164 Facts About Brian Statham

1.

John Brian Statham, was an English professional cricketer from Gorton, in Manchester, who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club from 1950 to 1968 and for England from 1951 to 1965.

2.

Brian Statham specialised as a right arm fast bowler and was noted for the consistent accuracy of his length and direction.

3.

Unlike the latter, Brian Statham did not make the ball swing in flight but, by pitching it on the seam, he could achieve very fast deviation off the pitch which accounted for many a batsman's wicket.

4.

Brian Statham batted left-handed, invariably as a tailender, and was occasionally effective when stubborn resistance was required.

5.

Brian Statham captained Lancashire for three seasons from 1965 to 1967.

6.

Brian Statham became a member of Lancashire's committee from 1970 to 1995 and was elected club president in 1997 and 1998.

7.

Brian Statham was born on Tuesday, 17 June 1930 in his parents' home at 1, Chatham Road, Gorton, Manchester.

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8.

Brian Statham played for the school at both cricket and football but only played the latter outside school.

9.

Brian Statham became disillusioned with cricket and developed a preference for tennis as a summer sport.

10.

Brian Statham left school in 1946, aged sixteen, and went to work as a clerk for an accountancy firm.

11.

Brian Statham was playing football for Denton West FC as a left winger.

12.

Brian Statham was offered trials by both Liverpool and Manchester City but these were vetoed by his father who was opposed to any of his sons pursuing a career in football.

13.

Brian Statham turned eighteen in June 1948 and became eligible for national service.

14.

Brian Statham received his call-up in October and served eighteen months in the RAF until 1 May 1950.

15.

Brian Statham was based at RAF Stafford and did clerical work for one of the aircraft maintenance units.

16.

Brian Statham was able to travel home each weekend in the summer of 1948 to play for Denton West and he topped the North Western League's bowling averages for the season.

17.

Brian Statham was invited to join Stockport Cricket Club in the Central Lancashire League but initially turned it down because he was happy at Denton West.

18.

Brian Statham later recalled earning his first money from cricket when a crowd collection was done on his behalf after one match in which he took eight for 15.

19.

Brian Statham played for RAF Stafford's station team through the 1949 season and took a total of 96 wickets at an average of three.

20.

Brian Statham recalled that the pitches were so lively that even a good length ball would rise above the stumps.

21.

Brian Statham responded to this by adding the yorker to his repertoire and that accounted for a high percentage of his victims from then on.

22.

Brian Statham decided to accept Stockport's invitation for 1949 and played for them six times, when he could obtain weekend leave.

23.

Lazarus was a Londoner and he wrote to Marylebone Cricket Club to ask if they had a ground staff vacancy which Brian Statham could fill when his national service ended.

24.

Brian Statham contacted the club and found that they had received a report about him from the Central Lancashire League.

25.

Brian Statham was invited to take part in a two-day trial match in April 1950 and this was successful, especially as he dismissed two first team batsmen, Winston Place and Alan Wharton.

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26.

Brian Statham's parents had no objection to him pursuing a cricket career.

27.

Brian Statham played in their first five matches, taking 26 wickets at 14 runs apiece.

28.

Lancashire scored 271 on the Saturday and they reduced Kent to 62 for four at the close with Brian Statham having taken the wicket of Arthur Fagg, caught by Alan Wharton for four.

29.

Brian Statham started well enough, conceding only a couple of singles in his first two overs but he then mistimed a delivery which pitched short and Fagg went to hook it.

30.

Brian Statham said Washbrook liked his speed but not his length.

31.

Brian Statham was both loose-limbed and double-jointed so his action was never going to be classic.

32.

Brian Statham soon won friends among his teammates because of his easygoing, humorous beer-and-fags persona.

33.

Brian Statham played a total of fifteen matches for Lancashire in 1950.

34.

Brian Statham responded by simply dusting himself down and starting again.

35.

Brian Statham ended the 1950 season with 37 wickets, a best return of five for 18 and a good average of 16.56.

