Wisden overview
Eddie Hemmings was 33 when he won his first Test cap after a career with many vicissitudes, and he carried on year after year to become one of the most durable players of his era. A smallish, slightly plump man with a lively sense of humour and liable to clown during the most serious of matches, he had learnt all the tricks of the trade by the time he bowled for England in 1982. First-choice spinner for that winter's Ashes tour, he had a fine allround game at Sydney, taking three wickets in both innings, and scoring a spirited and accomplished 95 as a nightwatchman. He helped England to the final of the 1987 World Cup, and returned to Test cricket later that winter in the bitter Mike Gatting – Shakoor Rana match at Faisalabad, His chief rival, John Emburey, earned a ban from Test cricket for touring South Africa in 1989, so Hemmings extended his career into the 1990s. Against India at Lord's he was struck for four consecutive sixes by Kapil Dev, but he finished the series with an important 51 at The Oval. Christopher Martin-Jenkins Adapted by Wisden from World Cricketers: A Biographical Dictionary (Oxford, 1996).

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