Harold Larwood (14 November 1904 – 22 July 1995) was a cricketer for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team between 1924 and 1938. A right-arm fast bowler who combined extreme speeds with great accuracy, he was considered by many players and commentators to be the finest and the fastest fast bowler of his generation and one of the fastest bowlers of all time. He was the main exponent of the bowling style known as "bodyline", the use of which during the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour of Australia in 1932–33 caused a furore that brought about a premature and acrimonious end to his international career.

A coal miner's son who began working in the mines at the age of 14, Larwood was recommended to Nottinghamshire on the basis of his performances in club cricket, and rapidly acquired a place among the country's leading bowlers. He made his Test debut in 1926, in only his second season in first-class cricket, and was a member of the 1928–29 touring side that retained the Ashes in Australia. The advent of the Australian batsman Don Bradman ended a period of English cricket supremacy; Larwood and other bowlers were completely dominated by Bradman during Australia's victorious tour of 1930. Thereafter, under the guidance of England's combative captain Douglas Jardine, the fast leg theory or bodyline bowling attack was developed. With Larwood as its spearhead the tactic was used with considerable success in the 1932–33 Test series in Australia. The Australians' description of the method as "unsportsmanlike" soured cricketing and political relations between the two countries; during subsequent efforts to heal the breach, Larwood refused to apologise for his bowling, since he was carrying out his captain's instructions. He never played for England after the 1932–33 tour, but continued his county career with considerable success for several more seasons.

In 1949, after years out of the limelight, Larwood was elected to honorary membership of the MCC. The following year he and his family were encouraged by former opponent Jack Fingleton to emigrate and settle in Australia, where he was warmly welcomed, in contrast to the reception accorded him in his cricketing days. He worked for a soft drinks firm, and as an occasional reporter and commentator on Tests against visiting England sides. He paid several visits to England, and was honoured at his old county ground, Trent Bridge, where a stand was named after him. In 1993, at the age of 88, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in belated recognition of his services to cricket. He died two years later.

Early life

Harold Larwood was born on 14 November 1904 in the Nottinghamshire village of Nuncargate, near the coal mining town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield. He was the fourth of five sons born to Robert Larwood, a miner, and his wife Mary, née Sharman.

From the age of five, Harold attended Kirkby Woodhouse school. Over the years this small village school produced, besides Larwood, four other international cricketers who became his contemporaries in the Nottinghamshire county side: William "Dodger" Whysall, Sam Staples, Bill Voce and Joe Hardstaff junior. He had shown an early talent for cricket, and began to play for Nuncargate's second team in 1918. Playing against experienced adults, in his first season he took 76 wickets at an average of 4.9. By 1920 he was in the first team, alongside his father, playing in plimsolls because the family could not afford to buy him proper cricket boots.

Cricket career

County recruit

Despite his short stature (at 18 he was only 5 feet 4 inches tall), Larwood had acquired considerable stamina and upper body strength from his long shifts at the mine and could bowl at a disconcertingly fast speed. Among those who watched his rising prowess as a fast bowler was Joe Hardstaff senior, the Nottinghamshire and England cricketer who lived in Nuncargate. Hardstaff, who had worked with Robert Larwood at the mine, suggested to the youthful bowler that he should attend a trial at the county ground.

thumb|left|Trent Bridge cricket ground (2007 photograph). The main pavilion appears much as it did in Larwood's day.

In the practice nets, the county players towered over Larwood; the veteran Test batsman George Gunn thought he looked more like a jockey than a cricketer. At first he bowled badly, and his efforts were unimpressive. As his confidence increased his bowling improved, and committee members began to revise their initial dismissive judgement; when the session ended, Larwood was offered a playing contract. He accepted instantly; the terms were 32 shillings (£1.60) per week—the same as his mining wages—and he was expected, when not playing, to carry out ground staff duties. Robert Larwood was angry that his son had not asked for more generous terms, but according to Hamilton, Harold would have agreed to anything to escape from the mine, even for a single summer. That year he played intermittently for the county's Second XI, and in a match against Lancashire Seconds took 8 wickets for 44 runs.

