Hedley Verity was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler,he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.90 and 144 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 24.37. Named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1932,he is regarded as one of the most effective slow left-arm bowlers to have played cricket. Never someone who spun the ball sharply,he achieved success through the accuracy of his bowling. On pitches which made batting difficult,particularly ones affected by rain,he could be almost impossible to bat against.
Frederick Robert Spofforth,also known as "The Demon Bowler",was arguably the Australian cricket team's finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century. He was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets,and the first to take a Test hat-trick,in 1879. He played in Test matches for Australia between 1877 and 1887,and then settled in England where he played for Derbyshire. In 2009,he was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
Robert Peel was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire between 1883 and 1897. Primarily a left-arm spin bowler,Peel was also an effective left-handed batsman who played in the middle order. Between 1884 and 1896,he was regularly selected to represent England,playing 20 Test matches in which he took 101 wickets. Over the course of his career,he scored 12,191 runs and took 1,775 wickets in first-class cricket. A match-winning bowler,particularly when conditions favoured his style,Peel generally opened the attack,an orthodox tactic for a spinner at the time,and was highly regarded by critics.
John Thomas Hearne was a Middlesex and England medium-fast bowler. His aggregate of 3061 first-class wickets is the greatest for any bowler of medium pace or above,and his 257 wickets in 1896 is the tenth highest total on record. In 1891,1896,1898,1904 and 1910 Hearne headed the first-class bowling averages.
Tom Richardson was an English cricketer. A fast bowler,Richardson relied to a great extent on the break-back,a relatively long run-up and high arm which allowed him to gain sharp lift on fast pitches even from the full,straight length he always bowled. He played 358 first-class cricket matches including 14 Tests,taking a total of 2,104 wickets. In the four consecutive seasons from 1894 to 1897 he took 1,005 wickets,a figure surpassed over such a period only by the slow bowler Tich Freeman. He took 290 wickets in 1895,again a figure only exceeded by Freeman (twice). In 1963 Neville Cardus selected him as one of his "Six Giants of the Wisden Century".
Johnny Briggs was an English left arm spin bowler who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1879 and 1900 and remains the second-highest wicket-taker in the county's history after Brian Statham. In the early days of Test cricket,Briggs‘batting was considered careless,although still very useful. He was the first bowler in Test cricket to take 100 wickets,and held the record of most wickets in Test cricket on two occasions,the first in 1895 and again from 1898 until 1904,when he was succeeded by Hugh Trumble. He toured Australia a record six times,a feat only equalled by Colin Cowdrey.
Wilfred Rhodes was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests,Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs,becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches. He holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket,and for the most wickets taken (4,204). He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season a record 16 times. Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties,and in his final Test in 1930 was,at 52 years and 165 days,the oldest player who has appeared in a Test match.
Hugh Trumble was an Australian cricketer who played 32 Test matches as a bowling all-rounder between 1890 and 1904. He captained the Australian team in two Tests,winning both. Trumble took 141 wickets in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of 21.78 runs per wicket. He is one of only four bowlers to twice take a hat-trick in Test cricket. Observers in Trumble's day,including the authoritative Wisden Cricketers' Almanack,regarded him as ranking among the great Australian bowlers of the Golden Age of cricket. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1897 and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame,established in 1996,inducted him in 2004.
George Herbert Hirst was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1921,with a further appearance in 1929. One of the best all-rounders of his time,Hirst was a left arm medium-fast bowler and right-handed batsman. He played in 24 Test matches for England between 1897 and 1909,touring Australia twice. He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season 14 times,the second most of any cricketer after his contemporary and team-mate Wilfred Rhodes. One of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1901,Hirst scored 36,356 runs and took 2,742 wickets in first-class cricket. In Tests,he made 790 runs and captured 59 wickets.
George Ulyett was an English cricketer,noted particularly for his very aggressive batsmanship. A well-liked man,Ulyett was popularly known as "Happy Jack",once musing memorably that Yorkshire played him only for his good behaviour and his whistling. A fine all round sportsman,Ulyett played football in the 1882–83 and 1883–84 seasons as goalkeeper for Sheffield Wednesday.
