didn't get a look-in. He played well for Lancashire and achieved his first hundred wicket season with 110 at 18.08 but there were no really outstanding performances, his best return being five for 32 and he had only two five-wicket innings and one of those was in the last match against Northamptonshire. Lancashire again finished third in the County Championship but well behind Surrey and Yorkshire. Playfair sounded a note of caution, however, in saying the Statham and Tattersall were carrying the attack with no sign of useful support. Statham's biographer Tony Derlien said that both of them were suffering from long-term after-effects of the sub-continental tour and Statham admitted that he felt stale that summer. The underlying issue, which dogged Lancashire through most of the 1950s, was the lack of bowling reserves of the right calibre and so Statham and Tattersall were always over-worked. There was no MCC tour in 1952–53 so Statham returned to the accountancy firm for the winter months. He told Derlien that it gave him a much-needed rest from cricket. 1953 season Statham's next chance of a Test appearance was in the 1953 Ashes series. With 101 wickets at 16.33 in the season, he was third in the national averages behind Les Jackson and Tony Lock, but even this good form could not secure a regular England selection. He played in only one of the five Tests against Australia, the second one at Lord's where England played three pace bowlers and one spinner whereas they normally attacked with two seamers (always Bedser and Bailey) and two spinners. Statham was twelfth man twice in the series. The Lord's Test was Statham's Ashes debut and he took two wickets. All of the first four Tests were drawn and England recovered the Ashes by winning the final Test at the Oval where England played two seamers, two spinners and one paceman but with Fred Trueman, who was still doing his national service, preferred to Statham. Trueman later commented on England captain Len Hutton's preference for seam over pace and so he and Statham did not bowl together for some years yet. If two pacemen were included in the squad, one of them would be twelfth man. Lancashire had a good season in 1953, which was a wet summer (there was heavy rain on the day of the Coronation). Lancashire again finished third in the championship, this time behind