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Hedley Verity played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler, he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.87 and 144 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 24.37. Named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1932, he is regarded as one of the most effective slow left-arm bowlers to have played cricket. Never someone who spun the ball sharply, he achieved success through the accuracy of his bowling. On pitches which made batting difficult, particularly ones affected by rain, he could be almost impossible to bat against. Verity was born in Leeds and, from an early age, wished to play cricket for Yorkshire. After establishing a good reputation in local cricket, he signed a contract as a professional cricketer playing in the Lancashire League with Accrington and Middleton. When Wilfred Rhodes announced his retirement, Verity had a successful trial in the team in 1930, and amazingly led the national bowling averages. In 1931, he achieved the rare feat of taking all 10 wickets in an innings, against Warwickshire, the following year, he again took all 10 wickets, against Nottinghamshire while conceding just 10 runs. The latter bowling figures remain a record in first-class cricket for the fewest runs conceded while taking all 10 wickets. He 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. In that time, Verity was never lower than fifth in the bowling averages and took over 150 wickets in every year except his first. In 1931, He was chosen to play for England for the first time and rose to prominence during a tour to Australia in 1932–33, he was used to contain the batsmen and prevent them scoring runs, while the fast bowlers rested. Afterwards, he played regularly for England and achieved the best performance of his career when he took 15 wickets against Australia in a Test match at Lord’s in 1934, fourteen in one day. Verity continued to play for Yorkshire and England until 1939, when the outbreak of the Second World War ended his career. Verity joined the Green Howards in 1939, and after training was posted overseas to India, Persia and Egypt, achieving the rank of captain. During the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, he was severely wounded and captured by the Germans. Taken to the Italian mainland, he died in a prisoner of war camp in Caserta from his injuries and was buried there. He was 38 years of age. To put his cricketing career into context, Verity took eight wickets or more in a single innings on twenty occasions, he took fourteen or more wickets in a match on eleven occasions and took almost 2,000 wickets at an average under 15, all in nine years of first class cricket. Some record...!