As the new county season stirs into action, we have to bid a fond farewell to one of England's finest ever bowlers. Alec Bedser passed away over the weekend and the affectionate tributes have been pouring in ever since.
In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins said it was as if "an old and mighty oak tree has fallen at last" while Richard Williams in The Guardian recalls seeing Alec and his twin Eric at the 1953 Ryder Cup dressed in "matching tweed suits, check shirts, club ties and proper shoes, and seated side by side on identical shooting sticks."
How very different cricket and the world is now to those days when Bedser was turning his massive shoulders to befuddle batsman with his fast-medium deliveries, especially his famous leg-cutter.
Don Bradman rated him highly, struck up an abiding friendship with the young bowler when he wrote to him for advice and declared one ball from Bedser that had got him out in an Ashes match as the greatest delivery he had faced.
Life and cricket move on relentlessly, but it is not just moist-eyed nostalgia that should make us remember the likes of Bedser.
Read below for some inspiring tales about humble men who played cricket for the sheer love of the game...
Alec Bedser
Tom Graveney
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