Thread by @ovshake42

Bob Appleyard, perhaps the greatest bowler of all time, was born on this day, 1924.

The raw numbers, even without the back story, are mind-boggling.

Appleyard played just 9 Test matches. He took 31 wickets at 17.87.

In 152 First-class matches, he got 708 wickets at 15.48.
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Thus, Appleyard's greatness was not of the numbers-don't-tell-you-anything brand.

But before that, a little-known story.

Australia celebrated its bicentenary in 1987/88.

They played two Test matches against England.

A boring draw at the MCG, between active cricketers.
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And a simulated Test match between two all-time XIs of Living Legends.

This was the XI chosen by the selectors, Hutton, Cowdrey, and Botham:

Hutton, Boycott, May, Compton, Gower, Botham, Knott, Trueman, Larwood, Wright.

And Appleyard.
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Not Underwood or Lock (Laker was no more) but Appleyard.

Cowdrey told the media that Appleyard won "the first spinner's place".

Trueman, Appleyard's teammate, never missed an opportunity to point out "remember, this man here was one of the greatest of bowlers of all time."
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But there is much, so much more to Appleyard than even that.

His mother left them when he was seven. His father remarried.

In 1937, Bob lost his sister, to diphtheria.

In 1939, he came home one day to find his father, stepmother, and two stepsisters were all dead. Gassed.
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He went to live with his stepmother's parents.

He admired his step-uncle, Norman. He wanted to become a pilot, just like Norman.

Norman died at the World War, in 1941.

All this before Appleyard's cricket career started.

Appleyard did not play First-class cricket until 26.
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Some would have been bitter. Not Appleyard: "Hardly a decent spin bowler has completed their apprenticeship before 25 or 26."

He played only three matches only in his first season.

He got a full season only the year after that, at 27, in 1951.
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Appleyard took 200 wickets that season, at 14.14.

He bowled medium pace and off-spin without changing action.

And he bowled very long spells.

His spinning finger developed a blister. So he started using his next finger. There was no compromise on accuracy or turn.
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If anything, he bowled a tad quicker.

Since Appleyard, Tony Lock is the only bowler to have taken 200 wickets in a season.

Wisden named him as one of their five in his first full season.

Surely Appleyard's career would have taken off after that?

It seemed so in 1952.
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But he had been ill in 1951. And now, in his first match, he went down.

He ran high fever. He coughed. He could bowl only 16 overs.

He drove from Taunton to Bradford. He soon saw a thoracic surgeon, Geoffrey Wooler.

Tuberculosis.

He needed surgery.

His wife was pregnant.
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Dr Wooler assured that the child would be safe.

Then Appleyard asked the next important question.

The response is not part of cricket folklore. It should have been:
"You will play again, Mr Appleyard. In fact, I shall come to Headingley to watch you bowl."
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Half a lung had to be removed.

After a late start, Appleyard missed all of 1952 and 1953, at the peak of his career.

Trueman's Test debut could have been Appleyard's.

But he returned.

The run-up was shorter. The pace was reduced. But he was still an outstanding bowler.
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Some did not expect a comeback in 1954.

But his teammates were always encouraging.

At 30, Appleyard returned to bowl for Yorkshire.

When he took his first wicket, of Edrich, caught by Illingworth, Yardley quipped "well done, only 199 to go."
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Appleyard did not get 200 wickets that season. But he got 154, at 14.42.

Only Dooland and Wardle got more.

He made his Test debut that season, against Pakistan.

He was part of Hutton's team that retained the Ashes that winter.

He had an accident, en route.
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It was a rib. Not a lung, thankfully.

But he missed some matches.

Once back, he took 26 wickets at 19.96.

In four Test matches, 11 wickets at 20.36. He had the best average for England in that historic Test series.

But that was not all.
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All 11 wickets were of specialist batters or all-rounders. Benaud was the least capable.

He demolished New Zealand on that leg of the tour. Two Tests, 9 wickets at 8.89.

This included 4-7 in Auckland, when New Zealand were bowled out for 26 – still the lowest team total.
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Back home, he took 85 wickets at 13.01 in 1955.

The short season was not by choice.

He felt a pain in the shoulder during a Test match. They found a nerve trapped in his shoulder blade.

He returned in 1956, Laker's summer, to take 112 wickets at 17.25.
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Then, in 1957, he lost form, almost just like that. By 1958 his career was over.

But then there were more personal blows.

He had two daughters, then a son. Leukaemia took the son in 1960.

His daughter had a divorce. Her younger son died of leukaemia as well.
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Appleyard's career was brief but spectacular. But his ability to stay afloat is perhaps even more incredible.

A letter from Acton: "Every wicket you take every catch every run on the scoreboard makes dozens of people now in hospital think: 'Well, if he can do it, so can I.'"
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A boy from Huddersfield: "Watching you running about the field has inspired us in the hope that my father will soon be up and about."

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A personal angle.

I have been asked, on various platforms, about the greatest cricket book I have read.

I invariably ask for the genre.
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Not Haigh on Iverson, Foot on Hammond, Frith on Jackson, Brodribb on Jessop, oreven Chalke himself on Stewart.

No Coward Soul is, in my opinion, the greatest biography of a cricketer ever written.

Only a Chalke could do justice to an Appleyard.

Or an Appleyard to a Chalke.
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PS
This excerpt that will probably give you an insight on the person Appleyard was.

"Ron" is his friend, Ron Deaton. The narrator is Chalke.