Bryan Douglas "Bomber" Wells (27 July 1930 – 19 June 2008) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. Wells was born and raised in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, and educated at local school Linden Road Secondary. He was a right-handed tail-end batsman and

off-break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler who played in 302 first-class matches between 1951 and 1965, for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. Wells took 998 wickets in

first-class matches First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

at an average of 24.26.

Playing career

Wells was known as "Bomber" after the former British heavyweight boxer " Bombardier"

Billy Wells William Thomas Wells, better known as Bombardier Billy Wells (31 August 1889 – 12 June 1967), was an English heavyweight boxer. Fighting under the name "Bombardier Billy Wells", he was British and British Empire Champion from 1911 ...

who struck the gong at the start of films made by the

Rank Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * ...

studios. Wells was unable to retain a place in his native County side through the emergence of David Allen who was a far superior batsman. Wells had taken 122 and 123 wickets in 1955 and 1956 respectively but had a moderate season in 1957 and was not able to displace Allen or John Mortimore thereafter. Joining Nottinghamshire, the weakest county team at that time, Wells claimed 120 wickets in his first season, bowling over 1200 overs. He retired after the 1965 season. A poor bat, Wells scored 25% of his runs in sixes. His career batting average was 7.47. He was a participant in a famous scene in a county match, widely repeated for decades. As described by

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

in 2011:

...there's no chance of a recurrence of one of the game's greatest ever scenes, which starred, as so many do, Gloucestershire's incorrigible spinner Bryan "Bomber" Wells. A poor judge of a run, he once found himself batting with a
runner Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...
and a partner who also had need of one. Playing a push into the offside, he called for a single, forgot he had a runner and set off himself, as did the two men at the other end. "No" followed "Yes" and all four found themselves at the same end. A fielder dislodged the bails at the other end and the umpire,
Alec Skelding Alexander Skelding (5 September 1886 – 18 April 1960) was a first-class cricketer and umpire, who is remembered as one of the great characters in the game. The fast bowler After playing for local clubs, he joined the Leicestershire County ...
, professed himself to be as confused as the four batsmen. "One of you buggers is out," he said. "I don't know which. You decide and inform the bloody scorers!"

Wells claimed to have bowled the fastest over in cricket, during the time it took for the bells of

Worcester Cathedral Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire, England, situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Bles ...

to strike 12 o'clock. The bells have since been timed at approximately 34 seconds. A noted

raconteur A humorist (American) or humourist ( British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business ...

, he published a book of tales called ''Well, Well Wells'' in 1982. Included in the book are many of his after dinner stories. He describes how on his very first match for Gloucestershire he had to borrow kit in order to play and travelled to the game on the bus. He was known to dislike physical exercise and so developed a run-up of just one or two paces. It took some time for batsman to get used to this unusual style: "I took five wickets in my first match. And I know at least two of them weren't looking," he told audiences. Although he took 998 wickets in first-class cricket he declined the opportunity to play in the last game of his final first-class season in 1965. He thought he had 999 wickets. "Lots of people have taken 1000 wickets, he told the Notts captain. Nobody has taken 999."

Retirement

In 1998, Wells suffered a major stroke which required him to use a wheelchair full-time. He died on 19 June 2008.

References

Sources

External links

*
Cricinfo Obituary

''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Bryan 1930 births 2008 deaths Cricketers from Gloucester English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Combined Services cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers