a fortnight over their rivals from across the river. Eric shared a century opening stand with Fishlock and then dismissed the first five Middlesex batsmen – Robertson, Brown, Edrich, Compton and Sims – for 59 runs. Middlesex were set a target of 147; rain on the last day rendered ‘batting more a matter of chance than ability’; and Alec did not spurn the opportunity. He took 8 wickets for 42 runs as Middlesex were routed for 94 in 105 minutes.

Jim Swanton recalled a pitch of the most sinister order at Lord’s upon which, he related with some glee, Australia would not have made a hundred:

Bedser bowled as well as I’ve seen him since the war. He hurled the ball down on a tantalising length and it lifted, moved both ways off the seam and, just to complete the programme, occasionally squatted as well. In 6 hours Bedser sent down 38 overs, nearly a third of the total bowled.

In his final conclusive spell, Alec took charge of one end for 1¾ hours. ‘The batsmen were forced involuntarily into blind strokes which gave catch after catch either at slip or short leg,’ reported Swanton.

Walter Hadlee was the New Zealand captain in 1949 and is now a Surrey life member. The Oval, he says, has special memories for him, not least because he played what he considers the best innings of his career there. The match was between Surrey and the New Zealanders in May. Hadlee’s unbeaten 119 was largely responsible for the victory by 149 runs.

Hadlee recalls a rare hoar frost which carpeted the ground on his arrival at The Oval: ‘A hot sun under clear skies soon removed all signs of frost. But it also brought to the surface the preparation moisture.’ The consequence was a dry pitch and difficult batting conditions. ‘By the time we batted in the second innings, the top had broken off the wicket. Alec and Jim Laker were not easy to score from. Alec was deadly accurate. He was literally bowling fast leg-breaks and beat the bat repeatedly.’

An indication of the sternness of the contest was Bedser’s figures in the innings. He bowled 36 overs for 37 runs, including 16 maidens, and took 3 wickets. ‘I was fortunate to survive,’ continues Hadlee, ‘but it was mentally draining and physically demanding. Jim, at the pavilion end, spun his off-breaks prodigiously. I put my survival against him down to taking a stance three or so inches outside the leg stump. I could not bat that way against Alec, as he was so much quicker.’

Laurie Fishlock, ever reliant in his final seasons, scored 2,426 runs despite being dismissed five times in the 90s. Eric Bedser, as his opening partner, enjoyed his association with the veteran: ‘Laurie was a fine player of spin and a good attacking batsman.’ They shared a stand of 260 in 3 hours and 40 minutes against Somerset in July. Eric’s contribution of 154 was then his highest score; but he went on to surpass this with 163 in another sparkling century overture with Fishlock against Nottinghamshire. E.M. Wellings, in the London Evening News, commented that ‘this was further evidence of Bedser’s approach towards Test class as an all-rounder’. The Sunday Times correspondent praised a ‘sturdy, patient innings transformed by strokes of power and polish too long held in check’. Eric’s last 50 runs were scored in under an hour.

The events of the one-sided Test trial in the intimate sporting basin of Park Avenue, Bradford, thrust Jim Laker into the national spotlight in 1950. On a wicket left open to heavy rain 24 hours before the match, he took 8 wickets for 2 runs. The Rest included the Cambridge trio of Hubert Doggart, Peter May and David Sheppard.

Eric Bedser was also in The Rest’s ranks at Bradford. One of the runs conceded by Laker was off a full toss charitably wheeled up to his Surrey colleague. Alex Bannister jokingly reflected that this was probably the only favour ever granted by Laker to his fellow bowler at The Oval. Trevor Bailey provided a delicious memory of Jim’s dry humour at Park Avenue. Amid the compliments on his remarkable figures, he produced the deadpan reply: ‘Well, they would have been less expensive if I hadn’t given Eric one to get off the mark.’ Eric did not need any assistance in the second innings. He was top scorer, with 30 out of the total of 113.

A long understanding between the Bedsers never to compete against each other had to be disregarded at Bradford. Alec was opposed to Eric, being a member of the England XI. It was one of the rare occasions when Alec and Eric changed in different dressing-rooms. Eventually Alec was obliged to bowl to Eric, which prompted Tom Pearce, one of the Test selectors, to remark: ‘This is the first time I have ever seen a man bowling to himself.’

Michael Barton has confessed his puzzlement at the decline of Eric Bedser in 1950 after his exploits in the previous season. The defence, offered by brother Alec, is that Eric was not given the opportunities to consolidate his position. The sad facts are that Eric scored only 97 runs in 20 championship matches and took only 8 wickets in the 130 overs allotted to him. As Wisden reported, he displayed such inconsistency that towards the end of the programme he lost his place in the Surrey team.

Barton can offer no explanation for Bedser’s depressing blip in form, something which can affect the best of cricketers. Eric, he once said, could be linked with Percy Fender as one of the finest all-rounders in Surrey’s history. In 1950 there was the chance for Eric to bolster this claim: ‘I was very sorry for Eric because this was a crucial season for him. Unfortunately, his form [with bat and ball] completely disintegrated. Another season at the same level as in 1949, and he would have gone to Australia. The opportunity never occurred again. Time went on and Jim Laker came into his own.’

