Godfrey Evans was arguably the best wicketkeeper the game has ever seen. Debates about wicketkeepers cannot be stilled by statistics in the way that a challenge to Don Bradman might be. What is beyond question is that Evans was the game’s most charismatic ‘keeper: the man who made the game’s least obtrusive specialism a spectator sport in itself. His energy and enthusiasm brought the best out of other fielders, whatever the state of the game. But he added to that a technical excellence that has probably never been surpassed.
Godfrey Evans was the heartbeat of one of England’s finest teams, and one of the game’s great wicketkeepers. His obituary in the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2000 remembered a hugely popular figure.
Evans was born in north London, but moved to Kent when he was a baby and was brought up by his grandfather after the death of his mother. At Kent College, he was an all-round sportsman, and played in the school team mainly as a batsman: the games master thought wicketkeeper was a good place to hide one of the team’s less mobile fielders. He made his Kent debut in July 1939 as a batsman, but kept wicket in three of his next four games before the war came. His reputation only flourished when the former England captain, AER Gilligan, saw him in a Services match in 1942 and ensured that he received invitations for the major wartime matches.
By the end of the first post-war summer, Evans had displaced Paul Gibb as England’s wicketkeeper, after an excellent performance for the Players at Lord’s when he did not concede a bye. He let through one on his Test debut at The Oval, which irritated him years later: “a silly little blighter” from Jim Langridge, outside off stump. That kind of perfectionism ensured that there was no serious challenge to his pre-eminence for the next 13 years.
But any sadness was well hidden, in later years, behind exuberant mutton-chop whiskers. He became best-known as resident expert for the bookmakers Ladbrokes, reassessing the odds at each twist and turn of a Test match, usually getting it right, but, at Headingley in 1981 when he offered England at 500 to 1, famously getting it wrong. He also worked in the jewellery trade, and for some seasons was involved in a sponsored wicketkeeping award. He remained – even for cricket-lovers too young to have seen him – a symbol of some of the happiest times for English Test cricket, on the field and off it. His CBE, he blithely proclaimed, stood for Crumpet Before Evensong.
Evans, Thomas Godfrey, CBE, died on May 3, 1999, aged 78.
