Sir Alec Victor Bedser,
CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
, (born 4 July 1918) is a retired professional
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being...
er. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team and the president of
Surrey County Cricket ClubSurrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Brown Caps...
, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest English cricketers of the 20th century.
He was an outstanding right-arm medium-fast bowler for Surrey and England in a
first-classFirst-class cricket refers to the class of cricket matches of three or more days scheduled duration, between two sides of eleven players and officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
playing career that spanned twenty-one years, taking 1924 first-class
wicketIn the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Meanings of wicket:-Set of stumps:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
s in 485 matches during this time.
Bedser was born in
ReadingReading is a large town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London...
,
BerkshireBerkshire is a county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters...
, where his father was stationed with the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
, just minutes after identical twin brother
EricEric Arthur Bedser was a former cricket player for Surrey County Cricket Club. He was the elder identical twin brother of Sir Alec, widely regarded as one of England's top bowlers of the 20th century...
.
Sir Alec Victor Bedser,
CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
, (born 4 July 1918) is a retired professional
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being...
er. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team and the president of
Surrey County Cricket ClubSurrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Brown Caps...
, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest English cricketers of the 20th century.
He was an outstanding right-arm medium-fast bowler for Surrey and England in a
first-classFirst-class cricket refers to the class of cricket matches of three or more days scheduled duration, between two sides of eleven players and officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
playing career that spanned twenty-one years, taking 1924 first-class
wicketIn the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Meanings of wicket:-Set of stumps:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...
s in 485 matches during this time.
Early life and career
Bedser was born in
ReadingReading is a large town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London...
,
BerkshireBerkshire is a county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters...
, where his father was stationed with the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
, just minutes after identical twin brother
EricEric Arthur Bedser was a former cricket player for Surrey County Cricket Club. He was the elder identical twin brother of Sir Alec, widely regarded as one of England's top bowlers of the 20th century...
. Within six months the family moved to
WokingWoking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, England. It is a dormitory town in the London commuter belt and is located south west of Charing Cross in central London...
, Surrey, where, at the age of seven, the brothers played their first organised cricket and over the next decade played together for Monument Hill School and
Woking and Horsell Cricket ClubWoking and Horsell Cricket Club is a local cricket club in Woking, Surrey. The club was established in 1905. England players Eric and Sir Alec Bedser both started their careers with the club....
. They joined a local firm of solicitors, but were spotted practicing in the nets for Woking Cricket Club by Surrey coach
Alan PeachHerbert Alan Peach was an English cricketer who played for Surrey...
and recruited to the staff at
The OvalThe Brit Insurance Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, London. In the past it was also sometimes called the 'Kennington Oval'...
in 1938. A year later they made their first-class debuts for the county, but their careers were interrupted in 1939, when they joined the RAF to serve in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They saw action at
DunkirkDunkirk is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies 10 kilometres from the Belgian border. The population of the city at the 1999 census was 70,850 inhabitants...
and later served in
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
and
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
. They were demobilised in 1946.
Main career
Alec had impressed during war-time cricket matches: in games for the British RAF, he took 6 wickets for 27 runs (including a
hat-trickA hat-trick in sports is associated with succeeding at anything three times, generally in three consecutive attempts. In North America it is often rendered as hat trick, with no hyphen. The Oxford English Dictionary lists it unhyphenated and gives a variety of examples published in the 19th and...
) against
the West IndiesThe West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as The Windies or The West Indies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of a dozen English-speaking Caribbean countries and British dependencies that form the British West Indies.From the mid 1970s to the early...
and 9 for 36, featuring another hat-trick, against a Metropolitan Police team.
In his first full season for Surrey, in 1946, he passed 100 wickets by July and established himself in the
EnglandThe England cricket team is the cricket team which represents England and Wales. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end of 1996.England and Australia were the first teams...
TestTest cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It is generally considered the ultimate test of playing ability in the sport.The name "Test" may have arisen from the idea that the matches are a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved...
team. In each of his first two Tests, against the visiting
IndiansThe Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
, he took eleven wickets: 11 for 139 in his debut at Lord's and 11 for 96 in the next game at
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
. His amazing season resulted in his nomination as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1947. He was selected for the ensuing Ashes tour of
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and for most of the next decade "carried England's bowling attack". Bedser is the last man living to have taken the wicket of
Donald BradmanSir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as The Don, was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
in a Test match, and twice dismissed him for a duck.
