"Give it a rest chaps, i'm only off to the gents..."
And a ton of tons for Wally...
In a 21-year career for Surrey, Alec Bedser took 1924 wickets at an average of 20.41, and went on to become President of SCCC and Chairman of Selectors for England. Yet it was on this day in 1953, aged 35, that he burnt his initials into the pantheon of English cricket, taking match figures of 14-99 against Australia at Trent Bridge. He and twin brother Eric sit comfortably alongside the Compton's as the pre-eminent cricketing siblings, though his reputation was tarnished by supporting the Apartheid regime in South Africa, and was a selector when Basil D'Oliveira was left out of the England team in 1968/69. With 236 Test wickets at 24, Bedser was Knighted for services to cricket in 1996.
18 years earlier, on this day in 1935, Wally Hammond scored his 100th hundred for Gloucestershire against Surrey. It is futile to try and asses who is the best English batsmen to have ever padded up, because the records of so many present cast-iron cases, and Wally's is no different. He stands third behind Bradman and Lara for double Test centuries (7), broke Bradman's world record when he notched 336 not out against New Zealand in 1932, and in all scored 58,000 runs at an average of 55. Bravo...
On this fighting day in 1935, Jim Braddock beat Heavyweight Champion Max Baer as a 10-1 underdog. The pugilistic pride of Hells Kitchen, New York, Braddock made a career out of upsetting the odds, and had a spell as a docker before returning to the ring. Baer had taken the fight as he thought Braddock was 'a chump', but this notion was dispelled when he took everything Baer threw at him and battered his way to a unanimous decision. Enshrined in boxing history as the man who eventually lost to Joe Louis, he was bought to life by Russell Crowe in the 2005 film,
Cinderella Man. Throw on the Leiderhosen, grab a litre of beer and boom, Ois Guade zu Deim Geburdstog!, as they do in Bavaria to Twenty20 (5), ex-New Zealand stalwart Chris Cairns (38) Noel Laureate mathematician John Forbes Nash (80), David Gray (40), Jackass sadist Steve-O (34), and Betty Ford inductees in waiting, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (22). Also, on this day in 1970, The Beatles released The Long and Winding Road, which became their last UK number one.