Trevor Edward Bailey (3 December 1923 – 10 February 2011) was an

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

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 striki ...

er, cricket writer and broadcaster. An

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting. As the BBC reflected in his obituary: "His stubborn refusal to be out normally brought more pleasure to the team than to the spectators." This defensive style of play brought him the first of his nicknames, "Barnacle Bailey", but he was a good enough cricketer to be retrospectively judged as the leading all-rounder in the world for most of his international career. In later life, Bailey wrote a number of books and commentated on the game. He was particularly known for the 26 years he spent working for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

on the '' Test Match Special'' radio programme.

Early life

Bailey was born in

Westcliff-on-Sea Westcliff-on-Sea (often abbreviated to Westcliff) is an inner city area of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north shore of the lower Thames Estuary, about 34 m ...

, Essex. His father was a civil servant in the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

. Bailey grew up in modest affluence: "The family lived in !-- Telegraph omits this word --> semi-detached house at Leigh-on-Sea, complete with a live-in maid on 12 shillings (60p) a week; they did not, however, own a car." He first learned to play cricket on the beach. He won sporting scholarships to attend

Alleyn Court Prep School Alleyn Court Prep School is a co-educational day preparatory school in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex for children up to age 11. History The school was founded in 1904 by Theodore Wilcox and first opened in September of that year. It was owned by the Wi ...

, where he learned cricket from former

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

captain

Denys Wilcox Denys Wilcox (4 June 1910 – 6 February 1953) was an English cricketer and schoolmaster. Career Wilcox scored more than 1000 runs in his last season at Dulwich College, then went up to Cambridge University. He played three years for the u ...

, and then Dulwich College. In his first year, aged just 14, he was selected for Dulwich's First XI cricket team. He came top of the school's

batting Batting may refer to: *Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs *Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ru ...

and

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

s in 1939 and 1940, became captain in 1941, and was top of the averages again in his last year at Dulwich, 1942. He had played as a junior for Westcliff-on-Sea Cricket Club and made his debut for their first team in 1939, aged 15, scoring 135 and taking one wicket against Old Felstedians. He was commissioned as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

after leaving school; he was "not enamoured of war, and won some reputation as defending counsel in court martials". Though

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

was still in progress, he received an early discharge in January 1945 to return to Alleyn Court Prep School as a schoolmaster. He subsequently attended

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, for two years, reading English and History and graduating in 1948. He won

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

for both cricket and football both years, 1947 and 1948. The Cambridge football team included

Doug Insole Douglas John Insole (18 April 1926 – 5 August 2017) Obit ...

, whom Bailey would later succeed as captain of Essex County Cricket Club.

Career

Cricket

Bailey made his

first-class cricket 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 ...

debut in September 1945, aged 22, for the "Under 33s" scratch team, in a match at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

, against an "Over 33s" team, and made his debut playing

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

for Essex in May 1946. He quickly became a lynchpin of the Essex team, and made his Test debut for England against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

at Headingley in June 1949, taking 6 wickets for 118 runs in his first match. A right-arm fast-medium bowler, dependable right-handed batsman and strong fielder, often in the slips or at leg gully, Bailey played 61 Tests for England between 1949 and 1959. His swing bowling provided an effective foil for the fast bowling of Alec Bedser, and later Fred Trueman, Brian Statham and Frank Tyson. He is described as having had "a model high, sideways-on action which encouraged outswing. At his best he could touch greatness..." He took 132 wickets at the

of 29, scored a century (134 not out) in attaining a useful batting average of nearly 30, and took 32 catches. He is best remembered for his obdurate defensive batting, especially in matches against Australia. England were facing defeat by the Australians at Lord's in the Second Test in 1953. Bailey shared a defensive fifth wicket stand with Willie Watson, defying the bowlers for over four hours to earn a draw, taking 257 minutes to score 71 runs. In the fourth Test of that series, at Headingley, Bailey again played an important part in ensuring that England avoided going 1–0 down, which would have ended their hopes of regaining

the Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...

. When the last day began England were 177–5 in their second innings, only 78 runs ahead. Bailey scored 38 in 262 minutes, and Australia eventually had to score 177 in only 115 minutes. They reached a point where they needed only another 66 in 45 minutes with seven wickets left. But Bailey went back to his long run and slowed the over rate, as well as bowling negatively wide of the leg stump, and Australia fell 30 runs short and the game was drawn. England went on to win the fifth and final Test and so regained

