As widely marked on social media today, 14 November is the 121st anniversary of the birth of one of Nottinghamshire's greatest men ever, Harold Larwood.
Below is the earliest mention [that I have found]of the term "bodyline" used in the Nottingham Evening Post on the 28 December 1932. There are earlier uses of the term, but those are related to carriage design rather than cricket.
Interesting, there has been talk of Wood and Archer bowling a form of "bodyline" in the soon to start Ashes series. Wood injury issue puts that in doubt I think England have a good group of fast medium bowlers, including Josh, but they take wickets by pitching the ball on a good length with late movement.
ReplyDeleteYes Rich, you don’t see too much pace in cricket ๐ in general thesedays - Archer MKI on his debut was too quick for their batsmen before England ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ bowled him into the ground. Hopefully he can be somewhere near that in this series down under.
ReplyDeleteRemember our batsmen hopping about at the crease in the 13/14 Ashes when Mitchell Johnson produced those awesome displays- he retired the careers of about half the team !!!
Not just pace, it’s that slingy type of action that causes additional problems for the batters. I think Larwood had this type of action from the bits of footage I’ve seen, very fluid movement similar to Trueman as opposed to charging in like the Rawalpindi Express himself !!!!
I remember Lillie and Thompson making our guys hop about a bit, As mentioned above Mitchell Johnson was another, Can't help but think it would be nice to give them back a little of what they gave us. Having said that one of the most successful fast bowlers in recent times was Glenn McGrath, Someone who did not need express pace to take his wickets, Food for thought maybe ?
ReplyDeleteZanga
Yes Zanga, and little(if any) in the way of protective headgear certainly when Lillee & Thompson we’re in their peak
DeleteGreat footage of Derek doting his cap ๐งข in the centenary test I think it was to Dennis Lillee
Glenn McGrath was the complete fast-medium bowler - had everything in his locker and with his height, could bowl a nasty delivery at the batsman still
But as you rightly point out, suspect he took the vast majority of his test wickets by trying to hit the top ๐ of off stump, just back of a good length
Sounds easy ? - it’s not for the vast majority trying to attain that high level of craft and skill