Wisden overview
Tom Cartwright was such a clever medium-pacer – accurate, patient and fully armed with party tricks – that he would have prospered in any age, including that of covered pitches, which were brought in after his retirement from county cricket. However, although he finished high in the bowling averages year after year, he was restricted to a measly five England caps because it was felt that he would probably struggle to dismiss international batsmen on Test pitches (which were covered). Whether that opinion was justified nobody can tell. On the basis of Cartwright's England baptism, when he took 2 for 118 from 77 overs in Australia's 656 for 8 at Old Trafford in 1964, he was unlucky to be denied a longer run. Slightly under 6ft tall, thinly built and with a lovely fluid, wheeling action, Cartwright looked as though he could bowl forever. To a hemmed-in batsman, it must often have seemed that he was. Overall, mainly for Warwickshire but later for Somerset, his overs cost a fraction more than two runs each. He later had a distinguished coaching career, helping the young Ian Botham and earning the MBE for some sterling work in Wales. John Thicknesse

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