36.

Brian Statham had earned a regular first-team place and was awarded his county cap.

37.

Brian Statham returned to his old job in accountancy for the winter, a generous act by his employer as he had been absent for nearly two years since leaving for national service and then going straight into county cricket.

38.

Brian Statham had just about settled in again when he received a huge surprise just after the New Year.

39.

Brian Statham had never even met the majority of his new team-mates but he had encountered and impressed Len Hutton, and it is generally supposed that he was invited on Hutton's firm recommendation.

40.

Brian Statham bowled first change after Alec Bedser and Trevor Bailey had shared the new ball.

41.

Brian Statham took 97 wickets at the good low average of 15.11 in 1951 and played in two of the Tests against South Africa, taking four wickets in all.

42.

Brian Statham was outstanding in the match and began by dismissing both the opening batsmen, one of them clean bowled by a yorker, and took five for 33 as Surrey were all out for only 114.

43.

Surrey had to follow on and Brian Statham again dismissed the openers cheaply en route to four for 29.

44.

Brian Statham kept his place in the third Test at Old Trafford but, while his opening partner Bedser took twelve, he was only needed for a total of 24 overs.

45.

Brian Statham was selected by MCC for the winter tour of India, Pakistan and Ceylon from 5 October 1951 to 2 March 1952.

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46.

Brian Statham took a total of 48 wickets on the tour, including four returns in which he took four wickets.

47.

Brian Statham played in all five Tests against India but took only eight wickets at the high average of 36.62 with a best performance of four for 96.

48.

Brian Statham played against Ceylon in the final leg of the tour and MCC won this game comfortably by an innings and 33 runs.

49.

Brian Statham took four for nine in the first innings as Ceylon were dismissed for only 58.

50.

Brian Statham was not chosen for a Test match against India in 1952, the selectors preferring Bedser and Trueman to open the attack.

51.

Brian Statham played well for Lancashire and achieved his first hundred wicket season with 110 at 18.08 but there were no really outstanding performances, his best return being five for 32 and he had only two five-wicket innings and one of those was in the last match against Northamptonshire.

52.

Brian Statham told Derlien that it gave him a much-needed rest from cricket.

53.

Brian Statham played in only one of the five Tests against Australia, the second one at Lord's where England played three pace bowlers and one spinner whereas they normally attacked with two seamers and two spinners.

54.

Trueman later commented on England captain Len Hutton's preference for seam over pace and so he and Brian Statham did not bowl together for some years yet.

55.

Lancashire were again well served by Brian Statham and Tattersall but now with sterling support from the left arm spinner Bob Berry and there was a considerable improvement in the team's batting performances.

56.

The series was a personal triumph for Brian Statham who established himself as a world-class bowler.

57.

Brian Statham headed the Test averages with 16 wickets at 28.75, this on pitches widely acknowledged as being favourable to the batsmen.

58.

West Indies won the second Test at Bridgetown by 181 runs, Brian Statham taking four wickets.

59.

Brian Statham's tour ended on the first morning of the fourth Test at Port-of-Spain when he pulled a rib muscle and could not bowl again on the tour.

60.

In 1954, Brian Statham was effective when available to play against Pakistan who were on their first tour of England.

61.

Brian Statham headed the national first-class averages for the first time, though his tally of wickets was limited to 92 because of appalling weather constantly interrupting cricket in Lancashire.

62.

Brian Statham was chosen as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1954, the award being announced in the 1955 edition of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack.

63.

Brian Statham was a self-assured young man, said Wisden, though always ready to listen and learn.

64.

The editor predicted, correctly, that Brian Statham would be a personality in English cricket for many more years to come.

65.

The tour was all about fast bowling and it was all because of fast-paced pitches, which Tyson and Brian Statham could exploit to the full.

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66.

Brian Statham said the tour boasted the fastest and bounciest pitches he ever bowled on, especially the one at the WACA Ground in Perth.

67.

