On 31 July 1956 at Old Trafford, Jim Laker took 10 for 53 in Australia's second innings to finish with 19 for 90 in the match — figures that stand alone in Test history. His 9 for 37 in the first innings was followed by all ten in the second. England won by an innings and 170 runs. Laker's match analysis remains the best in any first-class match anywhere; only Anil Kumble has since matched the ten-wicket innings.
Laker had been an England fixture since 1948 but had been kept out of the first part of the 1950s by competition from Lock and Roy Jenkins. By 1956 he was in his 30s and at the absolute peak of his off-spin powers. Surrey had already shown what he could do against the touring Australians earlier in the summer.
The 1956 Ashes was Laker's series. Off-spinner for Surrey and England, he had already taken all ten Australian wickets for Surrey at The Oval in May for 88 runs. The Old Trafford pitch — christened 'Beach' for its sandy top — was prepared with a pronounced bias toward spin, a fact that drew angry complaint from Australian captain Ian Johnson and tour manager Bill Dowling but did not stop Laker from achieving immortality.
England made 459 with David Sheppard 113 and Peter Richardson 104. Laker then took 9 for 37 as Australia were dismissed for 84. Australia followed on. Tony Lock, bowling 69 overs to Laker's 51.2, took the only wicket Laker did not — Colin McDonald's, caught for 89 by Alan Oakman at short leg. Laker bowled at one end almost unchanged through the second innings, taking 10 for 53.
The Australians' complaints about the pitch were vehement and ongoing. They argued the surface had been prepared deliberately to favour England's spinners. Manchester rain stopped play for parts of three days; Laker bowled in conditions ranging from drying to damp. Either way, the figures stood. The post-match scenes saw Laker walking off alone from the Stretford End, scoreboard frozen at 19 for 90.
Day 1: Sheppard 113, Richardson 104; England 459.
Day 2 evening: Australia begin reply.
Day 3: Laker 9/37; Australia 84.
Day 4: Australia follow on; McDonald 89.
Day 5: Lock dismisses no one; Laker takes the other 9 wickets in the second innings.
Laker 10/53 (51.2 overs); match figures 19/90.
England win by an innings and 170 runs.
26 July 1956
Old Trafford Test begins.
Day 3
Laker 9/37; Australia 84 all out.
Day 4
Australia follow on; McDonald reaches 89.
31 July afternoon
Laker 10/53; England win by innings and 170 runs.
“I think we have just witnessed something we shall never see again.”
“I just kept bowling. The ball did the rest.”
England won the series 2-1 to retain the Ashes. Laker took 46 wickets in the series at 9.60 — a five-Test Ashes record. He is the first and to date only bowler to take 19 wickets in a first-class match.
Laker fell out with the Surrey committee in 1959 over an unauthorised autobiography ('Over to Me') critical of administrators, and was effectively forced out of the first-class game. He returned briefly with Essex in the 1960s and then commentated. He died in 1986.
The single greatest bowling performance in Test cricket history, made possible by a turning surface but executed with control and judgment that transcended the conditions. Laker's drift, dip and use of the rough was beyond Australia's lower order on a pitch that exaggerated those gifts.
Laker's 19/90 is one of the small group of cricket records considered unlikely ever to be broken. Anil Kumble equalled the 10-in-an-innings feat against Pakistan in 1999 but no one has come close to 19 in a match. The figures are recited like prayer by spinners.
The controversy over the Old Trafford pitch has shadowed the achievement ever since, but few outside Australia consider it a serious caveat. Laker's mastery would have stood out on any spinning track.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.