Book description
The name of Hedley Verity, the master bowler of unyielding menace, is
one to be cherished more than 50 years after his death. Allan Hill
tells the story of a magnificent sporting obsession in this reissue of
the first full-length biography of a revered cricketer. Verity headed
the English first-class bowling averages in his first season with
Yorkshire and twice took ten wickets in an innings in consecutive
seasons. Overall, his mesmeric left-hand spin yielded 1,956 wickets,
including 144 for England, in less than ten years.
The book, winner of the Cricket Society's Jubilee Literary award in
1986, contains a foreword by Sir Donald Bradman (whom Verity twice
dismissed at Lord's in June 1934 to mastermind England's only victory
over Australia at cricket's 'headquarters' in a century). It also
includes a revealing memoir of Verity's boyhood and an Australian tour
journal (1932-33) kept by the Yorkshireman for his relatives and friends.
The story ends with a graphic account of Verity's ultimate heroism
during the Second World War and is followed by a full statistical
analysis of his career.
Alan Hill is a Yorkshire-born sports journalist and writer. His other
books include biographies of Johnny Wardle - Verity's spin successor
with Yorkshire and England - and Herbert Sutcliffe, with which he won
the Cricket Society's Jubilee Literary Award for the second time in
1991.
