Sport & games

He remade himself into a batsman, then had to bowl again

Rhodes arrived as arguably the best slow left-armer alive, then quietly rebuilt his game until he was opening the innings for England alongside Jack Hobbs nbspnwhere his bowling fell away in the process. The war stripped Yorkshire of its bowlers and he simply went back to being one, spending the 1920s as an all-rounder in his forties. England recalled him at 48 for the deciding Ashes Test of 1926 and he helped win it. Neville Cardus's description of his bowling all a plot, each ball unlike the last is some of the best writing ever done about a sportsman.

He played his last Test at 52 years and 165 days, still the oldest man ever to appear in one, and he holds the world records for both the most first-class appearances and the most first-class wickets.

Read the whole of Wilfred Rhodes on Wikipedia

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