Larwood was first called for full county duty on 20 August 1924, His assessment of his performance was negative: "I wasn't ready". Iremonger was much more positive, assuring Larwood that his bowling required only fine tuning. Larwood had also gained the support of the county captain, Arthur Carr, a powerful personality who decided that the new recruit had the makings of a future Test match bowler. "The best way to deal with him", Carr said later, "was as if he was my own son". Carr played a major part in encouraging and developing the young bowler's talents, and acted as Larwood's guiding spirit throughout the latter's career. |group= n

Larwood had to wait until June 1925 for his next county match, which was against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane in Sheffield. From that point he became a regular member of the county side; with best match figures of 11 for 41 against Worcestershire. From time to time he showed good form as a batsman, his best score being 70 against Northamptonshire.

Test cricketer

Larwood began the 1926 county season in good form; during a drawn match against Surrey, he twice took the wicket of Jack Hobbs, England's premier batsman and an influential voice with the national selectors. The Australians were in England, to defend the Ashes in a five-match Test series, and Carr had been appointed to captain England. Hobbs was convinced that Larwood was good enough to play for his country; this recommendation may have prompted the young bowler's inclusion in a "Test Trial" match at Lord's, early in June. Larwood took five wickets in the match, but was not selected for the first Test, which in any event was ruined by rain after barely an hour's play. For the second Test, due to begin at Lord's on 26 June, the selectors took a gamble and selected the youthful Larwood. His reaction when told by Carr was to protest that he was not good enough; Carr assured him that he was. He thought his performance "wasn't great ... I wasted a lot of energy". He was not selected for the Third or Fourth Tests, both of which ended in draws; Primarily at the urging of Hobbs, Larwood was recalled for this critical game. On a tumultuous final day the Australians, needing 415 to win, were bowled out for 125, the main bowling honours being shared between Larwood (3 wickets for 34) and the 49-year-old veteran Wilfred Rhodes (4 for 44), who had first appeared for England in 1899, five years before Larwood was born. The victory meant that England had secured the Ashes for the first time since 1912. Among many tributes recognising Larwood's performance was one from the former England captain Pelham Warner, who predicted a big future, but noted that "he must guard against bowling just short of a length".

In the 1926 season as a whole, Larwood took 137 wickets at 18.31; with the bat he scored 451 runs at 12.88. The 1927 season saw the first appearance in the Nottinghamshire side of Bill Voce, a 17-year-old ex-miner who, after beginning as a slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler, later became Larwood's principal fast bowling partner for county and country. At the season's end, Larwood was married, in a quiet and private ceremony, to Lois Bird, a miner's daughter whom he had first met in 1925.

Larwood did not join the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)'s weak team that toured South Africa in 1927–28 under the inexperienced R. T. Stanyforth. During 1928 Larwood appeared in two Tests against an emergent West Indies side that was playing its first series. He took six wickets in these matches, but his best performances that season were for Nottinghamshire. With 138 wickets at 14.51, Larwood once again headed the national bowling averages.

Australian tour, 1928–29

thumb|left|Chapman (centre) leads the England team on to the field during the Brisbane Test.

On the basis of his form, Larwood was an obvious choice for the MCC touring side that Chapman took to Australia in the English winter of 1928–29.

England won the Brisbane Test by a record margin of 675 runs. Larwood took 6 for 32 in the Australian first innings, bowling at a speed that Wisdens S. J. Southerton described as "faster than I have ever seen him". According to Jardine's biographer Christopher Douglas, this bowling, which included a spell of 3 wickets in 5 overs for 9 runs, delivered a lasting blow to Australian morale and was a major factor in England's ultimate series victory. The match saw a low-key Test debut by Don Bradman, who scored 18 and 1 and was dropped for the second Test, before being rapidly reinstated for the third. England maintained their ascendancy during the second, third and fourth Tests, though with decreasing victory margins; Australia finally achieved success in the last match, giving England a 4–1 series victory. A combination of hard pitches, stifling heat, and long matches reduced Larwood's effectiveness as the tour progressed. In all first-class matches on the tour, Larwood took 40 wickets at 31.35; as a batsman he scored 367 runs, averaging 26.21.

thumb|right|upright|Larwood in Australia in February 1929

Southerton's tour report refers to the crowds' reactions to the England team, and in particular to the "barracking" of Larwood. This, he says, only once reached unacceptable proportions—during the game against Victoria that took place between the fourth and fifth Tests. In general, Southerton felt that crowd noise was no worse than that accorded to previous touring teams and that, "objectionable though it may appear to be to us in England, it has grown up with Australian cricket and is recognised by the public out there as part of their day's enjoyment". The Surrey amateur batsman Douglas Jardine, was likewise a target of the crowds, and as a result formed a cordial dislike for Australians—which was fully reciprocated. He was injured during the third Test, and thus missed the last two games of the series and several county matches. His overall bowling figures for the 1929 season were less impressive than in the two previous years; with 117 wickets at 21.66 he fell to 25th place in the national averages. The 20-year-old Voce, whose fast-medium bowling style had now fully developed, was the county's most successful bowler.

