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Hedley Verity: Portrait of a Cricketer
This biography tells the story of a magnificent cricketing talent, Hedley Verity. Verity's duels with the legendary Don Bradman revealed the full glory of his craft—in June 1934, at Lord's, he twice dismissed the great Australian to mastermind England's only victory over Australia at the headquarters of the English game in the 20th century. Verity's boyhood and early years in Yorkshire and Lancashire league cricket are covered at length, along with an Australian journal kept by him for his family and friends. The story ends with a graphic account of his heroism as a Green Howards officer in his last battle in Sicily during the Second World War.
- GenresBiography
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 6, 2025
3.5 stars. An enjoyable, short, easy read for anyone interested in cricket history.
The tragically-curtailed life of the great Yorkshire left-arm spin bowler Hedley Verity from his childhood in and around Leeds to his death in an Italian military hospital aged 38, reconstructed from his own diaries, the memories of family members, and encomiums from colleagues and opponents (including no less than Sir Donald Bradman, whom Verity got out in Test matches more than any other bowler - a remarkable feat given that The Don played almost a third of his Test matches after Verity's death).
Biography is a problematic genre for me - you only read it because you are interested in the subject, but this can mean having to accept dull and occasionally dubious material, plodding writing, and, especially with sports biographies, nerdish levels of statistical detail about ancient sporting feats. The basic format doesn't seem to have altered since the Romans, who fleshed out subjects' early lives with flattering acts of heroism and auguries of future greatness. So we read in Suetonius that Julius Caesar was found unharmed in a nest of vipers and won a fight with a badger when he was only 3. The modern equivalent is to dredge up a minor incident from an unremarkable upbringing and invest it retrospectively with great significance. This always seems bogus - you're only recounting that incident because Hedley Verity became a great bowler. If he'd taken on his Dad's coal business instead you'd offer a different interpretation of the same event.
This one has more interest than most because Verity's career included the "Bodyline" Tour of 1932-3, matches against some of the most celebrated Australian cricketers in history, and the dichotomy for 1930s spin bowlers of usually playing on flat, batsman-friendly wickets but with the occasional treat of a rain-affected uncovered pitch.
And of course the book concludes with Verity's death on active service in the Sicilian Campaign in 1943. With his level of celebrity and his age, he could probably have wangled himself a cushy job and avoided too much danger. Instead he sought a commission in the Green Howards, ending up serving under a career officer whom he'd met socially during the MCC tour of India in 1933-4. Even allowing for posthumous eulogising, he seems to have been an efficient and popular officer, though apparently (and curiously) lacking in manual dexterity. He was mortally-wounded on the Catania Plain leading an infantry attack at night, and died in an Italian military hospital near Naples.
The writing is mostly good and there is a well-calculated balance of biographical information and accounts of old cricket matches, though the timeline does occasionally wander confusingly during the chapters dealing with Verity's cricket career.
And for a book written by a cricket journalist, there are a few curious slip-ups. Yorkshire's first-innings declaration, 71 in arrears, in a famous match against Notts in 1932 is described thus: "The absurdity of the gamble caught the breath.......". In the days of uncovered pitches, declaring the first innings in arrears in the hope of catching the opposition on an unplayable "sticky" wicket was a not uncommon tactic.
And a hyperbole too far about Verity's accuracy and economy: "Verity bowled more balls in Tests - 932 - to Bradman, who scored 401 runs against him, than any other bowler.......and it was largely due to the Yorkshireman that Bradman's Test average was kept under 150." This is statistical balderdash. A batsman's batting average is the ratio of his run aggregate to the number of times dismissed. The number of overs required to reach the run total is not part of the calculation.
But generally a good read if you like cricket history.
The tragically-curtailed life of the great Yorkshire left-arm spin bowler Hedley Verity from his childhood in and around Leeds to his death in an Italian military hospital aged 38, reconstructed from his own diaries, the memories of family members, and encomiums from colleagues and opponents (including no less than Sir Donald Bradman, whom Verity got out in Test matches more than any other bowler - a remarkable feat given that The Don played almost a third of his Test matches after Verity's death).
Biography is a problematic genre for me - you only read it because you are interested in the subject, but this can mean having to accept dull and occasionally dubious material, plodding writing, and, especially with sports biographies, nerdish levels of statistical detail about ancient sporting feats. The basic format doesn't seem to have altered since the Romans, who fleshed out subjects' early lives with flattering acts of heroism and auguries of future greatness. So we read in Suetonius that Julius Caesar was found unharmed in a nest of vipers and won a fight with a badger when he was only 3. The modern equivalent is to dredge up a minor incident from an unremarkable upbringing and invest it retrospectively with great significance. This always seems bogus - you're only recounting that incident because Hedley Verity became a great bowler. If he'd taken on his Dad's coal business instead you'd offer a different interpretation of the same event.
This one has more interest than most because Verity's career included the "Bodyline" Tour of 1932-3, matches against some of the most celebrated Australian cricketers in history, and the dichotomy for 1930s spin bowlers of usually playing on flat, batsman-friendly wickets but with the occasional treat of a rain-affected uncovered pitch.
And of course the book concludes with Verity's death on active service in the Sicilian Campaign in 1943. With his level of celebrity and his age, he could probably have wangled himself a cushy job and avoided too much danger. Instead he sought a commission in the Green Howards, ending up serving under a career officer whom he'd met socially during the MCC tour of India in 1933-4. Even allowing for posthumous eulogising, he seems to have been an efficient and popular officer, though apparently (and curiously) lacking in manual dexterity. He was mortally-wounded on the Catania Plain leading an infantry attack at night, and died in an Italian military hospital near Naples.
The writing is mostly good and there is a well-calculated balance of biographical information and accounts of old cricket matches, though the timeline does occasionally wander confusingly during the chapters dealing with Verity's cricket career.
And for a book written by a cricket journalist, there are a few curious slip-ups. Yorkshire's first-innings declaration, 71 in arrears, in a famous match against Notts in 1932 is described thus: "The absurdity of the gamble caught the breath.......". In the days of uncovered pitches, declaring the first innings in arrears in the hope of catching the opposition on an unplayable "sticky" wicket was a not uncommon tactic.
And a hyperbole too far about Verity's accuracy and economy: "Verity bowled more balls in Tests - 932 - to Bradman, who scored 401 runs against him, than any other bowler.......and it was largely due to the Yorkshireman that Bradman's Test average was kept under 150." This is statistical balderdash. A batsman's batting average is the ratio of his run aggregate to the number of times dismissed. The number of overs required to reach the run total is not part of the calculation.
But generally a good read if you like cricket history.
July 5, 2022
Fascinating biography of one of Yorkshire and England’s finest slow left arm bowlers, who enlisted in the army the day after the declaration of war in 1939.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews