important matches. Wisden suggested that "Yorkshire were very good at every point, but their main strength lay in the excellence and variety of their bowling ... [Waddington] was, on occasions, more successful against strong sides than he had ever been before. He had days of astonishing success and once, at least, bowled with a bewildering swerve [i. e. swing bowling] that recalled George Hirst at his best." Among his best performances were figures of eight for 34 against Northamptonshire (the best of his career), seven wickets for six runs in a Sussex total of 20 and eight for 35 against Hampshire. His season ended with festival games at Eastbourne, where he represented the North against the South and played for a team of ex-Royal Air Force servicemen. Injury and controversy Waddington was less effective in 1923, and despite a good bowling average, he was inconsistent. In July, he slipped on wet grass when he was about to bowl against Leicestershire at Fartown Ground, Huddersfield; the subsequent shoulder injury effectively ended his season, apart from one match against Lancashire in which he bowled just six overs. In September, the injury required an operation to repair a torn ligament. The injury affected the remainder of his career and his bowling was never as effective. In total, before his injury, he took 65 wickets at 18.23 in 1923. That season, he recorded his best figures with the bat; after never having a first-class batting average better than 12 in an English season, he scored 317 runs at 24.38, including his first fifty in England. On his return in 1924, Waddington bowled little in his first matches, but was used more in Yorkshire's defeat by Middlesex at Lord's where he bowled 42 overs to take three for 116. Several Yorkshire players were absent, playing representative matches, but the game had consequences later in the season. In the return match at Sheffield in July, the Yorkshire players seemed determined to have revenge but could only secure a draw. Critics thought that the Yorkshire bowlers appealed excessively to the umpires, and the Middlesex players were barracked by the crowd. The journalist Alfred Pullin described the match as "a sorry exhibition of ill feeling and bad manners." The umpires reported Waddington to the cricket committee of the MCC for inciting the crowd through his appeals and gestures of displeasure when batsmen were not given out. Waddington maintained