It must be nearly 30 years since Bomber Wells began to talk me into writing his ‘autobiography’. The precise circumstances elude me. Bomber was a talker. I spent hours at his home in Ruddington going through the essays that he had written for The Cricketer magazine and then more hours trying to match his stories with actual events on the cricket field.

I can’t remember whether he ever was a fisherman, but some of his yarns belonged to the angling fraternity. Not that they were in any way boring, his soft Gloucester tones were heard at a thousand cricket lovers gatherings over the whole of the U.K. and his popularity was such that he would be invited to the same venues again and again.

Listening to a well-told yarn is entertaining, but putting those yarns down in cold print inside hard covers is a different matter. Brousing through the pages again after a lapse of more than quarter of a century, I can see the validity of John Arlott’s comment at the time, that I hadn’t really got to the bottom of Bomber. Twenty years later Stephen Chalke had a second go and made a better fist of it. But neither book covered Bomber’s 25 years in Nottinghamshire – it had been intended that my effort would be only volume one of two and the reason volume two never appeared was certainly not due to the lack of sales for the initial effort – one winter circuit of the cricket societies by Bomber cleared the shelves of volume one.

Bomber Wells was born in Gloucester in 1930, his father, perhaps aptly, worked at the Wagon Works – the firm’s ground was used for County matches. After playing for several local clubs and picking up a host wickets with his off breaks, he made his debut for Gloucestershire in 1951, taking the place of the injured master-spinner, Tom Goddard. The following summer saw him serving his country in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and in 1953 being stationed in Nottinghamshire at Chilwell Ordnance Depot, he played for the Army and the Combined Services, as well as sneaking off for the occasional Gloucestershire county game.

His first full summer with Gloucestershire came in 1954 and in that season, plus the two which followed he took 95, 122 and 123 wickets. They were to proved the most productive of his career. In 1959 he lost his place in the Gloucestershire side to David Allen – at that time the county regularly fielded three spinners together – Allen, Cook and Mortimore. In 1960 therefore Wells elected to move to Trent Bridge. In that first summer he took 120 wickets and bowled 1,354.3 overs.

Most readers will recall that he bowled with virtually no run-up and many batsmen complained he bowled before they were paying attention! During his first winter in Nottingham, he went with Jim Swanton’s side to West Indies, but he never looked likely to play Test cricket for England. His batting comprised a heave for six, which too often resulted in a miss and a bowled. Well built he was not the most athletic of fielders and rather too fond of chatting to spectators on the boundary.

In 1961 and 1963 he took in excess of 90 wickets, but in 1965 his wickets were costing over 30 runs each and he was left out of half Notts games. In 1966 he was appointed as mentor to the Notts Colts side which played in the Notts Amateur League. His task was to act as captain and help the youngsters develop their full potential; unfortunately Bomber couldn’t resist the temptation to bowl himself as soon as the youngsters found the going a bit tough.

He ended the summer the outstanding bowler in the League, as well as in the Colts, his wickets costing 7 runs each. Afterwards he played for club sides in the Nottingham area, notably Bestwood Park and his home village of Ruddington. He was instrumental in the setting up of the Nottingham Cricket Lovers and through his contacts persuaded a host of famous cricketers to come to entertain the Lovers.

He refused any official post with the Lovers, but latterly was appointed a Vice-President.

After the early death of his first wife, Pat, he went back to Gloucester and was happily married for a second time to Mary. For the last years of his life Bomber was confined to a wheelchair, but this didn’t prevent him attending Gloucestershire matches and amusing any other spectators who happened across him with his tales of derring-do. He was also a regular attender at reunions of Old Notts Players, where members would still queue to obtain his autograph. B.D.Wells died in Gloucester on June 19 2008. I will close by quoting in full a letter I received from him some years back.