His ability to bowl left-arm wrist spinners that turned and bounced much more sharply, made him preferred over Tony Lock in his heyday.

[1] Wardle is the only English bowler to master this unusual style, and it gave him many of his greatest successes, notably in South Africa in 1956–1957, where he achieved the feat of taking 100 wickets in a season outside England.

In spite of a dry summer in 1947, Wardle was chosen for a largely experimental, Gubby Allen-led, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour of the West Indies.

Though an injury wiped out a quarter of his 1949 season, Wardle was deadly on the few rain-affected pitches that summer, and his bowling helped Yorkshire to make a late, albeit unsuccessful, tilt at the County Championship title.

The latter innings were of real consequence as Wardle, batting with Len Hutton, put on 105 for the seventh wicket which heralded a series-saving victory for England.

In the wet summer of 1956, Lock was again preferred in the Test side, to the disgust of the Yorkshire members,[1] but Wardle, chiefly bowling wrist-spin, baffled all South African batsmen that winter on pitches giving him little help.

Wardle was big enough to admit his troubles were largely of his own making, and any ill feelings on his part was forgotten when he helped Yorkshire and England off-spinner Geoff Cope to iron out the problems in his action, which had occasionally had him 'called' for throwing.

[3] Consequently, Wardle played the rest of his cricket as a professional in the Lancashire League for Nelson and Rishton, and until 1969 with Cambridgeshire in the Minor Counties Championship.