90 Facts About Hedley Verity

Hedley Verity was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939.

When Wilfred Rhodes, the incumbent Yorkshire left-arm spinner, announced his retirement, Hedley Verity had a successful trial in the team in 1930, and led the national bowling averages.

Hedley Verity established himself as part of a strong bowling unit, which helped Yorkshire win the County Championship seven times in his ten seasons with the club.

Hedley Verity continued to play for Yorkshire and England until 1939, when the outbreak of the Second World War ended his career.

Hedley Verity joined the Green Howards in 1939, and after training was posted overseas to India, Persia and Egypt, achieving the rank of captain.

Hedley Verity was born in Headingley, an area of Leeds, on 18 May 1905.

Hedley Verity was the eldest child of Hedley Verity, who worked for a local coal company, and Edith Elwick, a Sunday school teacher.

From an early age, Hedley Verity watched Yorkshire play County Cricket matches at Leeds, Bradford and, during family holidays, Scarborough.

Later, at Yeadon and Guiseley Secondary School, Hedley Verity played school cricket, bowling left-arm medium-paced deliveries; he maintained this style until 1929 and was capable of bowling both inswingers and outswingers.

Success on the field persuaded Hedley Verity to seek a career in professional cricket and a place in the Yorkshire team.

Peel realised Hedley Verity was an intelligent bowler who had excellent control of where he pitched the ball, but believed he was not fast enough to be effective for Yorkshire.

Hedley Verity moved to play for Horsforth Hall Park in 1924, where his batting became more productive than his bowling.

Hedley Verity was given little bowling to do, suggesting that he was chosen more for his batting at this stage, and was near the bottom of the team's bowling averages.

Hirst was nevertheless impressed by Hedley Verity and recommended him to Accrington Cricket Club, a team in the Lancashire League looking for a professional cricketer.

Hedley Verity was unsuccessful during the 1927 season, his only one with Accrington.

Hedley Verity's bowling was less effective than the club had hoped; he endured spells where he took few wickets and was unable to implement the tactics or bowl in the style that the club expected.

The team, containing players far more experienced than Hedley Verity, were unimpressed by his performances and unsympathetic to his difficulties, offering him little support in the field.

Hedley Verity signed a contract with Middleton, a club in the Central Lancashire Cricket League.

Hedley Verity made a modest start in his first season, and was initially rated as a useful but unimpressive all-rounder.

Wilfred Rhodes, Yorkshire's main spinner since 1898, was considering retirement; he and Hirst suggested that, as there were fewer spinners than medium-pace bowlers, Hedley Verity was more likely to achieve selection if he switched to spin bowling.

Later in the season, when Hedley Verity went to Headingley to watch Yorkshire play, he was asked to fill a vacancy in the Yorkshire Colts team.

Hedley Verity made his first-class debut on 21 May 1930 in an early-season non-Championship match against Sussex.

Rhodes, who missed the match, spent the game watching Hedley Verity and seemed convinced afterwards that his successor had been found.

Against Warwickshire, on his 26th birthday, Hedley Verity took 10 for 36 in the second innings, having taken three wickets in the first innings, to give Yorkshire an innings victory.

Hedley Verity was selected in the less prestigious Gentlemen v Players fixtures at The Oval and Scarborough and was awarded his county cap by Yorkshire.

England won the match and Hedley Verity was retained for the final Test.

Hedley Verity was selected as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year for his performances in the season.

Subsequently, the pitch became difficult to bat on as it dried in the sun and Hedley Verity took all 10 wickets while 10 runs were hit from his bowling.

Hedley Verity is the only Yorkshire bowler to take all 10 wickets in an innings on two separate occasions.

Jardine planned to use Hedley Verity to contain the batsmen and prevent them scoring runs, while the fast bowlers rested.

However, Hedley Verity was not expected to be a big success on the tour.

Hedley Verity did not take any wickets and Verity himself believed he had bowled poorly.

Hedley Verity played in the second, and although rain interrupted play, restricting Hedley Verity to five overs, he scored his first half-century in first-class cricket.

Hedley Verity regained his place in the team for the third Test, replacing Bowes.

Rain before the beginning of the third day affected the pitch; Bradman, possibly irritated by a minor show of bravado from Hedley Verity, scored 71 in conditions which should have been perfect for the Yorkshireman, who took only two wickets.

Hedley Verity scored 23 not out in two-and-three-quarter hours, although he was lucky not to be dismissed several times.

Hedley Verity's bowling was most successful in the final Test, when Jardine allowed him to depart from his role of restricting the batsmen's scoring and bowl a more attacking line and length in an attempt to take wickets.

Hedley Verity dismissed Bradman for 71 and later took two wickets with successive deliveries.

Hedley Verity took three more wickets in his last matches of the tour, which included his appearance in one of the two Tests against New Zealand at the end of the tour.

Hedley Verity represented the Players against the Gentlemen and played in the first two of three Tests against the West Indies, taking four for 45 in the first match and capturing seven wickets at an average of 21.85 in the series.

Hedley Verity was left out of the final game in favour of Charles Marriott, but in two other games against the tourists, Verity took a total of 22 wickets.

Jardine was chosen as captain, and Hedley Verity was the only other player from the Bodyline series to tour, although others declined an invitation.