In 1953, at an age (35) by which many fast bowlers have retired from first-class cricket, Bedser emphasized his longevity in the sport, and helped England regain the Ashes, by taking 39 wickets at an
averageBowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowler divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. For fast bowlers in Test...
of 17.48 at home to Australia, including career-best match figures of 14 for 99 in the
NottinghamNottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England and is one of only eight members of the English Core Cities Group....
Test. He bowled poorly in the first Test of the 1954-5 tour of Australia, which saw seven catches dropped off his 1-131, including
Arthur MorrisArthur Robert Morris MBE is a former Australian cricketer who played 46 Test matches between 1946 and 1955. An opener, Morris is regarded as one of Australia's greatest left-handed batsmen. He is best known for his key role in Don Bradman's Invincibles side which made an undefeated tour of England...
(153) before he had scored, and England lost by an innings. He was subsequently diagnosed as suffering from shingles and despite a recovery and a green wicket tailor-made for his bowling in the 2nd Test he was dropped from the side and not recalled.
In a Test career extending from 1946 to 1955, Bedser played 51 matches and took 236 wickets (24.89), at the time the most wickets taken in Test cricket. As the bowling spearhead of an English national team still recovering from the War, he cemented his place in English cricket history. He stood head and shoulders over the other England bowlers, he had 14 new ball partners and took five wickets in an innings 15 times and ten wickets in a match 5 times. His entire first-class career spanned 485 matches, in which he helped Surrey to eight
County ChampionshipThe County Championship is the domestic first class cricket competition in England and Wales. All but one of the teams are named after, and were originally representatives of, historic English counties, the exception being Glamorgan, which is a Welsh county.-History:The official County Championship...
s between 1950 and 1958, and took 100 wickets in a county season eleven times, figures that place him high amongst the game's greats. He took five or more wickets in an innings 96 times, and ten wickets or more in a match 16 times.
Post-playing career
After retiring from playing cricket in 1960, Bedser served as a national team selector for twenty-three years and was chairman of selectors from 1969 to 1981. He also managed two England overseas tours. He was a founding member of
The Freedom AssociationThe Freedom Association is a free market libertarian pressure group pledged to support individual freedom in the United Kingdom. The group has no formal affiliations with any political party but historically many members of the TFA have also been associated with the Conservative Party.- Origin :The...
, which supported the apartheid system in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
, and he was one of selectors when
Basil D'OliveiraBasil Lewis D'Oliveira CBE is a retired cricketer. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he was classified as 'coloured' under the apartheid regime, and hence barred from first-class cricket...
was left out of the England team for the 1968-69 tour of South Africa. Bedser was made president of Surrey in 1987, apt recognition of his outstanding contribution to the county's cricketing fortunes over the previous five decades. He was knighted for his services to cricket in 1996. In October 2004 Bedser was selected in 'England's Greatest Post-War XI' by
The Wisden CricketerThe Wisden Cricketer is the world's best-selling monthly cricket magazine. It was first published by the specialist cricket publisher Wisden in England, until being acquired by Sky in 2007. It was created in 2003 by a merger between The Cricketer magazine and Wisden Cricket Monthly...
, an authoritative monthly cricket magazine.
Tests
Test Debut: vs
IndiaThe Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
, Lord's, 1946
Last Test: vs
South AfricaThe South Africa national cricket team, also known as The Proteas are a national cricket team representing South Africa. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa....
,
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
, 1955
- Bedser's best Test batting score of 79 was made against Australia
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877 ....
, LeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The historic core at the heart of Leeds in 2001 had an estimated subdivision population of 443,247, whilst the entire city, that includes the urban and suburban areas incorporated into the city in 1974, had an estimated...
, 1948
- His best Test bowling figures of 7 for 44 came against Australia, Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England and is one of only eight members of the English Core Cities Group....
, 1953
External links