. His best Test bowling figures of 7/34, bowling outswing on a flat pitch, enabled England to bowl out the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

for 139 in the first innings of the fifth Test at

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

, in 1953–54, on a pitch on which the groundsman expected the home side to score 700. This enabled England to win the match and to share the series 2–2. He was vice-captain on that tour, and may be considered unlucky never to have been appointed captain of England. According to Alan Gibson: "It is astonishing that so good a cricketer, so thoughtful a judge, and so friendly a man, should have been passed over." However, he adds: "He is, or was in his earlier days, a man of contradictions, who sometimes enjoyed being irritating, to his captain, to his colleagues, to the public, but most of all to his opponents." He played his final Tests in

tour to Australia in 1958–59. He had a bad tour, during which he scored the slowest half-century in first-class cricket, reaching 50 just three minutes short of six hours at the crease, in England's second innings during the 1st Test at Brisbane. This was the first Test match to be broadcast on television in Australia. He bagged a pair in his final test, the last of the tour at Melbourne, He was never selected for England's Test side again, but continued to play first-class cricket for Essex for another eight years, and in the 1959 season became the only player since the Second World War to score more than 2,000 runs and take 100 wickets in a single domestic season. His

career began just after World War II in 1946 and lasted 21 years as he played 682 matches, taking 2,082 wickets at a bowling average of 23.13, which puts him 25th on the all-time list of wicket-takers. Bailey achieved the rare feat of taking all 10 wickets in an innings, for 90 runs, against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

at Clacton in 1949. His 28,641 runs in

put him 67th on the all-time list of run-scorers. He captained the county from 1961 to 1966. He was also the county's secretary (i.e. the chief administrative officer) from 1964 to 1969, having previously had a spell as assistant secretary. He arranged for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

to make an interest-free loan to Essex in 1965 which allowed Essex to buy its Chelmsford ground. His administrative roles enabled him to receive a salary whilst at the same time technically remaining an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

cricketer prior to the abolition of the distinction between amateurs and professionals following the 1962 season, although he was better paid than the club's professionals. However, Keith Fletcher, a playing colleague at Essex, did not begrudge him his salary, saying: "... he was a better cricketer than the pros and someone instrumental in taking Essex County Cricket Club into the modern era. He was cricket and Essex, through and through.". He supplemented his income by undertaking advertising work while playing for Essex, modelling for Brylcreem, Shredded Wheat and

Lucozade Lucozade is a British brand of soft drink manufactured and marketed by the Japanese company Suntory. Created as "Glucozade" in the UK in 1927 by a Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Newcastle pharmacist, William Walker Hunter (trading as W. Owen & Son), it ...

Limited overs cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

began in 1963, late in Bailey's career. He played seven

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches, all for Essex in the Gillette Cup competition between 1963 and 1967. In those games he scored 93 runs at an average of 15.50 and took 11 wickets at an average of 26.36.

Football

He played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(appearing in the University Match against

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

), Southend United reserves, Clapton, Leytonstone and Walthamstow Avenue. At various times he played at

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, inside-right and on the

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

. He was a member of the Walthamstow Avenue side which won the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footba ...

in 1951–2, winning the final before a Wembley crowd of 100,000. The following season, he played in the side which reached the fourth round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. Drawn against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

, they drew 1–1, a fine achievement for an amateur side. The replay took place at Highbury, and Manchester United won 5–2. He later became a director of

Southend United F.C. Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

Writer and broadcaster

After retiring from cricket in 1967, Bailey continued to play for Westcliff-on-Sea Cricket Club for many years and also became a cricket journalist and broadcaster. He was the cricket and football correspondent of the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' for 23 years. He was a regular on the

's '' Test Match Special'' from 1974 to 1999, where fellow commentator

Brian Johnston Brian Alexander Johnston (24 June 1912 – 5 January 1994), nicknamed Johnners, was a British cricket commentator, author, and television presenter. He was most prominently associated with the BBC during a career which lasted from 1946 until h ...

nicknamed him The Boil, based on the supposed Australian barrackers' pronunciation of his name as "Boiley". (''The Daily Telegraph'' gives an alternative source for this nickname from the pronunciation of his surname by the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

supporters of the Walthamstow Avenue football team.) During his retirement he would watch Westcliff-on-Sea Cricket Club play at their

Chalkwell Park Chalkwell Park is a recreational park in Chalkwell, Southend-on-Sea, in Essex, England. It covers and contains several flower gardens, two children's playgrounds, a skateboard/ BMX park and football, cricket, basketball and tennis fields. The ...

Ground where he had played many times for school, club and county. He was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

1994 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday. Publication dates vary from year to year. Most are published in supplements to the ''London Gazette'' and many are formally conferred by the monarch (or ...

for services to cricket.

Legacy

He remains the only player since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to score more than 2,000 runs in a season and take 100 wickets, a feat he achieved in 1959, and he achieved the all-rounders' double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season eight times, a post-World War II record he shares with

Fred Titmus Frederick John Titmus (24 November 1932 – 23 March 2011) was an English cricketer, whose first-class career, mostly for Middlesex with a shortish stint for Surrey, spanned five decades. He was the fourth man after W.G. Grace, Wilfred Rhod ...

. He was selected as one of the five

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1950. He is also one of three players (the others are

and

Ray Illingworth Raymond Illingworth CBE (8 June 1932 – 25 December 2021) was an English cricketer, cricket commentator and administrator. , he was one of only nine players to have taken 2,000 wickets and made 20,000 runs in first-class cricket.Arnold, Peter ...

) to have scored 20,000 first-class runs and taken 2,000 wickets since the

. According to the retrospectively calculated

ICC cricket ratings The International Cricket Council Player Rankings is a widely followed system of rankings for international cricketers based on their recent performances. The current sponsor is MRF Tyres who signed a 4-year deal with the ICC that will last un ...

