He made his wicketkeeping reputation standing up to the stumps and taking tricky spin bowling from Johnny Lawrence, Ellis Robinson, and later Colin McCool, but in his 40s he proved he was no slouch standing back to faster bowlers as Somerset's attack turned successfully to seam in the early 1960s. He set the county records for stumpings in a season, in 1949, and for catches in a season, in 1963, as well as for the most dismissals in a season. He also set the county record for the number of career dismissals, was the first to make six dismissals in an innings, and equalled the county record of nine dismissals in a match.