201 wickets. He remains the only fast bowler to take that many wickets in a season, since Tom Richardson in 1897. Injury on a winter tour of India ended Gover's run of success: in 1938, apart from a week in late May and early June when he achieved his best figures of 14 for 85 against Worcestershire, Gover was clearly unfit (despite periods of rest) and had so little venom his haul of wickets fell from 201 to just 86. Though he recovered somewhat in 1939 with increased fitness, it was already evident Gover would struggle to regain the speed and venom of his two great years. However, when county cricket resumed after World War II in 1946 Gover, at 38, bowled so well under unfavourable conditions that he played in the Third Test against India. With his strong physique it was surprising he was not chosen for either the 1936/1937 or 1946/1947 Ashes tours. He decided 1947 would be his last year in county cricket, but Gover was still regarded as the best fast bowler in England, and there were calls for him to be selected for the last Test when Harold Butler withdrew and Alec Bedser was out of form. Coaching career After Gover retired from first-class cricket, he played a couple of matches in 1948 for Bedfordshire in the Minor Counties competition, taking 25 wickets at just over nine runs each. But after that he devoted his life to his cricket school in Wandsworth. He established this school in 1938 and had already trained a number of future Test players by the time of his last match for Surrey. However, in the following decades Gover gradually developed his school to such an extent that it became regarded as the most valuable school for the fine-tuning of cricketers' skills. His school, redeveloped from its humble origins as an industrial shed, was where many Test or potential Test players developed the necessary skill to rise to the highest levels in cricket. Frank Tyson, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts and Ian Bishop are some notable examples of players who benefitted from Gover's coaching. While covering the 1954–55 Ashes tour as a journalist he advised Tyson to shorten his run-up, which proved to be a turning point in the series. It was primarily for his work in cricket coaching, rather than his deeds for Surrey in the 1930s and 1940s, that Gover