Читать книгу Classic After-Dinner Sports Tales - Jonathan Rice - Страница 9

Probably the greatest fast-medium bowler ever to have played for England, Sir Alec Bedser CBE carried the England bowling attack in the years immediately after World War II. By the time he retired, he had taken 236 Test wickets – a record at the time, including 39 in the Ashes-winning series of 1953.

In 1946, Surrey CCC played a match in aid of the club’s Centenary Appeal Fund, against an Old England Eleven. Some 18,000 spectators came. The Old England side comprised Sutcliffe, Sandham, Hendren, Woolley, Jardine, Tate and M.J.C. Allom among others. The captain was Percy Fender. Surrey fielded their full county side but the match was obviously played in a light-hearted way.

Frank Woolley, the great Kent and England batsman, made a good score, and during his innings, my brother Eric and I decided to have a bit of fun. Frank Woolley had not met us, and did not know we were twins. Eric bowled slow off-spinners and I bowled fast-medium. We decided to bowl one over between us. I bowled the first three balls to Frank Woolley, and then we switched over in a way that nobody noticed, so that Eric bowled the last three balls. At the end of the over, Frank Woolley turned to our wicket-keeper and said, ‘That young man has a wonderful change of pace.’ Everybody had a good laugh, including Frank, when we explained the trick to him.