young all-round cricketer of such promise as to demand immediate encouragement." In the match, Close became, England's youngest-ever Test player, aged 18 years and 149 days. He came in to bat when England needed quick runs, his instruction from Freddie Brown, the captain, being to "have a look at a couple and then give it a go". Close duly played two balls back to the bowler, then hit out for the boundary, only to be caught in the outfield for a score of nought. He had previously taken one wicket for 39 runs during the first New Zealand innings. In his autobiography, I Don't Bruise Easily, his early Test call-up is described "an albatross round [his] neck", but Close later attributed this phrase to the book's shadow writer, Don Mosey. During the late-season Scarborough Festival, he became the youngest player to achieve the double, of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a single first-class season. Tour to Australia in 1950 Close began his National Service on 6 October 1949, in the Royal Corps of Signals at Catterick Army Training Depot. Another football injury, picked up during training, meant that he spent his first month of military service excused from duties. Once he was fit again, he was given weekend passes from the army to play football for Leeds. During one of these games he was badly injured again: playing against Newcastle United he hurt his thigh in a collision with Ted Robledo. Showing the stubbornness that he later became famous for, Close played the rest of the game, but by the time he reported back for duty the next day, it was badly swollen and painful. He was excused from duties again, but not offered any treatment by the army. After around six weeks, he travelled home on leave and got some heat treatment from the Leeds United physiotherapist, but there was little progress until just before Christmas, when another examination by the army revealed ossification of the thigh. Two months of treatment and bed rest followed, which Close thinks saved his career, he said that otherwise: "the injury would have finished me. I would never had bent my leg again." Close returned to fitness in time for the 1950 English cricket season, though little of it was first-class: he appeared for Yorkshire once, and made three first-class appearances for the Combined Services cricket team. He was playing plenty of