Cyril Walters – A Lost Talent

[fredfertang]

Cyril Walters – A Lost Talent

His is a forgotten name today, but had Cyril Walters chosen cricket rather than the love of his life the history of English cricket in the late 1930s might read rather differently

 

[AndrewB]

Interesting article... a couple of quibbles:

• "the table of averages will tell you the answer is Jack Hobbs (56.94) and Herbert Sutcliffe (60.73), with a good deal of daylight between the next pair, Geoffrey Boycott (47.00) and Alistair Cook (45.35)" - you've somehow forgotten Len Hutton (56.67), and Dennis Amiss (46.30) is also above Cook. (Also, Boycott's average was 47.72).
• "England’s victory target [in the Nottingham Test in 1934] was 380, but they never looked like saving the game" - the match ended at 6:20 on the final day, so they came within 10 minutes of saving it.

 

[fredfertang]

Thanks

How did I manage to forget Sir Len?

 

[AndrewB]

• "England’s victory target [in the Nottingham Test in 1934] was 380, but they never looked like saving the game" - the match ended at 6:20 on the final day, so they came within 10 minutes of saving it.

Related to that - something I've wondered...
Suppose that England had managed to hang on for draws at Lord's 1930 and Nottingham 1934, and had batted significantly better at Adelaide 1937 to win.
Then, without any change to Bradman's batting figures, England would have held the Ashes from 1926 until after WW2.
Would this have a significant effect on Bradman's reputation of "greatest of all time"? How about if he'd retired before Test cricket resumed in 1946? (His average at this point was 97.94 - not as iconic as 99.94, but still streets ahead of anyone else).

 

[fredfertang]

Interesting - something related I've always been curious about is what would have happened if there had been Ashes series in 1940/41 and 1942 - PEWS should sim them - I suspect others must have, but I'm confident he'd do a better job

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Don't mention the War.

 

[fredfertang]

I did once, but I think I got away with it