Eric Bedser did overcome his disappointment to become a vital component in Surrey’s successes in the 1950s. In 1956, Surrey’s fifth championship year, he was deprived of the double by the weather. He regularly bowled in tandem with Laker and Lock. His figures of 804 runs and 92 wickets were acknowledged by the compliment of his captain, Stuart Surridge. ‘Without Eric in the side,’ said Surridge, ‘Surrey might not have retained the title.’

The adamant verdict of Michael Barton, gleaned from his years of leadership, is that Eric Bedser was an all-rounder of sufficient quality to have played for Surrey either as a batsman or bowler. ‘He did spin the ball, but not as violently as Laker did. But for Jim’s mastery, Eric would have done the double year after year. He might well then have won a further chance to advance his England claims.’ A player with such skills could have gained distinction with another county. Loyalty, in Eric’s time, counted for much more than today; and, in any event, separation from Alec would have trounced such thoughts.

Stealing the show at The Oval did not confer on Jim Laker the coveted prize of a tour of Australia under Freddie Brown’s captaincy in 1950–51. His omission from the MCC party, after taking 166 wickets at a little over 15 runs apiece, was among the many follies of selection. Another deposed Yorkshireman, Johnny Wardle, had also enjoyed a magnificent season. His marathon bowling spells, exceeding 1,600 overs, had yielded 174 wickets at 16.71 runs each. The selectors turned instead to another left-hander, Bob Berry, of Lancashire. An astonishing choice almost prompted an irate Wardle to sever his connection with first-class cricket and take up a lucrative offer from a league club.

Selection also eluded Roy Tattersall, one of Laker’s off-spinning rivals. Tattersall headed the national averages with 193 wickets in his finest summer. He was belatedly called upon, along with Lancashire colleague, Brian Statham, as an emergency replacement. Jim Swanton, in his pre-tour notes, lamented the disregard of obvious candidates for the tour: ‘It is an unusual if inevitable mix of the pre-war young and the newly fledged.’ Swanton found it hard to explain the absences of Edrich, Wardle and Laker. ‘These last two, together with Tattersall, were easily the biggest wicket-takers of the English season.’

Perhaps the biggest travesty of all was the decision to exclude Les Jackson, the Derbyshire fast bowler. Jackson and Alec Bedser were twinned as the most dangerous bowlers in England at this time. Yet Jackson played in only two Tests: against New Zealand at Old Trafford in 1949; and 12 years later against Australia at Headingley. Donald Carr, his Derbyshire captain, said, ‘Les was the linchpin of any success we had. He was a matchwinner and a marvellous fellow to captain. He never let you down.’ In Carr’s opinion, he moved the ball off the seam better than any bowler of his generation.

Trevor Bailey remembers the consternation of the Derbyshire players at the non-selection of Les Jackson. Essex were playing Derbyshire at Southend when the last two names, Washbrook and John Warr, were announced for the tour of Australia. Expressions of disbelief greeted the news that Warr, of Middlesex, had been preferred to Jackson. ‘What on earth is happening?’ went up the cry in a post-match drinks session at the Southend Pier Hotel.

‘Les just quietly sat in a corner, sank his pint, and never said a word,’ recalls Bailey, who was sympathetic and as mystified as the rest of the party. ‘Les was in a different class to Warr. His slinging-type action was reminiscent of another Derbyshire bowler, Bill Copson, who had toured Australia before the Second World War. On a green wicket, Les was a tremendous bowler. He bowled a beautiful line and length and begrudged giving runs away.’

Alec Bedser has since lamented the accent on unproven youth on the Australian tour and the decision to leave more experienced campaigners kicking their heels at home. John Dewes, one of the favoured younger members, believes, however inadvisedly, it had to be a calculated gamble: ‘The pre-war players were ten years older and we hadn’t yet bred others of the right calibre.’

The divergence in strengths was pronounced, but the picture was distorted in the outcome of the series. England were beaten 4–1, but two of the defeats were by the slender margins of 70 and 28 runs. A major regret was a lack of stability in the batting. The experience of Bill Edrich, as Trevor Bailey indicates, might have tipped the scales in England’s favour.

Freddie Brown was the third-choice captain in Australia after Norman Yardley and George Mann had made it known that they were unable to tour because of business commitments. Wilfred Wooller, the combative Glamorgan captain, also withdrew as a candidate after heading one newspaper’s captaincy poll. Brown, nearing his 40th birthday, was deemed an unlikely tourist; but he enhanced his credentials and sealed his appointment with a barnstorming century for the Gentlemen against the Players at Lord’s.

‘Ginger for pluck’ was the admiring compliment accorded to Brown in Australia. The insignia of his silk neckerchief fluttered around his neck and his ruddy complexion intensified in colour amid his labours. Australian crowds admired the resolution of the veteran. A significant tribute was paid by a vegetable barrowman on Sydney Quay: ‘Fine lettuce,’ he yelled. ‘All for ninepence . . . with hearts like Freddie Brown’s.’