Brian Statham played in all seven Tests and in thirteen first-class matches altogether.

68.

Brian Statham took 54 first-class wickets and this was the highest tour tally in his entire career.

69.

Brian Statham toiled into the wind at the other end and his accuracy gave the Australian batsmen no respite.

70.

Brian Statham said of Tyson that he was at least two yards faster than himself and that watching him from the outfield, let alone batting against him, was frightening.

71.

Brian Statham finished with two for 38 and so took seven for 98 in the match.

72.

On Wednesday, 19 January 1955, Brian Statham was playing for MCC in a two-day match against a South Australian Country XI in Mount Gambier, which was at the time celebrating its city charter.

73.

Brian Statham came on to bowl when the score was 27 for three and, after he had bowled 26 balls, he had taken six wickets for no runs.

74.

Brian Statham finished with six for three from four eight-ball overs including three maidens.

75.

Brian Statham was troubled by the big toe on his left foot after removal of an ingrowing nail just before the match began.

76.

Brian Statham had been using padding to try and protect the toe but this wasn't helping.

77.

Brian Statham was then able, with Tyson, to bowl unchanged throughout the morning session of the final day in a temperature of above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

78.

Australia were reduced to 103 for nine and Brian Statham took three for twelve that morning; Tyson took three for seventeen.

79.

Wisden wrote that, having been England's leading Test wicket-taker in the West Indies twelve months earlier, Brian Statham reached his peak in Australia.

80.

Brian Statham played in both the Tests in New Zealand which England won easily, the second by an innings and 20 runs after New Zealand were dismissed for a mere 26 in their second innings, the lowest team total in Test cricket's history.

81.

Brian Statham took twelve wickets in the two matches with a best return of four for 24 in the first Test at Carisbrook in Dunedin.

82.

Lancashire slipped to ninth in the County Championship, largely because Brian Statham had no regular fast bowling partner and, crucially given frequent unavailability, no backup.

83.

Brian Statham played for the county only sixteen times, half their total matches, because of not only Test calls but illness and injury problems.

84.

Brian Statham played in four Tests but missed the third at Old Trafford.

85.

Brian Statham opened the bowling with Tyson in the first Test at Trent Bridge, where England won by an innings and 5 runs.

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86.

Brian Statham took only one wicket in the match while Tyson was the matchwinner by taking five wickets in 45 balls to destroy the South African second innings.

87.

On Monday, Brian Statham routed South Africa with what Playfair called a fine display of hostile bowling.

88.

Brian Statham's figures were seven for 39 and England won by 71 runs.

89.

Brian Statham took three for 35 in the first innings when South Africa were dismissed for 171.

90.

England's first innings lead was only 20 and South Africa soon overtook that before amassing exactly 500 in their second innings, Brian Statham taking two wickets for a huge 129 runs.

91.

Brian Statham could have scored many more but his captain, Cyril Washbrook, asked him to get himself out so that he would be fresh to bowl.

92.

Brian Statham took a total of 108 first-class wickets in the season at 14.56, his best return being the seven for 39 in the Lord's Test.

93.

Brian Statham struggled on the unhelpfully slow pitches and failed to reach the hundred wicket milestone, taking 91 at 14.84 with a best of six for 27.

94.

Brian Statham's victims were Jim Parks, Ken Suttle and Derek Semmence.

95.

Brian Statham appeared in only three of the five Tests including the one at Old Trafford in which Jim Laker took his world record nineteen wickets.

96.

Brian Statham took seven wickets in the series at 26.28 with a best of three for 33 at the Oval.

97.

Brian Statham ruefully summarised the series by saying that he was mainly a fielder.

98.

Brian Statham always performed well in the field given his athleticism and, in the Old Trafford Test, he held a difficult catch on the boundary to dismiss Richie Benaud as one of Laker's nineteen.

99.

Brian Statham played in four of the Tests and took fourteen wickets at 24.92 with a best of three for 37.

100.

