Jack Flavell was a formidable fast bowler for Worcestershire in the 1950s and 1960s; it was largely owing to the opening attack he formed with Len Coldwell, and to the batting of Tom Graveney, that the county won their first championship title in 1964, and repeated the triumph the next season. Graveney believed that Flavell and Coldwell, when both fully fit, were the most hostile pair of fast bowlers he saw in county cricket. Flavell, in particular, took no prisoners. In those days, before helmets were part of a batsman’s armoury, there were stories of tail-enders hiding in the lavatories at the prospect of facing him on a fast wicket.
When the sixteen-year-old Nawab of Pataudi, a Winchester schoolboy, played his first game for Sussex in August 1957, Flavell lost no time in bouncing him out for a duck. In the second innings, Pataudi, ready for what was coming, ducked, leaving his bat in the air. The ball struck it and rocketed down to third man for four, his first runs in senior cricket. The next year, Flavell was unwise enough to bowl a short delivery which hit Les Jackson, the deadly Derbyshire fast bowler. The Worcestershire fielders winced at the vengeance to come – and still more at the treatment accorded them when they reached the crease. Flavell, however, was not required to bat.
Fortunately for batsmen, both Flavell and Coldwell were liable to strains, which sometimes forced them to bowl within themselves. Yet the red-haired, red-faced Flavell was immensely strong and powerful, and never more dangerous than when coming back after injury. He had been unable to bowl for a period in 1964, and Worcestershire’s championship hopes appeared to be slipping when they recorded only one win in six matches. Flavell, however, stormed back and in five matches between 8 and 25 August took forty-six wickets at only 11.71 apiece, including one analysis of nine for 56 against Middlesex. Against Nottinghamshire he even put in a rare performance with the bat, striking two fours to secure a one-wicket victory. In the end, Worcestershire won the title by forty-one points, with Flavell claiming 101 wickets for them.
Next year, 1965, Flavell was available for all twenty-eight championship matches, and again played a crucial role as Worcestershire, after a bad start, won ten of their last eleven games to squeak home in front of Northamptonshire. Flavell’s contribution to this second title was 132 wickets at only 14.99 apiece. His superb form continued in 1966, when he finished second in the first-class averages with 135 wickets at an average of 14.00. But for adverse weather, Worcestershire might well have won a third successive title.
Flavell’s best year was 1961, which he finished as the country’s leading bowler, with 171 victims. Called up for the bowling attack in the fourth Test against Australia at Headingley, he claimed two prize scalps in Bobby Simpson and Peter Burge. But Australia, having been well behind on first innings, turned the game with a last-wicket partnership of ninety-eight in their second innings. The England captain, Peter May, was much criticised for persisting too long with his spinners; certainly when he finally brought back Flavell, the stand was instantly broken. But the breakthrough came too late, for Benaud was able to exploit the rough outside the leg stump to bowl Australia to victory by fifty-four runs.
Flavell played again at the Oval, accounting for Neil Harvey and Ken ‘Slasher’ Mackay, but was then ignored by the selectors until 1964. Early that season Ted Dexter, the England captain, had a very rough time facing Flavell and Coldwell in a county match, and wanted to see the Australians endure a similar torture. Both Worcestershire fast bowlers were called up for the first Test at Trent Bridge, and with considerable help from Fred Trueman on a rain-affected pitch they shot out the Australians for 168. Flavell missed the second Test, and in the third was unable to make any impression on a good batting wicket at Headingley. He broke down with a strained Achilles tendon and never played for England again, rather to the relief of Worcestershire supporters, who were keen to have him in the county attack at all times. Team-mates, meanwhile, found him a competitive whist player, given to throwing the pack out of the coach window when the cards ran against him.
John Alfred Flavell: b Wall Heath, Staffordshire, 15 May 1929; d 25 February 2004