Adelaide Oval (Harold Larwood)Adelaide Oval (Harold Larwood)
A record crowd of 50,000 swarmed into Adelaide Oval for the Third Test and England reached a total of 341 runs by the the middle of the second day. In only his second over of the Australian innings and bowling to an off-side field, Larwood hit Woodfall with a rising delivery over his heart. Pandemonium broke out in the crowd.
Captain Jardine later wrote: 'After sympathising with Woodfull and bidding him take his time, I walked down the pitch where I found Hammond encouraging Larwood to take no notice of the sights, signs and sounds of trouble brewing at the ring side. I said: 'Well bowled, Harold.'' Jardine played the game hard, asked for, and gave no quarter.
In Larwood's next over, Jardine set a leg-side field which sent the crowd into a frenzy, counting Larwood out each time he bowled. Hit several times more before Allen bowled him, Woodfull batted on for a courageous 22 runs while Ponsford made a resolute 85 runs, suffering a few bruises in the process.
The ball that hit Oldfield started everything off. Not a recognised batsman, Oldfield had reached 40 with a leg glance off Larwood that went for 4, so Larwood dropped the next one short. Attempting to hook it, Oldfield mistimed it and was struck on the right side of the temple. All hell broke loose. Larwood, frightened that the injury might be serious, ran up to the crumpled figure. 'I'm sorry, Bertie,' he said. The plucky little wicket-keeper tried to collect himself and mumbled: 'It's not your fault, Harold.' An X-ray later revealed that Oldfield had suffered a fractured skull.
The crowd's anger exploded. 'Go home, you Pommie bastards!' they yelled as Woodfull assisted Oldfield from the field. The match continued amid a storm of barracking and abuse.
At the end of the day's play, police protection was offered to Larwood but big Bill Voce told them: 'Don't worry, we'll look after him.'
At the close of the Australian innings, the England team reached their dressing room through indignant members waving their hats and yelling abuse at them. Not normally an opening bat, but to show his contempt for the crowd - and his courage - Jardine opened England's innings. He strolled out wearing his Harlequin cap which riled the crowd even further and faced the bowling as if engaged in a game on the village green.
The hullabaloo made little difference to Harold's friendship with the Australian players - he and Bill Voce still sank a few cordial beers with McCabe, O'Reilly, Fingleton and the others.
At the height of the tumult, the Australian Board of Control sent a telegram to the MCC protesting that bodyline bowling 'was unsportsmanlike . . . and threatening friendly relations between England and Australia.'
In an indignant rejoinder, the MCC suggested the situation was not as serious as claimed, and offered to cancel the rest of the tour - if this is what Australia wanted. Splendid profits were being made and wiser heads prevailed.
On the last day but one of the Test, Larwood received a telegram from Archie Jackson as he lay dying from a chest complaint in a Brisbane private hospital: 'Congratulations - magnificent bowling. Good luck - all matches, Archie Jackson.' This was the same Archie Jackson, acknowledged in Australia as the greatest master batsman since Trumper, who had taken a bruising and stood up to Harold's bowling on a rain-affected pitch at the Oval in 1930.
England won the Adelaide Test by 338 runs, Larwood taking 7 for 126 . The Melbourne Truth wrote: 'England has descended to the backlane tactic of 'If you can't bowl 'em out, knock 'em out.''
A Sydney judge expressed the view that 'leg theory' bowling was covered by the criminal law. But many English writers denounced the Australians as a race of squealers and congratulated Larwood for shaking up cricket in Australia. Some Australian newspapers tried to give the impression that the England side was on the verge of internal revolt: 'It looks guineas to gooseberries on a first-class showdown startling the sporting world before the Fourth Test.'
In fact, the whole of the England team voted their confidence in the captain Jardine, for quite simply, it was a vote for England. He was the one person who could lead them to victory and that was what they all wanted - to win the Ashes.
