Biddulph gained a more regular place in the first team in 1958 as the deputy for regular fast-medium bowler Bryan Lobb, playing in almost half the matches as Somerset finished third in the County Championship, the county's highest position since 1892.
Lobb retired from regular first-class cricket at the end of the 1958 season to become a teacher, and Biddulph stepped up in 1959 to be Somerset's regular opening bowler, usually forming a not-much-more-than-medium-paced opening attack with Alley or Ken Palmer.