Brian Statham played in four matches at the newly built Wanderers Stadium near Johannesburg.

101.

Brian Statham took 112 wickets for the county at 12.77 including his best-ever innings return of eight for 34 against Warwickshire at Coventry.

102.

Brian Statham took thirteen wickets in the series with a best of five for 118.

103.

Brian Statham said later that he was astounded, especially as Smith was in the not-so-nervous nineties at the time.

104.

Brian Statham had an outstanding season in county cricket and took 134 wickets overall at a career-best season average of 12.29.

105.

Brian Statham had ten five-wicket innings with a best of seven for 29 against Leicestershire at Old Trafford.

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106.

For various reasons, Brian Statham played in only the fourth and fifth Tests against New Zealand and took seven wickets at 18.57 with best figures of four for 71.

107.

Brian Statham had an outstanding game against Yorkshire in the Roses Match at Headingley, where Lancashire won by eight wickets.

108.

The admiration and respect which cricket followers always had for Brian Statham was demonstrated by the standing ovation given to him by a large Yorkshire crowd as he left the field.

109.

Wisden said that, in addition to this performance which was still not enough to prevent an Australian victory, Brian Statham often bowled equally well for less reward.

110.

Brian Statham's tour ended prematurely after he was involved in a road accident.

111.

Brian Statham took 139 first-class wickets at 15.01 with a best return of eight for 44.

112.

Brian Statham took seventeen wickets at 13.11, England winning all five matches convincingly.

113.

When Lancashire met Kent at Gravesend, Brian Statham was invited to stay at the home of his friend Colin Cowdrey.

114.

Brian Statham was on top form and played an outstanding innings of 198 before Statham finally dismissed him lbw.

115.

Brian Statham's figures were three for 121, one of his rare centuries conceded and among his most expensive returns.

116.

Brian Statham dismissed Cowdrey for one and took five for 31 to dismiss Kent for only 83 before Lancashire went on to win inside two days.

117.

Brian Statham was named as MCC's senior professional ahead of this tour, which meant he sat in on selection meetings.

118.

Brian Statham had an outstanding match at Lord's where he took six for 63 and five for 34, leading England to victory by an innings and 73 runs.

119.

Brian Statham made the Playfair XI for the third and final time.

120.

Brian Statham took 21 wickets at 11.42 with best figures of five for 29.

121.

Brian Statham played in four of the five tests against Richie Benaud's Australians, who retained the Ashes.

122.

Brian Statham missed the third Test at Headingley in which Trueman blew Australia away with eleven for 88 in the match.

123.

Brian Statham took five for 53 in the first innings at Old Trafford, a match England should certainly have won but for a disastrous batting collapse on the final day after they had allowed a dramatic last wicket stand of 98 between Alan Davidson and Graham McKenzie.

124.

Brian Statham took 104 wickets in the season at 20.25 with best figures of six for 27.

125.

In 1962, Brian Statham bowled as well as ever in the Tests against Pakistan, though he played in only three of the five matches.

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126.

Brian Statham took sixteen wickets at 17.37 but the England bowlers had things very much their own way in this series as the Pakistani batsmen performed well below Test standard.

127.

Brian Statham took 86 wickets for Lancashire, but the team again struggled and finished sixteenth, next to bottom of the table.

128.

The Australian captain Richie Benaud was another contender with 219 wickets, but it was Brian Statham who broke the record in the fourth Test at Adelaide when Trueman caught Barry Shepherd in the gully.

129.

Brian Statham extended the record to 242 wickets but returned to England while Trueman went on to New Zealand, where he broke the record only two months after Statham, who now began to fade out of Test cricket.

130.

Brian Statham was surprisingly replaced by the veteran seamer Derek Shackleton for the rest of the series.

131.

Later in the season, Brian Statham took five wickets in the first-ever limited overs match, for Lancashire against Leicestershire in the preliminary round of the new Gillette Cup tournament.

132.

Brian Statham's tally was 113 at 16.58 with a best return of seven for 96.