None of these reports bothered Jardine. His second love to cricket was fishing and he went off in search of trout.
| Paynter's Match At the end of the first day in the Fourth Test at Brisbane, Australia looked set for a big score at 251 for 3 with Bradman 71 not out and England a player short - Eddie Paynter had to go to hospital with tonsillitis. But Larwood bowled Bradman and Ponsford in the first three overs of the second day and the remaining 7 wickets fell for a mere 89 runs. England struggled in their innings till a fevered Paynter rose from his sick bed to score a plucky 83 and change the state of the game. Australia collapsed to 175 in their second innings and when England reached 144 for 4, Paynter clouted a full toss off McCabe for 6 runs to clinch 'his' match - and the Ashes. Neville Cardus in the Observer suggested that a statue of Larwood should be erected in England: 'He has changed the face of Test cricket in Australia . . . batsmen were swollen with runs, gorged on centuries until they were fat . . . and he has transformed the slothful lawns of Australia into battlefields . . . The sturdy little man from Nottingham has got rid of the batsmen's drowsy bed of luxury . . . he has performed his deeds by pure and classical fast bowling aimed at the stumps.' |
Sydney
The Sydney Cricket Ground was packed to capacity for the last Test and after nearly two days in the field England finally dismissed Australia on a fast wicket. Though Larwood had sweated to take 4 for 98 off 32 overs Jardine asked him to bat as night watchman. 'This isn't fair,' Larwood objected.
Jardine
insisted and the fast
bowler went out to bat (pictured right) in a temper, survived until the
next day, then batted on spleen, attacking the bowling with
gusto. Fast bowler Bull Alexander kept bumping them down at him
while the 'Hill' egged him on: 'Knock his bloody head off, Bull!' One ball grazed his nose and when a
fielder remarked that it was a close one, Larwood casually
replied: 'Not really, I
had time to count its stitches.'
After scoring 98, including a 6, a 5 and nine 4's, the spectators, including all of the 'Hill', stood and cheered him off. The Australians may be good barrackers but they do appreciate good cricket. Larwood later learned that Jardine wanted him to bat early in order to give him a good rest before bowling. He just didn't explain it to Harold.
Woodfull and Bradman were well set in their second innings when Larwood injured his foot in the middle of an over. He could hardly walk. Woodfull would not take advantage of Larwood's injury and just patted his remaining slow balls back to him, but Jardine wouldn't allow Larwood to leave the field while Bradman was still batting. Two overs later Bradman was bowled by Hedley Verity and left the field accompanied by a limping Larwood.
Neither spoke a word. Larwood's foot was black and blue from a broken bone and he could take no further part in the match or the tour. Alexander bumped a few balls down at an unflinching Jardine but England won the Test by 8 wickets. The 'Hill' had the last word. When the English captain brushed a fly away from his face, a shout immediately came from the 'Hill': 'Hey, Jardine, leave our bloody flies alone!'
As a final snook at the Australians in their last game against South Australia, every England player wore a Harlequin cap except Jardine, who wore his England cap. The England team went on to New Zealand while Harold sailed home.
| Welcome Home An amazing midnight welcome greeted Larwood and his wife at Nottingham railway station. Refusing to go to bed, 20,000 people, some of them up lamp posts, raised deafening cheer after cheer. 'Good old Harold, the man who beat the Australians,' they shouted. Flowers were thrown and girls tried to kiss him while the police fought vainly to protect him from his well-wishers. Crowds lined the main streets all the way back to his home in Annesley Woodhouse. |
Bodyline Unfair?
The hard Australian wickets had taken their toll and in an operation, a small bone was removed from Larwood's foot. He hardly bowled at all throughout the 1933 season, and then off a shorter run. Notts. supporters raised £400 from a shilling fund for both Larwood and Voce, and with another £800 from the tour, Larwood extended his chicken farm into a market garden. He also took his father out of the pit.
In the middle of a Notts-Surrey match before a 20,000 crowd, Douglas Jardine presented Larwood with a silver ash-tray inscribed: 'To Harold for the Ashes 12-33. From a grateful skipper.'
In the meantime, cables were exchanged between the Australian Board of Control who wanted to legislate against intimidatory bowling, and the MCC who declared the term 'bodyline' unfair and refused to give an assurance that the type of bowling used in Australia would not be repeated. A compromise was agreed. No laws would be changed but they agreed that direct attacks on batsmen by bowlers offended the spirit of the game.
Political pressure was also applied. Diplomatic relations between England and Australia were at a low ebb and behind the scenes the MCC decided to placate the Australians in a hush-hush campaign to bury leg-theory. Jardine captained the England team touring India in that winter but then announced that he would not play against the Australians the following summer. No reasons were given.