Hedley Verity enjoyed the tour and established a lasting friendship with Charlie Barnett; Hedley Verity helped Barnett to overcome his homesickness and to develop his understanding of cricket.

Hedley Verity was again successful with the bat, scoring 42 and sharing a partnership of 97 with Jardine.

Hedley Verity was impressed with the depth of Jardine's thinking on the game and his intelligence, enjoying tactical discussions with him on the voyage to Australia.

That year, the Australians toured England and Hedley Verity was selected for all five Test matches.

Hedley Verity took six of the wickets to achieve bowling figures of seven for 61.

The tourists just failed to score enough runs to make England bat again and were forced to follow on: Cardus wrote: "Hedley Verity settled the issue like a great bowler".

Hedley Verity's length was impeccable and he made the ball come back and lift so abruptly that most of the Australians were helpless.

England scored 627, of which Hedley Verity scored 60 not out; Wisden commented that he batted slowly but well.

Hedley Verity made other representative appearances in the season; Yorkshire dropped to sixth position, handicapped by the limited appearances of four players who were regularly absent at representative matches.

Hedley Verity was replaced by off-spinner Johnnie Clay, regarded by critics as effective at flighting the ball.

Hedley Verity was not selected in any other representative cricket that season.

Hedley Verity played in all three Test matches against India, a team which failed to live up to expectations and suffered internal divisions.

India established a first innings lead, but were bowled out for 93 in their second innings and easily lost the match; Hedley Verity took four for 17.

Hedley Verity appeared for the Players against the Gentlemen and in a Test trial for the North against the South.

Under the captaincy of Allen, Hedley Verity began the tour well.

Hedley Verity took three wickets in the match, including that of Bradman.

Hedley Verity bowled nearly 38 eight-ball overs and took three for 79.

Barnett and Hedley Verity began with a stand of 45, but England lost by 148 runs.

In two innings, Hedley Verity scored 19 and 17, but was wicketless in the match.

Hedley Verity took two wickets, and although batsmen found it difficult to score from his bowling, he did not look dangerous and was left out of the remaining Tests in an attempt to strengthen the English bowling attack.

Hedley Verity was not selected for the Players and his only other representative cricket was for the North against the South and for teams selected from those who had toured Australia during the English winter.

Nevertheless, Hedley Verity took 202 wickets at 15.67 which placed him third in the bowling averages.

Hedley Verity took 158 first-class wickets in 1938 at an average of 15.38, placing him third once more in the national averages; Bowes was second in the list and Yorkshire retained the Championship.

Hedley Verity took two wickets in the second innings, but the match was drawn.

High scoring games left the bowlers with expensive figures and Hedley Verity had the best bowling average on either side, bowling accurately and reliably.

Hedley Verity took four wickets and bowled 766 balls in the game, establishing a new record for deliveries in a first-class game.

Hedley Verity was left out of the team for the second Test in favour of Tom Goddard, and did not play any more Test matches.

Hedley Verity is tall, and much stronger than his pace needs.

Hedley Verity's run up, longer than most of his kind, has a measured delicacy that you would expect from this fastidious and nearly prim craftsman.

However, the period in which Hedley Verity played was notable for good batting pitches, and batsmen often dominated.

Hedley Verity used different types of delivery to keep batsmen uncertain: he could bowl at a slower and faster pace to his normal style and occasionally bowled a much faster ball which regularly took wickets.

Hedley Verity never spun the ball very far, particularly after his second tour to Australia, and preferred to concentrate on bowling a good length.

However, critics did not think that Hedley Verity posed enough of a threat to batsmen and could be dull to watch.

Hedley Verity believed his performances in unfavourable conditions for his bowling had greater merit than his successes in favourable ones.

Bowes once told the Yorkshire captain, Brian Sellers, that the way to get the best out of Hedley Verity was to tell him that everything depended on him.

Hedley Verity earned the respect of Bradman, generally regarded as the greatest batsman to have played cricket, and enjoyed bowling at him.

Hedley Verity is often cited as one of the greatest slow left-arm spinners to play the game.

Since around 1937, Hedley Verity had expected the outbreak of the Second World War and had prepared for it through reading military literature.

Hedley Verity served at the regimental depot in Richmond, North Yorkshire, where he was responsible for training recruits.

Hedley Verity remained below peak fitness and was struggling a little owing to his age.

Hedley Verity's commanding officers planned to withdraw him from front-line fighting and move him to a staff position at headquarters once the Sicily campaign had concluded.

Severely wounded and subsequently captured by the Germans, Hedley Verity was taken to a field hospital and underwent an operation.

The German hospital was full, so Hedley Verity was sent to the Italian hospital at Caserta.

The operation seemed successful but Hedley Verity deteriorated rapidly over the following three days, bleeding heavily.

Hedley Verity's grave was later moved from the town's cemetery to the military cemetery established by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Hedley Verity married Kathleen Alice Metcalfe, a bookbinder and the daughter of a sales agent, on 7 March 1929.

Shortly before the outbreak of the war, Kathleen Hedley Verity began to suffer from poor health, and the family planned a trip to South Africa in the English winter of 1939 to aid her recovery and so Hedley Verity could take up one of several offers of a coaching job.

The Hedley Verity, a branch of Wetherspoons in Leeds city centre, is named after Verity and there is a Blue plaque on the house he was born in.