Bob Appleyard
Appleyard signing an autograph in 1954
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| Full name | Robert Appleyard | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
27 June 1924 Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
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| Died | 17 March 2015 (aged 90) Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England |
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman (RHB) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Off-break (OB); Right-arm fast-medium (RFM) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Robert "Bob" Appleyard MBE (27 June 1924 – 17 March 2015) was a Yorkshire and England cricketer. He was one of the best English bowlers of the 1950s, a decade which saw England develop its strongest bowling attack of the twentieth century. Able to bowl fast-medium swingers or seamers and off-spinners with almost exactly the same action, Appleyard's career was almost destroyed by injury and illness after his first full season in 1951. In his limited Test career, he took a wicket every fifty-one balls, and in first class cricket his 708 wickets cost only 15.48 runs each.
As a young cricketer Appleyard spent eleven months in hospital after being diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis. Whilst in hospital, Appleyard kept his fingers strong by squeezing a cricket ball under the bed covers. He had to learn to walk again and had the upper half of his left lung removed.
After success in local cricket within Yorkshire, Appleyard was engaged by the county in 1950 at the age of 26 and played three games for them, taking six wickets in two County Championship games against Surrey and Gloucestershire. With Alec Coxon departing for league cricket and Brian Close on military service, it was thought that Yorkshire would have an ordinary season in 1951, yet Appleyard's bowling, which saw him take the first 200-wicket aggregate for four years, ensured they remained near the top of the table. (In 2001, on the death of Alf Gover, Appleyard became the sole survivor among the twenty-eight bowlers who have taken 200 wickets or more in an English cricket season, the last case of which was Tony Lock in 1957.) His wickets in the 1951 season cost an average of 14 a piece. Appleyard was able to bowl both as a paceman and as a spinner with no apparent changes of action, so that he could go through an innings with little rest and possess sting under all conditions of weather and wicket. He was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year but did not gain representative honours.
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