It was then that Sir Julien Cahn approached Larwood asking him to apologise for his bowling in Australia. Larwood took it as treachery and stubbornly reacted, declaring himself unfit for the First Test against the Australians.
| MCC Plot
The MCC denied there had been pressure to force Larwood out but Larwood knew otherwise. Hurt by implications that his bowling was unsportsmanlike ('I never bowled to injure a man in my life. Frighten them, intimidate them, yes') and feeling that he had been deserted, Larwood announced that he wouldn't play in the rest of the Test matches. Carr and Larwood were both injured when Notts. played Australia prior to the Final Test but the Australians were aggrieved when Voce bowled leg-theory and took 8 for 66 in their first innings. In their second innings, the Australians had to face two overs of fierce bumpers from Voce before bad light stopped play. Next day the Notts. Secretary announced that Voce had retired from the match with sore shins - a diplomatic 'injury'. The Australians were roundly booed by the crowd but they went on to win the Test Series 2-1. Changes in the Laws were belatedly made for the 1935 season - lbw decisions could be given where balls pitched outside the off stump, and umpires were instructed to prevent intimidatory bowling at batsmen standing clear of the stumps. This effectively ended the bodyline controversy but its victims had already been claimed. Larwood never played for England again. Silently condemned and left with a stigma that he had bowled to maim a man deliberately, Larwood was left a bewildered man. Carr, for his support of Larwood and Voce, was sacked as captain of Notts. and there was a furore when it became known that the Notts. Committee had apologised to the MCC for Voce's two leg-theory overs against the Australians. Unsure that his injured foot would stand up to the terrific strain of that stamp on the ground every time he loosed a ball, Larwood had given up bowling at his fastest. Even off a shortened run he still topped the bowling averages with over 100 wickets in the 1936 season but it was team mate Bill Voce who went on the Australian tour in 1936-7. |
Benefit Match
In Larwood's benefit match the following year against Yorkshire, the Sunday Express wrote: 'He deserved brilliant sunshine and a fast bowler's wicket instead of grey skies, half a gale of wind and intermittent rain. Nevertheless 15,000 people turned up for the first day and did not fail to make their presence known when Larwood took a wicket . . . Hutton was yorked off-stump at 9 . . . and he gave Sutcliffe his break-back - for years Sutcliffe has presented two good Yorkshire pads to this ball but habit asserted itself and he was lbw under the new rule.'
In 1938 Len Hutton scored a record 364 runs against the Australians in the Final Test Match at the Oval and one of his partners was Joe Hardstaff Jnr. who scored a stalwart 169 not out. It was Joe's father who had introduced Larwood to Notts. County Cricket Club 15 years earlier.
In that same year Larwood became professional coach at Blackpool, but at the outbreak of war he retired from cricket for good and returned to Nottingham to grow vegetables and flowers. Returning to Blackpool in 1946, he opened a sweet shop. He didn't watch much cricket though he did play with a bat and ball on the sands with his daughters and other youngsters.
One day in 1948, Jack Fingleton, a former opening bat for Australia who had become a journalist, came to his shop. Casually talking about the sunshine in Australia, Larwood remarked: 'It wouldn't take me long to settle out there.'
Reported in the newspapers, he began to get offers from Australia and they appealed - England had lost some of its pull.
| Emigration His five daughters were a bit daft about Australia, ever since he had brought back a koala, 'Billie Bluegum', for the eldest in 1933. His wife was not so keen. At the end of the 1948 Australian tour of England he was invited to a farewell luncheon and was overcome by the friendly reception he received from Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller and Don Bradman himself, widely and wrongly perceived as a bitter foe. They all made him feel good. A year and a half later he sold the sweet shop - it only returned a small living - and sailed 'down under' with his family. Jardine gave him a farewell luncheon in London and John Arlott, along with a few Pressmen, saw him off at Tilbury. It was a wrench to leave England behind and from the ship he wrote to the Nottingham Guardian and Evening Post: '. . . convey to the Nottingham public our heartfelt thanks for the good wishes that have been showered upon us, we sincerely thank one and all . . .' The Australians, not ones to hold grudges and recognising one of their own - a man who gave his all on the cricket field - warmed to him the moment he stepped ashore. Welcomed by Bill Woodfull, Stan McCabe and all the players from the Bodyline tour, he was taken on a tour of Adelaide by the Secretary of the Australian Board of Control. Ben Chifley, a previous Labour Prime Minister, initially paid half his hotel bill in Sydney but Larwood expected no favours and began work as a warehouseman in a soft drinks firm. Two years later the hatchet was truly buried when both he and Jardine were invited for lunch with the Prime Minister Mr. Menzies, a keen follower of cricket.
