Clem Hill's Reminiscences

It is strange how batsmen differ in their views on the difficulties of a bowler. I asked Kelly as I passed him on my way in to bat one day if the bowlers were ‘doing anything’. He said they were ‘doing a lot’, meaning that they were making the ball turn. I nearly lost my wicket waiting for the break; his notion of one was very different from mine. There were many players new to Australia in the English side this 1902 season. Among the bowlers were Barnes, Braund, Blythe, Gunn and G.L.Jessop, and included among the batsmen were J.T.Tyldesley, W.G.Quaife and A.O.Jones. Lilley was the wicket-keeper. Barnes had been found by A.C.MacLaren when playing in the Lancashire League, and lifted straight up into the best company. He, in my opinion, was England’s greatest bowler of his type. He was right arm of medium pace with an off-break, and he could also turn the ball from the leg. He kept a remarkably good length; in fact, he could almost always hit a threepenny piece on the wicket. His flight was most deceptive, and he could make the ball fizz through off the pitch. Braund was a slow leg-break bowler who had all our batsmen worried at the start. He bowled at the batsman’s pads well outside the leg stump, and the ball broke into the wicket. He had four or five fieldsmen on the leg side – leg theory by a slow bowler. It was laughable watching some of the right-handers get him away to leg. As I was a left-hander I was not troubled so much, as the ball broke towards me. Blythe was a slow left-hand bowler with a kind of stuttering run up to the wicket. I have never played against a bowler who flighted the ball more deceptively than he did. If he got any assistance from the wicket he was most dangerous. Gunn was also a left-hander, but of a different type from Blythe. His deliveries were faster and were of a lower trajectory. His most dangerous ball was one that he swung with his arm. I regard Tyldesley as one of the six greatest batsmen who ever played against us. He could make every shot possible to a batsman. I don’t know of anybody who hit a sharp rising ball square past point with such power as he could. Darling and Noble could hit almost as hard. Sometimes this ball was sent along in the hope that he would touch it into the slips, but he would crack it for four, having got right over the top of it. On a sticky wicket he was England’s best batsman. MacLaren’s Tour of Australia 59