Triumph over the greatest adversity

Everyone with a fair knowledge of cricketing `greats' knows that Bob Appleyard is the only player to capture 200 first class wickets in his first full season and that in the winter of 1954-55 he helped England bring back the Ashes for the first time in 22 years.

Appleyard's triumphs are common knowledge, yet the many tragedies either side of his epic feats were known to but a few until Stephen Chalke gently coaxed them out of him for this splendid biography, written in conjunction with Derek Hodgson.

Born in 1924, Appleyard soon lost the innocence of childhood as one hard blow followed another - just as it continued to do in his adult life. When he was seven his mother left home; when he was 13 he lost his younger sister Margaret to diphtheria and when he was 15 his father, stepmother and two little sisters were found gassed in the bathroom of their home.

The young Appleyard was taken in by his stepmother's parents who were devout Christians. He did not turn away from religion but embraced it and has worshipped regularly ever since.

The war years held back his development but when he decided to join the Bradford League and went for nets at Bowling Old Lane he immediately caught the eye of club president Ernest Holdsworth, a former captain of Yorkshire 2nds.

His Yorkshire debut came in 1950 when he played in three matches and took 11 wickets but there was little indication of what was to happen the following season. A deep thinking cricketer, Appleyard could already bowl pace or off-spin but the addition of leg-cutters and off-cutters made him as lethal as he was unique.

In the middle of that season he fell ill for a short while and was treated for pleurisy but the following Spring, after only one match, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

With injuries bringing a sad and premature end to his cricket, Appleyard became a successful business rep and he was working for the British Printing Corporation in 1981 when it was taken over by Robert Maxwell. Appleyard quickly saw Maxwell for the crook that he was and when Maxwell dismissed him on the strength of trumped up allegations, Appleyard battled for a fair settlement and won, shrewdly taking his money out of the BPC pension fund at the same time!

The death from leukaemia of his young son, Ian, and later the death of a grandson, John, from the same disease, have kept grief a regular visitor to Appleyard's door but always he has battled on, fighting to bring Yorkshire back to Bradford Park Avenue for a while and being largely responsible for setting up the Yorkshire Academy on the ground as well.

A shadow hangs over the future of Park Avenue again, but guess who's determined that cricket will continue on the historic ground? The final chapter in the gripping Appleyard story may still be to write.