17.08 and retired on Monday, 5 August, immediately after the home match against Yorkshire. He finished on a high note with a first innings return of six for 34 in that match, Yorkshire being all out for a mere 61. He took one for 50 in the second innings and the last wicket of his career was that of Phil Sharpe, who was lbw for 20. The match ended in a draw. Summary of matches played per team Statham retired several weeks before the end of the season so his tally of 68 wickets was low, by his standards, for that reason. Apart from his debut season 1950 when he played in only fifteen matches, he was active through seventeen seasons before 1968 and always took more than 90 wickets. He achieved the hundred wicket target thirteen times with a highest tally of 139 in 1959. His highest overseas tally was the 54 he took in Australia and New Zealand in 1954–55. He spent his entire first-class career at Lancashire and 430 of his 559 matches were for the county. He took a total of 1,816 wickets for Lancashire and that is a club record which, probably, will never be broken given the reduction in first-class matches since 1968. Next in the list is Johnny Briggs with 1,696 wickets and then Arthur Mold with 1,541. Statham made only five appearances for the county's Second XI, all in the spring of 1950 before his first-class debut. He played in 70 Test matches for England, taking 252 wickets, and so there were 59 first-class matches in which he represented other teams besides Lancashire or England. He made 41 appearances for MCC on their overseas tours (this does not include Test matches, in which the MCC team was always styled England) and four at Lord's: one against the Indian tourists in 1952; two against Yorkshire, in 1953 and 1959; and one against The Rest in 1963. Incidentally, he played in two matches against MCC for Lancashire, in 1957 and 1964, both at Old Trafford. The Gentlemen v Players match was held until 1962, usually twice a season during Statham's career, but he made just four appearances for the Players. These were all at Lord's in 1951, 1954, 1958 and 1960. His wickets total in these matches was eight and his best innings return was two for 22 in 1960, so this fixture never