Wilf Wooller: Excelled in two sports
1950s.
Northmaptonshire v Glamorgan
Frank Tyson was trying to impress the Test selector who was at the other end.
He was bowling as fast as he could and hit him under the heart.
No chest protector.
Everybody ran round to see if he was all right.
Tyson thought, " Christ, what have I done to this Test selector!"
The batsman got up and looked at Tyson.
"Are you all right, skip?"
"Bugger off, Tyson, you're not fast enough to hurt me."
The next ball was faster but this time the batsman was right behind it.
Wilf Wooller was one of a kind.
He once found Peter Loader and said, " You're slow, Loader. How did I ever pick you for England?"
And while congratulating Tom Graveney after he scored a 200, Wooller said, " That's the worst double century I've ever seen."
He had served in the Second World War. The wounds were there but Wooller used his cricket to conceal them.
He was everyone's 'skip' and one had to earn the right to call him 'Wilf'.
When the young Tony Lewis entered the dressing room for the first time, he hurled him a rugby pass with an ornamental clock from the mantelpiece.
Lewis was quick to act on it and managed to hurl it back at Wooller.
"Call me Wilf", he said, before moving out of the room.
But there was never a greater team-man in the history of Glamorgan.
Once, at Nottingham, they were at the bar singing and dancing through the evening. The landlord was not very pleased and, fairly early that night, denied to serve any more drinks.
But he could not stop them.
"I will report you to the captain.", he threatened.
"I am the captain.", replied Wooller.
"I'll report you to the secretary."
"I am the secretary."
"I'll write to the president."
Wooller later became the president as well.
When he died in 1997, Wisden wrote: "There will never be another."
Truer words have seldom been spoken.
Wilf Wooller was born on Nov 20, 1912.