TEN OUT, Ian Brayshaw (Hardie Grant Books, $35)

Three days before the signature performance of his life, Ian Brayshaw was thrown from an out-of-control horse and braced himself, fearing the worst.

He’d been riding bareback, the horse saw an open gate and charged with Brayshaw, yelling: ‘Stoppp!’

‘I was petrified,’ he said, ‘this was going to have an ugly ending.’

Yet, he emerged with barely a bruise and a week later, he was the toast of West Australian cricket, having single-handedly bowled out star-studded Victoria, the reigning Sheffield Shield champions, for 152, his 10 for 44 a true cricketing fairytale.

Along with John Inverarity, Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee, Brayshaw, now 83, was one of the most responsible for lifting WA cricket from easybeat status to the most formidable state team in the land, ahead even of NSW.

While he was just short of Test standard, his natural ability to curve the ball both ways made him an invaluable into the wind bowler and an integral in WA’s eight championships of the time: five Shield and three one-day titles.

His latest book ‘Ten Out’ tells the story of his fairytale few days at the WACA in October 1967, as well as the stories of 92 others worldwide to have also taken all 10 wickets in a first-class innings.

Only a few are Australian, among them at Sheffield Shield level, the tall South Aussie Tim Wall in the season of Bodyline and Brayshaw’s contemporary Peter ‘Piccolo’ Allan, the athletic Queensland who was to play just one Test. On Brayshaw’s humbling of the Victorians, Allan sent a telegram to his buddy saying: ‘Thank God for the Vics!’

Allan’s own ‘10-for’ had also come against Victoria just two seasons earlier.

One of those who congratulated Brayshaw in the WACA rooms immediately afterwards was Sir Donald Bradman, then a Test selector. ‘Enjoy it sonny,’ he said. ‘It won’t last long.’

Brayshaw took two more wickets in the second innings – including Bill Lawry for a second time in the match – but could manage only 12 more in seven subsequent matches that 1967-68 season.

His magic moment is spread, wicket-by-wicket, across1 4 pages throughout the book, alongside some of the biggest names to also achieve a 10-for, from Englishmen Jim Laker and William Lillywhite through to India’s Anil Kumble and Australasia’s Clarrie Grimmett.

His match descriptions are entertaining and enlightening.  He concedes luck plays a huge part in any bowler’s success.

Not unsurprisingly, only three of the 10-fors have come at Test match level: Laker in 1956 at Manchester, Kumble in 1999 at Delhi and Ajaz Patel in 2021 at Mumbai.

Laker’s feat on a doctored wicket sunk an Australian XI, ensuring England the Ashes.

One of those who fell, Colin McDonald, said it was like batting on a beach.

On the front cover of Ten Out, Brayshaw’s long-time colleague Dennis Lillee says he remains in awe of his mate’s feat those early 1967 spring days in Perth. ‘Ian took all 10,’ he said, ‘something I never could.’

Review by Ken Piesse