match, at the time the highest total to win a Test match. For the final match of the series at The Oval, on what was seen as very definitely a pitch that was more suited to spin than quick bowling, Pollard was the bowler dropped to make way for an extra spin bowler. He did not play Test cricket again, but there was a short codicil 54 years later. In 2002, the ball used by Pollard to bowl Bradman for 33 in the fourth Test in 1948 was sold for £1,700 at auction. Final cricket years Lancashire's reliance on Pollard lessened during the 1948 season, when his County Championship total of 95 wickets was only eight ahead of the slow left-arm bowler William Roberts. In all matches, he took 116 wickets at an average of 23, and he bowled more overs, close to 1,300, than in any other first-class season. The following season, though, he bowled 400 fewer overs and took only 73 wickets in all, at the relatively high cost of 28 runs per wicket. The Lancashire team regularly included several new, younger bowlers, and many of them – Roy Tattersall, Malcolm Hilton, Bob Berry – were spin bowlers (though Tattersall started as a swing bowler). Pollard continued to open the bowling and was as accurate as ever, but was less successful than in other seasons. He was given a benefit in August 1949 by Lancashire and picked the match against Derbyshire, which raised £8,035, the third highest total at the time. In 1950, after a few matches with little bowling success, Pollard was dropped, and Lancashire started using Hilton, the fastest of three slow left-arm bowlers, to open the bowling in some matches. At the end of the season, in which Lancashire shared the County Championship title with Surrey, Pollard retired from first-class cricket to move into Lancashire League cricket. That was not quite the end of the first-class career as in 1952, Pollard played one further match for a Commonwealth XI against the Indian touring team. He took three wickets in the match, made two catches and 17 runs. References External links 1912 births 1985 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers Combined Services cricketers Lancashire cricketers Commonwealth XI cricketers People from Westhoughton Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Players cricketers North v South cricketers Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut English cricketers of 1919 to 1945