, for most of his career, Bailey was the best all-rounder in the world. In the individual disciplines, his bowling saw him achieve the higher ranking, as high as eighth in the summer of 1957.

Doug Insole Douglas John Insole (18 April 1926 – 5 August 2017) Obit ...

, his one-time captain at Essex, described him thus: "Trevor was quite a stroppy lad in his early cricketing years, and a bit of a rebel. He was a very intense character – we used to tease him about that in the dressing room, and he did mellow over the years.""Warrior Trevor Bailey cared little for entertainment" from ''Daily Telegraph''
Retrieved 13 February 2011. Simon Briggs wrote: "There was little comfy or cosy about his cricket career. Rather, he fitted into a long tradition of hard-nosed English pragmatists – a lineage that runs from

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English Amateur status in first-class cricket, amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played ...

, through

Jardine Jardine is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Al Jardine (born 1942), member of the Beach Boys * Alexander Jardine (Medal of Honor) (1874–1949), American Medal of Honor recipient * Antonio Jardine (born 1988), NCAA college bas ...

and up to

Nasser Hussain Nasser Hussain (born 28 March 1968) is a British cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained the England cricket team between 1999 and 2003, with his overall international career extending from 1990 to 2004. A pugnacious right-ha ...

... To Bailey and company, the best way to honour the gods of cricket was to commit your heart and soul to the fight. For them, a Test match was a contest between two groups of warriors. Its entertainment value was almost irrelevant." In their history of Essex County Cricket Club, David Lemmon and Mike Marshall described Bailey as "the outstanding Essex player for two decades...his value to the Essex side was immense, not only as a cricketer but as a tactician and captain", and assessed him as "one of the most outstanding players in Essex history". He was renowned for his slow scoring in Tests against Australia, Neville Cardus writing of one innings in his book ''Full Score'' (1970, chapter "Cricket of Vintage"): "Before he gathered together 20 runs, a newly-married couple could have left

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

and arrived in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, there to enjoy a honeymoon. By the time Bailey had congealed 50, this happily wedded pair could easily have settled down in a semi-detached house in

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...

; and by the time his innings had gone to its close they conceivably might have been divorced." He was nicknamed "Barnacle" for his implacable defensive batting. In Cardus's piece on him in ''Close of Play'', first published in 1956, he was more complimentary: "Some cricketers are born to greatness. Bailey achieved it... He conquers by tremendous effort... Yet Bailey... loves to attack any bowler... He has made catches bordering on the marvellous... It is no small thing to be a Trevor Bailey in a world of anonymous mediocrity." Bailey died in a fire in his retirement flat in

on 10 February 2011. His wife, Greta, survived. They had two sons and one daughter. The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board,

Giles Clarke Charles Giles Clarke (born 29 May 1953) is an English businessman and cricket administrator, and former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board. Early life and education Born in Bristol, Clarke was educated at Rugby School. He then stud ...

, described him as "one of the finest all-rounders this country has ever produced", while Jonathan Agnew, who worked with Bailey on ''Test Match Special'', wrote of him: "dogged batsman, aggressive bowler. Intelligent cricketer. Wonderfully concise pundit. Great sense of humour."

Bibliography

He wrote the following books: *''Cricketers in the Making'', with

, Hutchinson *''Playing to Win'', Hutchinson, 1954 – an account of the 1953 Test series in which England regained the Ashes which had been held by Australia since 1934 *''Trevor Bailey's Cricket Book'', Muller, 1959 *''Championship Cricket'', Muller, 1961 *''Improve Your Cricket'', Penguin, 1963 *''The Greatest of My Time'', Sportsmans, 1970 *''Sir Gary: Life of Sir Garfield Sobers'', Collins, 1976, *''History of Cricket'', Allen & Unwin, 1979, *''Lord's Taverners' Fifty Greatest, 1945–83'', Heinemann, 1983, *''From Larwood to Lillee'', with Fred Trueman, Macdonald, 1984, *''Wickets, Catches and the Odd Run'' (autobiography), Willow Books, 1986, *''Spinners' Web'', with Fred Trueman, Willow Books, 1988, Alan Hill has written a biography: *Alan Hill, ''The Valiant Cricketer: The Biography of Trevor Bailey'', Pitch Publishing Ltd, 2012,

References

External links

Trevor Bailey newsreel archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Trevor 1923 births 2011 deaths Military personnel from Southend-on-Sea Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Association football defenders Association football wingers BBC sports presenters and reporters British sportswriters Cambridge University A.F.C. players Cambridge University cricketers Clapton F.C. players Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Cricket historians and writers Cricketers from Essex Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut Cricketers who have taken ten wickets in an innings Deaths from fire England Test cricketers English cricket administrators English cricket commentators English cricketers of 1946 to 1968 English cricketers English footballers English male journalists Essex cricket captains Essex cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers People educated at Alleyn Court School People educated at Dulwich College People from Westcliff-on-Sea Royal Marines officers Royal Marines personnel of World War II Southend United F.C. players T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers Walthamstow Avenue F.C. players Wisden Cricketers of the Year