Ahead of the Australians' visit to England in 1930 there was some confidence in English cricketing circles, since Chapman's victorious 1928–29 side was largely intact and on paper looked formidably strong, especially in batting. England duly won the first Test, at Trent Bridge, by 93 runs, despite a second-innings century from Bradman that for a time threatened to turn the match. Larwood's active participation was curtailed by an attack of gastritis; he took 2 wickets in the match for 21 runs.

His illness meant that Larwood missed the second Test, at Lord's, which saw Australia score a record 729 for 6 including a rapid 254 from Bradman, at the time the highest individual Test score in England. Australia won the game by seven wickets, to draw level 1–1 in the five-match series. Larwood returned to the England side for the third Test, at Headingley, Leeds. He later claimed that his first ball to Bradman, before the batsman had scored, was a bouncer that touched the edge of the bat and was caught by the wicket-keeper, George Duckworth: "You could hear the snick all over the ground". The umpire, however, gave Bradman not out. Bradman went on to compile 334, beating his record score of two weeks earlier. Larwood's one wicket in the Australian innings cost 139 runs; England were saved from probable defeat when the game was shortened by rain. The England selectors dropped Larwood from the team for the fourth Test, in which Bradman was limited to 14 runs, but the game was rained off after just over two days' play. Larwood was recalled for the final Test at the Oval that, as in 1926, would determine the series victor. In a game with no time limit, Australia replied to England's 405 with 695 (Bradman 232), then dismissed England for 251 to win by an innings and 39 runs. Larwood's single wicket—Bradman, for the first time in Tests—cost 132 runs. In the three Tests in which he played, Larwood took 4 wickets for 292; Bradman, he admitted, had "pasted me unmercifully". Commentators recognised the danger that Bradman presented to English hopes; the former England bowler Percy Fender, who was captain of Surrey and a respected cricket journalist, was convinced that "something new will have to be introduced to curb Bradman". Warner was explicit: "England must evolve a new type of bowler and develop fresh ideas and strange tactics to curb his almost uncanny skill".

Prelude to bodyline

Apart from his treatment by Bradman, Larwood was successful in 1930, rising to fourth place in the national bowling averages (99 wickets at 16.38). He was not selected for the 1930–31 tour of South Africa, and for the next two years he concentrated mainly on domestic cricket. He made one Test appearance in 1931, against New Zealand, in a rain-ruined game in which he neither batted nor bowled. He headed the domestic bowling averages in 1931 and 1932, The 1932 Test trial was limited to half a day's play, during which Larwood bowled 15 overs for a single wicket. Nevertheless, to his great relief he was selected for the tour, In his efforts to build a strategy whereby he could threaten the Australian supremacy, the new captain consulted widely. Along with other observers, including Duckworth (who had kept wicket for England during the 1930 Oval Test) he thought that Bradman showed a dislike for fast, rising balls, and had been shaken when one such delivery from Larwood had hit him in the chest. This matter had been widely discussed among cricketers; a clip of film from the Oval match appeared to confirm that Bradman had flinched. This, to Jardine, suggested the basis of a plan: a sustained attack of fast leg theory that might unsettle not just Bradman but the Australian batsmen generally.

Leg theory bowling was not new; Larwood, Voce and others had employed it, generally for short periods, What Jardine planned was a sustained leg stump attack, used in conjunction with a semicircle of close leg-side fielders ready to pounce on any mistimed shot. At a private dinner at the Piccadilly Hotel, which Jardine and Carr arranged shortly after the announcement of the 1932–33 touring party, Larwood and Voce were quizzed about leg theory. Larwood later recalled the conversation thus:

<blockquote> Jardine asked me if I could bowl on the leg stump making the ball come up into the body all the time, so that Bradman had to play his shots to leg. "Yes, I think that can be done", I said&nbsp;... I had no doubt of its purpose: we thought Don was frightened of sharp rising balls, and we reasoned that if he got a lot of them he would be&nbsp;... intimidated and eventually, having to direct his shots to leg all the time, would give a catch to one of the [leg-side] fieldsmen".</blockquote>

