Tom Graveney's Worcestershire

Tom Graveney played the cover-drive with the easeful resolve of a man leaning across the breakfast table to pick up his morning paper. There was a high backlift, measured footwork and the smoothest of downswings before the ball brushed the turf on its way to the off-side boundary. Fielders trotted after it, often more in obeisance than pursuit. Folk who watched Graveney play that stroke at Worcester were lost to cricket for the rest of their lives.