the expected outbreak of war, Verity played his last match against Sussex. In the second innings, Verity took seven wickets for nine runs on a rain-affected pitch to bowl Sussex out for 33 and take Yorkshire to a win, although the match was played in a strained, tense atmosphere. This was Verity's last performance in first-class cricket. In total, he had taken 1,956 wickets at an average of 14.90 and scored 5,603 runs at 18.07. Style and technique As a bowler, Verity delivered the ball at almost medium pace, faster than usual for a spinner. R. C. Robertson-Glasgow, a cricket writer and journalist, wrote "He is a scholarly bowler ... He is tall, and much stronger than his pace needs. His run up, longer than most of his kind, has a measured delicacy that you would expect from this fastidious and nearly prim craftsman. Only his delivery has a grace which mathematics can't explain." His main asset as a bowler was an ability to bowl straight and with great accuracy, on a good length. He could also make the ball bounce sharply. His most effective delivery curved through the air, pitched on middle and leg stump and spun away from the batsman, causing many of them to edge the ball into the slips. On rain-affected pitches he bowled more slowly, and was almost unplayable at times. However, the period in which Verity played was notable for good batting pitches, and batsmen often dominated. In these conditions, Verity prevented batsmen scoring runs and constantly tried new strategies to try to take wickets. Verity also used different types of delivery to keep batsmen uncertain: he could bowl at a slower and faster pace to his normal style and occasionally bowled a much faster ball which regularly took wickets. Verity never spun the ball very far, particularly after his second tour to Australia, and preferred to concentrate on bowling a good length. However, critics did not think that Verity posed enough of a threat to batsmen and could be dull to watch. By the middle of his career, he had a reputation for being ineffective on good batting pitches, and was occasionally dropped from the England team for his lack of effectiveness. Even so, he only missed one Test against Australia and one against South Africa, the two strongest Test playing teams, after he made his debut. Verity believed his performances in unfavourable