by Arunabha Sengupta
18 May 1931.
It was his 26th birthday that witnessed what he modestly called ‘An Avalanche from Heaven’.
The 59th hundred partnership between Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe had given Yorkshire a 97-run lead. As Warwickshire batted at quarter to four, merely 4,000 spectators remained, most of them wrapped in overcoats and rugs, braving the dull, raw Headingley afternoon.
At 16 for no loss, in the ninth over, young Hedley Verity, playing his second season, was introduced into the attack. Immediately, Croom was caught at mid-off, a running catch by captain Frank Greenwood. In the next over, George Macaulay’s off-break was put into action.
In Verity’s third over, Bob Wyatt lofted him into the members’ stand. Yet, the young man kept flighting it. With the score on 33, Wyatt hit him again. Holmes held it at cover.
Arthur Mitchell was moved to backward point, four yards from the bat. Where he fielded for SF Barnes for Saltaire. Before tea he pounced to catch Norman Kilner.
Parsons was caught by Leyland just after the score crossed the 50 mark. And when Bates was snapped up by Mitchell yet again, the score read 59 for 5. Verity had all five from 15 overs. It was half past five and there was the usual movement towards the exit. Trains and buses had to be boarded.
Some paused at the fall of Bates for the following Verity over. And they could no longer leave the ground. Because in his 16th over, Verity struck four times. Trains and buses were forgotten. All that mattered was the precious 10th wicket.
But, not so much to the man himself. He fielded at short leg as Macaulay bowled. And flung himself to catch a snick. The dive with the stretched right arm had severely torn the skin, the ball had not stuck. He had to bowl the rest of the innings with the arm bound below the elbow.
And then with the fourth ball of his 19th over, Verity held on as George Paine hit it straight back. 10 for 36 from 18.4 overs. Victory by an innings and 25 runs. Match over before six o’clock.
Kathleen Verity watched her husband, sitting among people who did not know who she was. “It’s nice to be a cricketer’s wife among a crowd when he is in form,” she said.
Grace Verity heard of her brother’s success at Rawdon school, when her headmaster, normally an unemotional man, rushed in to the classroom and blurted, “Do you know what’s happened? Your brother’s taken 10 for 36.
A spectator gushed, “Now I have to wait two hours for the next train, but I’m happy. I’ve waited a lifetime to see this done.”
All Verity had to say was, “It’s been a right grand birthday.” About his performance, he was uneffusive: “It was one of those rare days when everything is set right for the bowler at one end, but not for the man at the other end.”
The feat did not interfere with the plans to return to Rawdon for a family birthday party. He did not drink in any case. His father said, “You’re a famous man now.”
He became more famous. The following summer he captured all ten again, this time against Nottingmahsire. This time for just 10 runs. On a wicket where Holmes and Sutcliffe got the 139 runs to win in just 95 minutes without being separated.
In 1933 he captured 17 for 91 against Essex at Leyton, 9 for 44 and 8 for 47.
In 1934, in the Lord’s Test, he captured 15 for 104 against Australia, including Don Bradman twice, 14 of the wickets in one day. It even provoked comment from the small-screen version of the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, in Four and Twenty Blackbirds.
He continued to take wickets by the bushel through the decade. In 1939, he captured 191 at 13.13, 14 against Glamorgan at Bradford, 12 against Leicestershire at Hull, 9 for 62 in the second innings against MCC at Lord’s, 7 for 35 against Warwickshire at Scarborough.
In the last game of the season he captured 7 for 9 against the hapless Sussex. He was just 34. 144 wickets at 24.37 in 40 Tests. 1956 at a ridiculous 14.90 in first-class cricket.
He never played again. Four years later, he was was hit in the chest while involved in the Eighth Army’s first attack on the German positions at Catania in Sicily. He passed away on 31 July 1943 in Caserta, Italy.
Hedley Verity was born on 18 May 1905.
Illustration: Maha