Eddie Leadbeater

In 81 first-class games for the county between 1949 and 1956, he captured 201 wickets at 28.14. His statistics belied his true significance. Yorkshire had never been enamoured with the virtues of leg-spin. It offended their pragmatic principles, rooted in the no-frills tradition of Wilfred Rhodes and Arthur ‘Ticker’ Mitchell. Leg-spin bowling – an art-form that favours flair and finesse over economy and expediency – was regarded with suspicion. Mr Leadbeater challenged that conception by dispensing leg-breaks and top-spinners - less often googlies – with a dexterity that demanded the Yorkshire hierarchy reconsider its attitude to a bowling style nowadays showcased by Adil Rashid, the only other leg-spinner of note in the county’s history. Diminutive and fun-loving, Mr Leadbeater, christened Edric, was born in Lockwood, Huddersfield, on August 15 1927, the youngest of six children. His cricketing ability was soon apparent and he progressed to the Yorkshire nets at Headingley. Mr Leadbeater graduated into a Yorkshire side that included many of the county’s most famous names– Len Hutton, Norman Yardley, Bob Appleyard, Johnny Wardle, Fred Trueman – but which was not always harmonious. He and Trueman paired up in a team of cliques and developed a firm friendship, often rooming together on away trips. As Trueman’s career soared, so Mr Leadbeater’s never quite fulfilled its early potential. His best season was 1950, when he took 84 first-class wickets at 26.80, including 8-83 against Worcestershire at New Road, still the best figures by a Yorkshire wrist-spinner. Mr Leadbeater’s form that summer drew rave reviews. “The discovery of the season was undoubtedly Leadbeater with his leg breaks,” opined The Cricketer. “Thus he caused a break with tradition. For years Yorkshire have had no need of a leg-break bowler. “Famous left-handers of the past had provided the wristy spin in that direction. “Leadbeater was the personality of the side and his fielding too made him indispensable.” Mr Leadbeater’s form led to a call-up for the 1951-52 tour of India to replace the injured Dusty Rhodes. He played in the Tests at Mumbai and Kolkata but managed only two wickets and never again appeared for England; he had the unusual distinction of being capped by his country but not his county. Unable to command a regular place at Yorkshire, Mr Leadbeater departed for Warwickshire after the 1956 season. He played a further 27 first-class games that brought 52 wickets at 25.50 before retiring from county cricket. A capable tail-end batsman who struck one first-class hundred (116 for Warwickshire against Glamorgan at Coventry in 1958), he continued playing until the age of 68, mainly in the Huddersfield League. He took more than 1,000 wickets for Almondbury before hanging up his whites. His nephew, Marcus Turner, paid glowing tribute to him this week, saying: “He was the most modest of men, passionate about cricket but always self-effacing about his achievements in the game. “He was a very popular figure and no one had a bad word to say about him. In his young days, he was also pretty nifty on the football field; he was a great all-rounder. “Many years after his county cricket career was over, he said, ‘I wish I was back as a 14-year-old. I’d do it all again’.” Mr Leadbeater had a daughter with his first wife, Betty Knott, and three sons and a daughter with his second wife, Mary, to whom he was married 49 years. He died last Sunday in a Huddersfield nursing home following a short illness. Chris Waters