Abe Waddington

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = English
country = England
country abbrev = ENG
name = Abe Waddington
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngbatting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = Left-arm fast-medium
tests = 2
test runs = 16
test bat avg = 4.00
test 100s/50s = -/-
test top score = 7
test balls = 276
test wickets = 1
test bowl avg = 119.00
test 5s = -
test 10s = -
test best bowling = 1/35
test catches/stumpings = 1/-
FCs = 266
FC runs = 2527
FC bat avg = 12.89
FC 100s/50s = 1/4
FC top score = 114
FC balls = 39842
FC wickets = 852
FC bowl avg = 19.75
FC 5s = 51
FC 10s = 10
FC best bowling = 8/34
FC catches/stumpings = 232/-
debut date = 17 December
debut year = 1920
last date = 11 February
last year = 1921
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/22251.html

Abraham Waddington (February 4, 1893, Clayton, Yorkshire – October 28, 1959, Scarborough, Yorkshire) was an English cricketer who played in 2 Tests from 1920 to 1921. Neville Cardus described his as the "most perfect of bowling actions".

He emerged for Yorkshire in unusual fashion, playing his first match for the county midway through the 1919 season yet by the end of the year beng among the top ten wicket-takers in the country. He was a medium-fast left-hand bowler who could swing the ball consistently as well as make it move in to the bat sharply at considerable spped from the ground when wickets were soft - a facet he showed against Surrey and Essex in his very first season.

1920 saw Waddington achieved his best season's haul of 141 first-class wickets for under seventeen runs apiece, and he was chosen as the bowling spearhead for the Ashes tour that winter. The choice was a mistake: the disparities in batting strength among the counties were so vast that averages frequently proved valueless as a guide to a bowler's true potential. Bowlers who punished the poor batting techniques of weak counties like Derbyshire, Northamptonshire or pre-Hammond Gloucestershire were often innocuous opposed to the superb technique of sides like Surrey. So it proved with Waddington, who had shown himself ineffective in fine weather against strong counties ["John Wisden Cricketer's Almanac"; edition 58 (1921); pp. 93-95] : he took only one wicket in his two Tests and was never considered again.

However, this setback did not diminish Waddington's value to Yorkshire. From the middle of 1921 until injury affected his form in 1923, he bowled as well as ever. On one occasion on a sticky wicket against Sussex, Waddington "combined with a bewildering swerve great pace off the pitch" [Pardon, Sydney H. (editor); "John Wisden Cricketers' Almanack", edition 60 (1923); pp. 37 & 49] and took seven wickets for six runs as Sussex were all out for twenty runs. He also took three hauls of eight wickets in an innings that same summer, but when he returned in 1924 Waddington was never quite so effective, though he did take 100 wickets again in 1925.

In 1926 and 1927, however, Waddington fell off so much that he did not take even fifty wickets in the latter year. For 1928, Yorkshire decided not to renew his contract - a decision which may have proved unwise when Roy Kilner died just before the season began even though they no doubt knew Waddington had no hope of recovering his best form.

Footnotes