Purple Patches

By Ralph Barker

A Purple Patch can last an afternoon, an innings, a match or a season – one of those transient periods when a cricketer scales unprecedented heights.

The greatest of these sequences have achieved a legendary quality, which may sometimes obscure the truth.

Who now remembers that Laker’s all-ten at Old Trafford took four days to complete? Were his 19 wickets among the greatest of all bowling feats, or did the Australians simply lose their cool on a cooked wicket?

How fast was Frank Tyson in Australia in 1954-55, and why did he never quite repeat his success?

Was Bob Massie at Lord’s in 1972 just a one-match wonder, cramming all his luck into one game?

What was the pill prescribed for the middle-aged Bill Alley when he made over 3000 runs in 1961?

How did Micky Stewart’s 77 catches in a season compare with Wally Hammond’s 78 thirty years earlier?

How did Australian No 11 Bill Johnston average over a hundred with the bat in 1953?

These questions, and more, are explored here by Ralph Barker, who expertly tells the stories of these unsung cricketing heroes.

Ralph Barker started work as a journalist on the Sporting Life in 1935. Joining the RAF in 1940, he was subsequently granted a permanent commission, but retired in 1961 to become a freelance writer. Several of his books – all non-fiction – have had an RAF background, but he has written on a wide range of subjects, and for many years has been a frequent contributor of feature articles to the Sunday Express. His first cricket book, Ten Great Innings, appeared in 1964, and this is his sixth. A compulsive cricketer himself, he played for Ashford (Surrey), the Adastrians, and West Surrey, captaining the latter club throughout the 1960s.