Billy Quaife, the 56-year-old who scored a century in his final innings
He chose the Derbyshire game – and applied the perfect climax to his career. More than 6,000 spectators attended the opening day and were pleased to see Warwickshire win the toss and bat. Quaife, No 4 in the order, would get to the crease in front of a big Saturday crowd.
And it was all perfectly set up for the afternoon when the Bears lost their second wicket, Bob Wyatt lbw, to the last ball of the morning session. Quaife would bat after lunch.
First, a presentation. During the interval, on the outfield in front of the players dining room, Quaife was presented with a silver dessert service by club president Ludford Docker.
Warmly applauded by both teams and the crowd, the retiree responded with a quip about his famously slow scoring. “Although I may not have exceeded the speed limit,” he said, “I have exceeded the time limit.”
Then off he went to pad up one last time in the pavilion that was brand new when he arrived at Warwickshire.
Applauded all the way to the crease, he soon flicked Garnet Lee to leg for three to get off the mark. An anti-climatic duck was avoided.
Now how far could he go? More than a few times over the years, spectators had barracked Quaife for slow scoring and craved his dismissal. Not today. And those 56-year-old limbs and senses were up to the challenge in the fashion which had served him all his days.
“Quaife was never a man to sacrifice artistry to please the timekeepers,” reported the Birmingham Mail. “But batting with all the skill and correctness of former days, he never failed to deal with a loose ball and his masterly placement delighted the spectators. His defence was impenetrable, yet not a thing to harrow the soul of the onlooker as does the defensive play of some of the modern century-mongers. He showed all his old footcraft and supplemented his opening stroke with several nice shots to the on-side.”
At tea, Warwickshire were 231 for three with Quaife 44 and the Rev Jack Parsons 35. In the final session, Quaife continued unperturbably on and, ten minutes before stumps, late-cut Stan Worthington for four to reach his 71st first-class century.
The spectators stood to acclaim this man who, for almost 40 years, had been a familiar figure out there in the middle of Edgbaston but now was there for the final time.
“Fifty-six years of age he may be and relegated to the shelf of first-class cricket,” reported the Birmingham Mail.
“But the name of the man who can emerge from the pleasant shades of club cricket, in which he has been rusticating this summer, into the glare of a county championship contest and score as perfect a century as ever came from his bat must go down to posterity as one of the Masters of the Art of cricket.”
Quaife closed on Saturday night on 103. He added just 12 on Monday morning to finish with 115 including 12 fours, five threes and seven twos.
Strangely, almost the moment he was dismissed the weather turned cold and damp and, in front of much smaller crowds on Monday and Tuesday, the match petered out into a draw as Derbyshire followed on but comfortably avoided the innings defeat.
Another ovation awaited Quaife on Tuesday afternoon as he headed up the pavilion steps for the last time to soothe his aching feet, reflect on a perfect valedictory innings and read in that night’s Birmingham Mail that the first day of Walsall Flower Show had raised £541 11s 7d.
