Herbert Francis Thomas Buse (1910–1992) was a cricketer who played 304 first-class matches for Somerset before and after the Second World War.
As a bowler, he went through a variety of fussy mannerisms before delivering the ball, all of which served only to endear him to Somerset cricket crowds.
"There was his studious contemplation, his stuttering approach, the touch of acceleration and the undisguised smile when the batsman failed to counter the late swing," is one description.
As a batsman, Buse also had a distinctive style that involved a strange dabbing stroke that steered the ball through the slips or gully towards third man.
[2] Buse was accorded a benefit match by Somerset in his final first-class season, 1953, and picked the three-day County Championship game against Lancashire at Bath.
But Somerset waived the match costs and a fund was set up to recompense Buse which raised around £2,800, the kind of sum he might have expected from a game that ran the intended three days.
Outside cricket, he was an all-round sportsman, appearing for Bath rugby club at full-back and also playing table tennis and billiards to high standard.
After retiring from cricket, he coached in South Africa (at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg his pupils included Ali Bacher)[7] and ran a pub for a while before returning to Bath to work on the local evening newspaper.