FORTY-two years ago today, playing for Surrey against the Australian tourists at The Oval, Jim Laker performed the amazing feat of taking all 10 wickets in an innings for 88 runs.
Ten weeks later he repeated the feat for England in the test match against Australia at Old Trafford.
Laker was at his peak as an off-spin bowler. For example, in that series against the Australians he took 46 wickets at an average of 9.6. In the Old Trafford test, he took nine for 47 and ten for 53.
Laker was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
He first played for England in the 1948 tour of the West Indies where he took 18 test wickets, but for the next five years he was used sparingly by his country. From 1956 to 1959, however, he was a regular. He played in 46 test matches taking 193 wickets at an average of 21.24 and scoring 676 runs.
In county cricket, he was a key member of the marvellous Surrey side which won the champion-ship from 1952 to 1958. He took more than 100 wickets in a season on 11 occasions with his best total being 166 in 1950.
After his retirement in 1959, he returned to play for Essex for a couple of seasons.
Jim Laker died in Putney, London, on April 23, 1986.
On May 16, 1956, Doug Smith rode three winners at Newmarket - All My Eye (4-11), Wind In The Willows (evens), La Pretendant (4-11).
And that night at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scottish flyweight champion Dick Currie stopped England's Colin Clitheroe inside five rounds after having floored him twice.
1951: A goal by Lawrie Reilly, of Hibs, gave Scotland a 1-0 victory over France at Hampden.
1955: Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut was born. The little girl, with the marvellous grin, captured the hearts of everyone at the Munich Olympics in 1972 when she won three golds and a silver. Four years later, in Montreal she won another gold and silver.
1970: Argentinian tennis star Gabriela Sabatini was born. She consistently reached semi-finals and finals, earning in excess of $6m, but her only Grand Slam singles success came in 1990 when she beat Steffi Graf in straight sets to win the United States Open.
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