When Yorkshire legend Bob Appleyard helped rout New Zealand for lowest score in Test cricket

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England had won the opening Test against New Zealand in Dunedin by eight wickets, maintaining the excellent form that they had shown in Australia, where they fought back from losing the first match by an innings in Brisbane to take the series 3-1, Appleyard contributing 11 wickets in his four appearances.

Now they were to produce something even more special - statistically, anyway - as they dismissed New Zealand for just 26 in their second innings, Appleyard achieving the best figures of 4-7 from six overs, including three wickets in the space of four balls. It gave England victory by an innings and 20 runs as they took the mini-series 2-0. Back then, in days so distant that the players still travelled to Australasia by boat, England’s forays into New Zealand were always straight after Ashes Tests.

Consequently, they lacked the intensity of the primary battles that had already been fought, with the 1954-55 Ashes having been typically competitive as England prevailed in Australia for the first time since the Bodyline tour of 1932-33.

It was by no means unusual, indeed, for England’s senior players to miss the New Zealand legs and to return home early to get ready for the start of the domestic season.

However, 10 of the side that took part in the final Ashes Test at Sydney earlier in March 1955 lined up for the game at Eden Park, the only change seeing Reg Simpson replace fellow batsman Denis Compton.

While England were a strong and confident unit, spearheaded by the blistering pace of Frank Tyson, who had blazed such a trail of devastation in Australia, finishing leading wicket-taker in the series with 28 at an average of 20.82, New Zealand were still in relative infancy as a Test-playing nation.

They were still seeking their first Test match win, in fact, after 24 years and 31 games of trying (not until they met West Indies at Eden Park the following year did they finally get that monkey off their back).

It was men against boys when it came to the visit of Hutton’s men, who were teeming with confidence after the Ashes success. New Zealand, in fact, had only two recognised world-class players - Bert Sutcliffe, the opening batsman, who hit 11 of the 26 all-out off his own bat (no-one else reached double figures) and the No 4 John Reid, who top-scored with 73 in the first innings as New Zealand made 200 (Appleyard 3-38) before England replied with 246 (Hutton top-scoring with 53 in what would be his last Test innings).

At 3pm on day three of the game, one that had been affected at various points by rain, New Zealand began their infamous second innings trailing by 46 with the pitch showing signs of variable bounce.

They lost three wickets in the 40 minutes before tea, which they took at 13-3, Tyson sending back Gordon Leggat and Matt Poore, and Brian Statham bowling dangerman Reid. When the final session started in sunny conditions, before a crowd of around 12,000, with Eden Park perhaps a touch over half-full, Hutton surprised even his own players by suddenly withdrawing Tyson and Statham from the attack.

Their new-ball partnership, so dominant in Australia, where Statham chipped in with 18 wickets himself, was replaced by that of the Yorkshire “spin-twins” Appleyard and Johnny Wardle, the perfect foil for each other as well as the pace pair. Wardle, the left-arm spinner, who’d taken a five-fer in that Sydney game earlier in the month, effectively settled the game as a contest by bowling top-scorer Sutcliffe straight after tea. The left-hander tried a big hit and was bowled by a delivery that turned sharply, leaving the hosts 14-4.

Enter Appleyard. First, he had Noel McGregor caught by Peter May (15-5) and then Harry Cave held by Tom Graveney (22-6).

Tony MacGibbon kept out his first delivery from Appleyard but could do nothing about the second, which trapped him in front, and then the Yorkshireman had Ian Colquhoun, the wicketkeeper, brilliantly caught by a diving Graveney at leg slip to give him two wickets in two balls for the second time in the match.

As in the first innings, Alex Moir kept out the hat-trick ball, which fell agonisingly short of Graveney, before Hutton, in another tactical twist, withdrew Appleyard and Wardle with the total 22-8 as he wanted to end the tour with his main weapons Tyson and Statham in tandem. Statham duly closed out proceedings, pinning Geoff Rabone, the captain, lbw and bowling last man Johnny Hayes.

New Zealand’s 26 eclipsed the previous lowest Test score of 30, which had twice been inflicted by England on South Africa - at Port Elizabeth in 1896, when the Surrey seamer George Lohmann claimed the remarkable figures of 8-7, and at Edgbaston in 1924, when captain Arthur Gilligan captured 6-7.

South Africa, in fact, are the less-than-proud owners of four of the top-five lowest Test scores, further gruesome episodes arising when they were dismissed for 35 by England at Cape Town in 1899, and for 36 by Australia at Melbourne in 1932, although that 36 figure has also been “achieved” by Australia and India.

A few years prior to Appleyard’s death, this correspondent asked him what he remembered of Auckland 1955, and it was no surprise to discover that his chief memory was of Hutton taking him off at 22-8.

Appleyard, after all, was a man who liked to bowl and bowl - and then bowl some more, although he admired Hutton hugely and was immensely proud of having been a member of the side that won the Ashes that winter, one of English cricket’s defining achievements.

Appleyard chuckled as he said: “There can’t have been many bowlers in the game’s history who’ve been taken off after taking 4-7. It was the last match of a long tour and Len wanted his main bowlers, Frank and Brian, to finish off the New Zealanders. So I was denied the chance to get my fifth wicket, but I didn’t mind at all because the likes of Johnny Wardle and myself were only the supporting cast to Frank and Brian. It was a really nice gesture on Len’s part to bring them back to finish the innings after the wonderful tour we’d all enjoyed.”

Of the 26 all-out itself, Appleyard added: “It was one of those collapses that suddenly happens. Everything just went for us, and the edges went to hand.

“New Zealand had two very good players in John Reid and Bert Sutcliffe, but not too many others who were in that class.

“We didn’t know it was a record at the time, but it’s one that has managed to survive all these years.”

It has now endured for 70 and counting, a statistic that has stood the test of time.