Allen Hill played in the first-ever cricket Test,taking the first wicket. Hill also went on to umpire in the Test match played at Lord's in 1890.
1947 was the 48th season of County Championship cricket in England. It is chiefly remembered for the batting performances of Denis Compton and Bill Edrich who established seasonal records that,with the subsequent reduction in the number of first-class matches,will probably never be broken. Their form was key to their team Middlesex winning the County Championship for the first time since 1921,although they were involved in a tight contest for the title with the eventual runners-up Gloucestershire,for whom Tom Goddard was the most outstanding bowler of the season. Compton and Edrich were assisted by the fact that it was the driest and sunniest English summer for a generation,ensuring plenty of good batting wickets.
1869 was the 83rd season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The Cambridgeshire club went into demise,thougha team called Cambridgeshire later played in two specially arranged matches,in 1869 against Yorkshire and in 1871 against Surrey. After that,Cambridgeshire ceased to be a first-class team. The problem was attributed to the lack of available amateurs to back up the famous trio of Bob Carpenter,the first Tom Hayward and George Tarrant,along with the absence of useful patronage and the difficulty of obtaining membership which led to a debt deemed unpayable.
1870 was the 84th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It was in many ways a bridge between two eras of the game and,in a summer comparable for hot and dry weather to 1887,1911,1976 or 1995,saw W.G. Grace for the second of three successive years establish a record run aggregate,late-blooming slow bowler James Southerton become the first bowler to take 200 first-class wickets in a season and the first use of the heavy roller at Lord's. Although the heavy roller had been patented several decades earlier,its use was never seriously considered by MCC management despite many protests over the danger posed by the Lord's pitch where extremely frequent “shooters”alternated with balls that “flew”over the batsman's head. These dangerous pitches were viewed as a symbol of virility by many amateur batsmen,however;though when remembering one of W.G.’s finest innings –66 on one of the roughest Lord’s pitches against a very strong Yorkshire attack against Yorkshire –fast bowlers Freeman and Emmett wondered how the champion was not maimed or killed outright.
John "Jack" Crossland was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 1878 and 1887. Crossland was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in county cricket,but critics generally believed that he threw,rather than bowled the ball,a practice illegal in cricket. Contemporaries suggest that,but for the suspicions over his bowling action,Crossland would have played Test cricket for England.
Robert Posnett Smith,later known as Robert Posnett Stevens,was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1871 and 1884 and was captain of the side from 1876 to 1883. He was a member of the team that played Derbyshire's first match in May 1871.
A cricket team representing England toured Australia in the 1932–33 season. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and matches outside the Tests were played under the MCC name. The tour included five Test matches in Australia,and England won The Ashes by four games to one. The tour was highly controversial because of the bodyline bowling tactics used by the England team under the captaincy of Douglas Jardine. After the Australian tour was over,the MCC team moved on to play in New Zealand,where two further Test matches were played.
George Freeman was an English first-class cricketer. He made 32 appearances for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1865 to 1880. He also played four matches of first-class cricket for the "United England Eleven" (1866–1869),three games for the "North of England" (1867–1869),four for the "United North of England Eleven" (1870) plus one for the "Players" (1871).
The 1958–59 Ashes series consisted of five cricket Test matches,each scheduled for six days with eight ball overs. It formed part of the MCC tour of Australia in 1958–59,and the matches outside the Tests were played in the name of the Marylebone Cricket Club. The England team led by Peter May was labelled the strongest ever to leave England. It had the formidable bowling attack of Fred Trueman,Frank Tyson,Brian Statham,Peter Loader,Jim Laker and Tony Lock;the all-rounder Trevor Bailey;the outstanding wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans;and the batting of Colin Cowdrey,Tom Graveney,Raman Subba Row and Ted Dexter. They had won the last three Ashes series in 1953,1954–55 and 1956,but lost the series 4–0 to Australia. It was one of the biggest upsets in Test cricket history and the biggest margin of defeat in an Ashes series since the 5–0 "whitewashing" inflicted by Warwick Armstrong's Australians in 1920–21.
W. G. Grace established his reputation in 1864 and,by 1870,was widely recognised as the outstanding player in English cricket.