In pursuit of his plans, Jardine took advice on fielding positions from Frank Foster, who had bowled a form of medium-fast leg theory during the 1911–12 series in Australia with much success, taking 32 wickets at 21.63. Larwood did not at the time consider Jardine's proposed tactics as either novel or controversial. His priority was to contain Bradman, so "any scheme that would keep him in check appealed to me a great deal". In county matches following the Piccadilly Hotel dinner, Larwood and Voce tried the tactics out, with mixed results. Two Essex batsmen sustained injuries as their side struggled with the unfamiliar bowling, at one stage losing 8 wickets for 52 runs. However, Glamorgan, reckoned to be a weak batting side, scored more than 500 against the experimental attack; spectators, including the future cricket writer and commentator John Arlott, were puzzled by the ineffectiveness of the bowling. Hostile fast bowling was not confined to Larwood and Voce; in Yorkshire's match against Surrey at The Oval, Bill Bowes bowled a series of bouncers, bringing protests from Hobbs and press criticism from Warner.

Australian tour, 1932–33

The MCC party that sailed for Australia on 17 September 1932 contained four fast bowlers: Larwood, Voce, Bowes and G.O. "Gubby" Allen, the Middlesex amateur. Warner was manager of the side; he had captained two tours to Australia prior to 1914 and was a popular figure there. The manager's role, as the tour's historian Laurence Le Quesne remarks, was at the time less influential than that of the captain, who had absolute authority on the field of play.

Prior to the Test series, the party played matches against State sides and selected Australian elevens. The intended fast leg theory attack was not revealed until the fifth of these games, against "An Australian XI" (including Bradman), which began at Melbourne on 18 November. Larwood dismissed Bradman for low scores in each of the Australian innings, writing later: "It was a refreshing sight to see [him] clumsily waving his bat in the air". Hobbs, who having retired from Test cricket was reporting the tour for London's The Star newspaper, thought that the bowling had shaken Bradman's confidence: "He was drawing away, sure proof that he didn't like the bumpers". The English tactics in the game offended the crowds and so upset H.V. Evatt (later leader of the Australian Labor Party, then a High Court judge) that he lost all desire to watch any of that year's Tests.

The first Test began at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 2 December 1932, and was played in a tense and heated atmosphere. Bradman, whose discomfort and poor form against the tourists' bowling in the preparatory games had become sources of anxiety, was prevented from playing by illness. England won the game by 10 wickets; Larwood's match figures were 10 for 124, with only limited use of fast leg theory. The match's most successful batsman was Australia's Stan McCabe, who scored 187 in his side's first innings, attacking both the orthodox and leg theory attacks in a "death or glory" approach. During the match Hugh Buggy, a reporter for the Melbourne Herald, used the word "bodyline" to describe the English leg theory bowling. The term was soon universally adopted in Australia, though English sources continued to refer to "leg theory". The second Test, at Melbourne beginning 30 December, was played on a much slower pitch that blunted the English pace attack. Larwood was further handicapped by pains from sore feet, caused by a new pair of boots. Bradman returned to the Australian side and scored a century, guiding his team to victory by 111 runs; his success led many commentators to suppose that fast leg theory would thenceforth prove ineffective. The series was tied 1–1 and, in the words of the writer-historian Ronald Blythe, "all was sweetness and light".

thumb|300px|The bodyline strategy in action: Woodfull (extreme left) ducks under a ball, while five fielders wait on the leg side. The wicket-keeper, [[Les Ames|Leslie Ames, is centre picture; Jardine is third from right ]]

The third Test, which began at Adelaide on 13 January 1933, has been characterised by Wisden as "probably the most unpleasant [Test match] ever played". Bill Woodfull, the Australian captain, was struck over the heart by a ball from Larwood and was incapacitated for several minutes. Larwood had been bowling to an orthodox field; on Woodfull's resumption, to the crowd's amazed hostility, Jardine switched to the leg theory attack. "What could be clearer", wrote Swanton, "than that at the root of these leg-theory tactics was the threat of physical injury?". Later in the innings a Larwood delivery struck Bert Oldfield on the head, causing his retirement from the match. The crowd's reaction was such that Larwood thought a full-scale invasion of the pitch might follow: "If one man jumps the fence the whole mob will go for us".

Notes and references

;Notes

;Citations

Sources

  • [First published 1946]
  • [First published 1965]
  • A 15-second clip of Larwood's run-up and delivery Filmed during the third Test at Adelaide, January 1933, this shows the ball that hit and injured Oldfield.