An absolute all-time hero of mine: anyone who can be friends with Fred and Dolly and make them friends of even an occasional nature; draw Dolly to the Worcs. committee's attention in the first place; draw more of an eulogy in Fred's memoirs than Closey or Illy get; who ran a pub after retirement; who left a secure County place on a point of principle and played in the Birmingham League for a year to qualify for us; our last England captain....any of that would make him a star. All together, an absolute genius,legend and quite probably our finest ever Player..certainly one of the Big Five with Kenyon, Dolly, Turner and Hick.

I will always remember the joyous wave of his bat when he scored his 100th 100 at New Road versus Northants on Wednesday August 5th 1964.

August 5th 1964, 9 days before I was born! Sadly never saw him bat, except on film, looked very stylish.

.....and ALWAYS a perfect gentleman!

.....and there won't be too many present or future players you can say that about, unfortunately.....

I see the way that Graveney was treated by the authorities after insisting on fulfilling his Luton commitment shows that little has changed over the years.

A top article on a top man who talks as straight as he played.

You can't fault any of that- wonderful stuff and still The Man for me.

Beer was our staple diet- of course it was. Cue the Roy Booth and Dolly anecdote at Yeovil.

The Everton Weekes anecdote is there too- I've mentioned it on here. Tom was too polite to repeat it in his interview but it remains a supreme example of dealing with inhumanity on a very human scale.

As I said, still The Man. I like Hicky- but he remains only our second best Player. And I think he is gentlemanly and honourable enough to know that too. Sorry, Pockpock.

All good stuff ' 'it's just a game' - but don't quite follow what he is saying regarding his top and bottom hands

Quote:

There is nobody who holds the bat the way I did. The top hand now is at the bottom. Mine was on the top and the bat was just a pendulum

Very stylish but the hands in the favourite cover drive and front foot hook both look quite orthodox to me for a RHB. I think he is saying that all the power came from the top (left) hand and the right was just a guide...

Maybe someone of the right vintage or who coaches has the answer.

Is it just that bats are better and heavier now and have bigger sweet spots (and that players are coached to have a dominant bottom hand to generate more loft and power)?

Looking at his build I'm sure Tom cleared the ropes on a regular basis too

I never saw Graveney play so to hear him being rated higher than Hick by people whose opinions I respect is an eye-opener for me.

Purely depends what you mean by "our second best Player"

If you are talking performances for Worcestershire alone, then
Tom would be the first to admit his record and anybody elses will
never touch Hicky's.

If however, you also include their Test records then yes, Tom would be considered the better.

I was there when Tom scored his 100th 100 and remember it well. He was the most elegant player I have ever seen - as elegant as Gower but much more frequently. It's almost impossible to compare Hicky and Tom because Tom played in an era where there seemed to be more time to accumulate your runs, especially in the first innings. Hicky had the more powerful pulls and cuts, but there will never be a better cover driver than Tom. Another thing, he hardly ever played an elegant cover drove straight at a fielder (which so often seems to happen today) but the ball always seemed to dissect the fielders to go to the boundary.

One thing which is impossible to equate between the two eras is the difference in the fielding. In the 1960's when I first started to watch cricket, once the ball was passed the fielder it was left to run to the boundary - no frantic chasing and throwing yourself into the hoardings for those guys. Which is of course why they were injured a lot less in those days.