He never did change from the soft-spoken, gentle, old-fashioned character he had always been. The wound that the MCC had inflicted began to heal after he had received their invitation to become an honorary member, and he retained lasting friendships, especially with his 'skipper' Douglas Jardine and Sir Jack Hobbs for whom he had the greatest respect. |
Richard Hobson of the Nottingham Evening Post interviewed Harold at his Sydney home on his 90th birthday. Pride of place above the fireplace hung the framed citation for the MBE awarded by John Major, the British Prime Minister. When asked about England's current tour of Australia, Larwood said: 'These Australians really do mean business. I don't know if people in England appreciate how much it means for Australia to hold the Ashes.'
He should know !
A Few Anecdotes
| Joe Hardstaff and the Maharajah The night before a game in Madras on Lord Tennyson's Indian tour of 1938, the Maharajah, who was a big drinker, invited some of the players over for a drinking competition. With everything on the table being sunk - whisky, brandy, gin, the lot - all the players dropped out except Joe Hardstaff who went with him drink for drink. But at 5am and the Maharajah still standing, Joe went out like a light. The players, a little worried, have to carry him home as good as dead. Next day he goes out to bat before lunch, stays all day and scores 213. According to Wisden, Hardstaff never appeared in trouble, batted five hours and hit twenty-four fours. |
| Bradman Thoery An Australian fast bowler constructed a theory that the position of Bradman's front foot made him vulnerable to a late-swinging ball that was pitched just short of a length. After working on the delivery through the winter, he travelled to Adelaide to face South Australia and Don Bradman. 'It went just as I planned,' he said later. 'I bowled one opener in my second over and in my sixth got the other leg before.' South Australia 2 for 33. 'In came Bradman. it took a while but eventually I gave him just the ball I was looking for, the one short of a length and swinging late. Going for the drive Don got a tickle and was caught at second slip. Bloody marvellous.' South Australia 3 for 395. |
| Harry Smith's Bouncers When Leicester take the field against Notts, Harry Smith likes the look of the wicket and tells his skipper: 'S-s-skipper, I think I'll b-b-bounce one or two.' Harry had a bit of a stutter. 'Wait a minute,' says the captain, 'they've got Larwood and Voce.' 'I'll just b-b-bounce one or two,' says Harry. So he bounces one or two and Notts don't like it. Before the end of the day, Leicester go in to bat and Larwood and Voce bowl them over like tin soldiers. Harry soon finds himself at the wicket. Larwood and Voce go for him and he's never seen so many balls bouncing around his ears. Suddenly he gets a touch and Sam Staples catches him at second slip. Harry takes off his gloves and walks. 'Wait a minute,' says Sam, 'it was a bump ball. I didn't catch it!' 'Yes, you b-b-loody-well did,' says Harry, and he's back in the pavilion before you can say Jack Robinson. |
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| Sherwood Spirit |
The situation boiled up when
Larwood and Voce demolished Lancashire in a County match
in which several players were hit. Lancashire threatened
not to play Notts in the following season and Arthur Carr, the Notts
captain (pictured right) believed it to be part of a plot by the MCC
to force Larwood not to bowl leg-theory in the Tests. He
wrote in a newspaper: 'Larwood has proved that batsmen cannot play
fast bowling . . . If we happen to have the two best fast
bowlers in the world, Larwood and Voce, that is not our
fault. For years batsmen have been using their pads and
their bodies as a shield. It is about time it was
stopped.'
Larwood liked Australians, found them a warm
and friendly people, easy to get along with. Sometimes
Lois would become homesick for the English Spring but
Harold became a fair-dinkum Aussie, though never losing
his dialect, nor
his pride in coming from Nottinghamshire (pictured right), for that was where his
heart remained. 