by Mayukh Ghosh

He had sensed that Peter May was special.
At Charterhouse, he groomed him.
May became the best batsman in the world.

His leg-cutter was good enough to get Bradman out.
It was often underused. But he did pass it on to Alec Bedser who used it more often.

But things could have been so different.

World War I.
Our man is spinning an aircraft propeller. Someone has left the switch open!
It almost results in him losing his life.
The blade slashes his left shoulder and thigh.
The two-year old cricket career is almost over.
They offer him a meagre pension.
The after-effects are there even in 1919.

One season of league cricket for Nelson and Leicestershire call him back.
He, along with Ewart Astill, carries the team over the next two decades.
In 1926, he bowls the last Australian batsman out to win the Ashes.

All that after suffering a terrible setback that morning when someone steals all his belongings from his bedroom.

Then, in 1929, he hits the Ashes winning runs.
And then sells that bat for £10.
Jack Hobbs tells him that he would have got £250 for it in London.

And then in 1936, his benefit creates headlines.
£10 is all what he gets and he has no one but himself to blame for it.
When David Frith met him in 1973, he recollected those golden inter-war years.

And then, with a pot of tea in his hand, he chuckled and murmured, "Tempus certainly fugits!"

Largely forgotten.
Like so many others of his type.
Most of us know the best bowling figures in first-class cricket. 10 for 10 by Hedley Verity.
But how many remember the name of the previous record-holder?

George Geary was born on 9 July 1893.