Abe Waddington

WADDINGTON, ABRAM, who died at Scarborough after a long illness on October 28, aged 66, rendered splendid service to Yorkshire as a fast-medium left-arm bowler from 1919 to 1927. During that time he took in all first-class cricket 857 wickets for 19.75 runs each, hit 2,529 runs, average 12.90, and held 217 catches. A forthright character, "Abe" Waddington possessed in marked degree that first essential to a bowler of his type--accuracy of length--and this, allied to an easy action, ability to make the ball swerve and pace from the pitch, enabled him to dismiss 100 or more batsmen in six of his nine seasons. His total of wickets reached 100 in his first summer with the county, when he did much to help Yorkshire win the County Championship, as he did in four successive years from 1922 to 1925.

His most successful season as a bowler was that of 1920, when he took 141 wickets, average 16.72. Northamptonshire were his bright particular victims, for at Bradford he earned figures of six wickets for 24 runs in the first innings and five for 30 in the second, and at Northampton, where he and E. Robinson bowled unchanged in both innings, six for 30 and seven for 18--including a "hat-trick" and four wickets in five balls. Other remarkable feats of 1920 were the dismissal of seven Warwickshire batsmen for 21 runs at Harrogate and analyses of five for 48 and seven for 25 against Leicestershire at Hull. In 1921 at Harrogate against Northamptonshire, when he and Robinson again bowled unchanged, his record was six for 21 and three for 40; but his most startling achievement was seven Sussex wickets in seven overs, four of them maidens, for 6 runs on helpful turf at Hull in 1922. His first four successes came before he conceded a run. A useful batsman, he reached his highest innings in his last season, making such use of an early "life" that he hit 114, his only century, from the Worcestershire bowling at Leeds. He and G. G. Macaulay added 163 in eighty-five minutes.

Waddington toured Australia with J. W. H. T. Douglas's M.C.C. team of 1921. He did not "come-off" in the two Test matches in which he played, but did well in games against odds. In the fixture with a Ballarat XV he took eight wickets for 15 runs and against a Benalla and District XVI ten for 31 and six for 69. He headed the bowling averages for all matches. He was also a keen and skilful golfer and at one time was an amateur goal-keeper with Bradford City.