doubts about his fitness before one match, was asked to bowl flat out in the nets for the equivalent of three overs. There was no batsman involved and Statham was told to just bowl at the stumps. He hit them sixteen times out of eighteen. Laker commented on the unusual situation whereby Statham did not have an out-of-season job and wondered what he would do when he retired from cricket. Statham, said Laker, had no ambitions outside the game and was a contented, untroubled soul who looked forward to sleeping when not playing. In Barclay's World of Cricket, Richie Benaud described Statham as the only fast bowler he could recall who did not resort to histrionics and abuse. Statham would merely shake his head to register frustration. Benaud said that Statham was always the catalyst in his partnerships with Tyson and Trueman because he was the one whom opposition batsmen most feared. This was not in the physical sense but in terms of the batsman having no margin for error given Statham's accuracy and movement off the seam. While Statham did not swing the ball through the air, his deviation off the pitch was unmatched. Wisden commented on this movement off the pitch by saying that when the ball pitched on the seam it broke back in very sharply, meaning that a ball ostensibly aimed at the off stump was suddenly flying towards the leg stump and the batsman was in real danger of being bowled or trapped leg before wicket. Statham's final ball in first-class cricket was delivered at about 17:50 on Monday, 5 August 1968. It was the last ball in a spell of five successive maiden overs and it was pitched on a good length at the middle stump of Yorkshire captain Brian Close, who blocked it. The match ended at that point, the two captains agreeing to a draw. Close shook Statham's hand and Statham left the field to a standing ovation by the crowd of nearly 10,000 people, the applause led by Fred Trueman on the players' balcony. Next day, The Times regretted his decision to retire and said: "There are still hundreds of wickets left in him". Post-retirement Statham's service to Lancashire was such that the club awarded him a second benefit in 1969, but it disappointingly raised only £1,850 compared with £13,047 for his 1961 benefit. He was elected a member of the