133.

Brian Statham did take fifteen for 108 in the match against a weak Leicestershire side and had an innings return of seven for 50 against Warwickshire, completing the season with 110 wickets at 20.02.

134.

Brian Statham was appointed club captain for 1965.

135.

Brian Statham was a reluctant candidate but he provided inspirational leadership and Wisden noted a new spirit of keen endeavour in the team.

136.

Lancashire under Brian Statham finished twelfth in the wet summer of 1966 with six wins.

137.

Brian Statham personally had another successful season, taking 102 wickets at 14.50 in 25 matches.

138.

In 1967, now aged 35, Brian Statham was slightly less effective and took 92 wickets at 16.63.

139.

Brian Statham was relieved of the Lancashire captaincy after the 1967 season and was replaced by Jack Bond who had been successful leading the Second XI.

140.

Brian Statham decided to retire and announced that the 1968 season would be his last.

141.

Brian Statham finished on a high note with a first innings return of six for 34 in that match, Yorkshire being all out for a mere 61.

142.

Brian Statham took one for 50 in the second innings and the last wicket of his career was that of Phil Sharpe, who was lbw for 20.

143.

Brian Statham retired several weeks before the end of the season so his tally of 68 wickets was low, by his standards, for that reason.

144.

Brian Statham achieved the hundred wicket target thirteen times with a highest tally of 139 in 1959.

145.

Brian Statham spent his entire first-class career at Lancashire and 430 of his 559 matches were for the county.

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146.

Brian Statham took a total of 1,816 wickets for Lancashire and that is a club record which, probably, will never be broken given the reduction in first-class matches since 1968.

147.

Brian Statham made only five appearances for the county's Second XI, all in the spring of 1950 before his first-class debut.

148.

Brian Statham played in 70 Test matches for England, taking 252 wickets, and so there were 59 first-class matches in which he represented other teams besides Lancashire or England.

149.

Brian Statham made 41 appearances for MCC on their overseas tours and four at Lord's: one against the Indian tourists in 1952; two against Yorkshire, in 1953 and 1959; and one against The Rest in 1963.

150.

Brian Statham said of Statham that he could be too accurate.

151.

Cardus asserted that Brian Statham sometimes bowled too superbly, meaning that tail-end batsmen could not cope with his unerring accuracy.

152.

Cardus acknowledged that good batsmen are not tail-enders and he famously quoted Brian Statham as saying: "When I bowl and they miss, well, they are usually out".

153.

Brian Statham bowled with a somewhat chest-on style in that his left shoulder, in the delivery stride, didn't point in the direction of the delivery.

154.

Unlike Trueman, Brian Statham did not bowl with a cartwheel action.

155.

Cardus had a theory that, because Brian Statham was double-jointed, it was impossible for him to achieve what Cardus called forward shoulder rigidity and so a cartwheel was out of the question.

156.

Brian Statham cited an instance when Statham, because of doubts about his fitness before one match, was asked to bowl flat out in the nets for the equivalent of three overs.

157.

Laker commented on the unusual situation whereby Brian Statham did not have an out-of-season job and wondered what he would do when he retired from cricket.

158.

Brian Statham, said Laker, had no ambitions outside the game and was a contented, untroubled soul who looked forward to sleeping when not playing.

159.

Benaud said that Brian Statham was always the catalyst in his partnerships with Tyson and Trueman because he was the one whom opposition batsmen most feared.

160.

Brian Statham was elected a member of the Lancashire committee from 1970 until 1995 and was appointed president of the club in 1997 and 1998.

161.

Brian Statham enjoyed the work at first but after the company was taken over, he found he could not cope with increased productivity paperwork.

162.

Brian Statham died of leukaemia at the Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle on Saturday, 10 June 2000, a week before his 70th birthday.

163.

Brian Statham was survived by his wife Audrey, two sons and one daughter.

164.

Brian Statham was cremated five days later at Manchester's Southern cemetery.