57 Facts About Abe Waddington

Between 1919 and 1927 Waddington made 255 appearances for Yorkshire, and in all first-class cricket played 266 matches.

Capable of making the ball swing, Abe Waddington was admired for the aesthetic quality of his bowling action.

Abe Waddington was a hostile bowler who sometimes sledged opposing batsmen and questioned umpires' decisions, behaviour which was unusual during his playing days.

Abe Waddington first played for Yorkshire after the First World War, when the team had been weakened by injuries and retirements.

Abe Waddington made an immediate impression in 1919, his first season; he took 100 wickets and was largely responsible for Yorkshire's victory in the County Championship that year.

However, the England team were outclassed; used in an unfamiliar tactical role, Abe Waddington took just one wicket and never played for England again.

Abe Waddington continued to be effective for Yorkshire, particularly against the weaker counties, but was often inconsistent.

Abe Waddington continued to play league cricket and worked for the family business, a fat-refining firm, but maintained his connection with Yorkshire cricket.

Abe Waddington was in trouble with the police on more than one occasion and after the Second World War was charged with defrauding his wartime employers, the Ministry of Food; he was found not guilty.

Abraham Abe Waddington was born in Clayton, Bradford, on 4 February 1893, the eldest of three brothers.

Abe Waddington's family owned a fat-refining business managed by his father, Sam.

When he left school, Abe Waddington joined the family firm as a lorry driver, occasionally working in the refinery.

Abe Waddington began playing cricket for Crossley Hall in the West Bradford League at the age of 11; as a teenager he played in the Bradford League for Lidget Green and then Laisterdyke, gaining a local reputation as a fast-medium bowler.

Abe Waddington helped Laisterdyke win the League championship in 1913, before moving to Wakefield for the 1914 season, where he took 98 wickets at an average of 12.00.

Abe Waddington played for Yorkshire Second XI in August 1914, alongside future First XI teammates Herbert Sutcliffe and Cec Tyson, but the outbreak of the First World War prevented him making any further appearances for the county.

When war was declared, Abe Waddington volunteered for Lord Kitchener's New Army, joining the Bradford Pals battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment.

On 1 July 1916, during the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Abe Waddington was wounded by shrapnel at Serre, and took shelter in a crater in no man's land with other wounded soldiers.

Abe Waddington comforted Booth while the cricketer died in his arms, an experience which haunted Abe Waddington for the rest of his life.

At this point in the season the Yorkshire cricketers Roy Kilner and Arthur Dolphin, who like Abe Waddington had been wounded at the Somme, recommended him to the Yorkshire committee, probably after seeing him take part in cricket matches in the army.

Wisden judged that Abe Waddington's contribution was crucial: "Without him Yorkshire would certainly not have won the Championship".

Abe Waddington finished with 100 wickets at an average of 18.74, with eight five-wicket returns.

Abe Waddington was only the sixth bowler in first-class cricket history to reach 100 wickets in his debut year.

Abe Waddington's season concluded with his selection for the professional "Players" teams in the prestigious Gentlemen v Players match at the Scarborough Festival.

Abe Waddington was one of four players from Yorkshire chosen to tour Australia that winter with the MCC.

Abe Waddington played only one first-class match before the first Test, but took wickets in several minor matches.

Abe Waddington did not play another Test until the fourth, where he bowled five overs for 31 runs.

Abe Waddington ended the tour with seven wickets at an average of 46.71; his single Test wicket was at a cost of 119 runs.

The tour was a frustrating experience for Abe Waddington, who found the heat difficult to deal with; he was unhappy that most of his appearances came in the non-first-class country matches, many against opponents fielding more than eleven players to make a more even fight.

Abe Waddington did have one batting success on the tour, scoring his maiden first-class fifty against an "Australian XI".

The introduction of the pace bowler George Macaulay into the team gave him more support, but according to a later edition of Wisden, Abe Waddington's form was poor that year.

Abe Waddington was often effective in the most important matches.

Abe Waddington's season ended with festival games at Eastbourne, where he represented the North against the South and played for a team of ex-Royal Air Force servicemen.

Abe Waddington was less effective in 1923, and despite a good bowling average, he was inconsistent.

On his return in 1924, Abe Waddington bowled little in his first matches, but was used more in Yorkshire's defeat by Middlesex at Lord's where he bowled 42 overs to take three for 116.

Abe Waddington maintained his innocence but the MCC supported the umpires, finding him guilty of dissent, and the Yorkshire president Lord Hawke persuaded him to write a letter of apology to the MCC secretary.

Abe Waddington ended the season with 69 wickets at an average of 21.55, but appeared less effective than before his injury.

Abe Waddington took more than 100 wickets in a season for the final time in 1925.

Wisden attributed Yorkshire's championship victory to their bowlers and suggested that "Abe Waddington enjoyed a well-merited success".

Abe Waddington took 78 wickets at an average of 23.30, and scored his highest aggregate with the bat in a season, making 525 runs with two fifties.

Abe Waddington's bowling declined further in 1927, to the point where Wisden suggested his record was poor and his "work was only occasionally worthy of his reputation".

Abe Waddington took 45 wickets at 32.02, and conceded a high number of runs on many occasions.

Abe Waddington turned it down, ending his county cricket career.

Abe Waddington bowled with control, maintaining a good length while his action made the ball swing away from the batsman.

Abe Waddington's curved run-up began from the on side of the wicket, and he ran behind the umpire.

Abe Waddington then released the ball from the corner of the bowling crease, creating a sharp angle for the batsman to face, sometimes using short deliveries with a ring of leg side fielders.

Abe Waddington modelled his bowling on that of George Hirst, a fellow left-arm paceman who acted as a coach and mentor to him in his early career, but Derek Hodgson notes that the two men were very different in personality: Abe Waddington was far more quick-tempered than Hirst.

Abe Waddington fully embraced Yorkshire's hard-edged competitiveness in the early 1920s: he questioned the decisions of umpires and sledged opposing batsmen, both of which were unusual at the time.

Abe Waddington's Times obituary noted that some disagreements came because Waddington played to win and was an enthusiastic appealer, although he was unlikely to win many appeals for leg before wicket because of the angle at which he bowled.

Abe Waddington played as a professional for West Bromwich Dartmouth CC in the Birmingham League in 1928, and for Accrington in 1929 and 1930.

Abe Waddington maintained friendships with several members of the Yorkshire team and was a pallbearer at Kilner's funeral in 1928.

Abe Waddington had success in other sports, especially as an amateur football goalkeeper.

Abe Waddington was a good enough golfer to represent Yorkshire, to partner Henry Cotton, and to play in the qualifying rounds of the Open Championship in 1935 and 1939.

Sutcliffe wrote that leading golfers told him that had Abe Waddington not been a cricketer, he had the talent to have succeeded as a golfer, although he was prone to carelessness in his play.

One Bradford golf club banned him after he poured a glass of beer over the captain, who Abe Waddington believed had used inappropriate language in front of a woman.

At the start of the Second World War, Abe Waddington was appointed chairman of the North Eastern Division Advisory Committee for the Control of Oils and Fats and became an agent of the Ministry of Food.

Abe Waddington's responsibilities included arranging for the storage of fats.

Abe Waddington was acquitted when a judge ruled that there was no way that it could be proven that he had known of the alteration to the letter, or that he was in any way responsible.