Bob Appleyard - 90 years old

A few weeks late, but seems right to acknowledge 90th birthday of one of the most remarkable people in the history of the game.  The story of his life has been mentioned before on this site and it would be a lengthy post to go through it in any depth here.  It is an astonishing story of determination in the face of adversity.

As a youth in Bradford Bob came home to find that his father, stepmother and two little sisters had been killed by gas.  His mother had left home when he was seven, and another sister had died of diphtheria.  As an adult Bob lost his a son and a grandson to leukaemia.  Early in his cricket playing career he suffered from advance tuberculosis.  After his retirement from cricket he was working for British Printing Corporation when it was taken over by Robert Maxwell. He recognised Maxwell for the crook he was and accordingly was dismissed on trumped up charges.  Remarkably, he took on Maxwell and won.  Since 2001 Appleyard has been the sole surviving member of the group of English cricketers who took 200 wickets in a season. According to Wiki, Appleyard is now 8th on the list of oldest surviving test cricketers  (a list which includes Arthur Morris batting at no 4)

Thanks for flagging that, Corporal. I do hope life is at long last treating Bob Appleyard more kindly.

PS. See you on parade on Monday.

I've just read an SI story about the writer who did the Hoosiers and Rudy movie scripts.
Still waiting for guildford to complete his Bob Appleyard screenplay in the hope that he can include personal reminiscences from Sir Bob in the film that should clearly be released before he spins his way thru' the Corporal's wicker gate.

The first cricket I took any notice of was MCC Tour of Aus & NZ, 1954/55, with a heavy Yorkshire presence incl Appleyard & Wardle. Still one or two living to tell their tale.