Cricket 1910

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Bosanquet,'the famous amateur of Middlesex County, helped to win Test matches for England by his “ googlies ” there has been a good deal of talk amongst cricketers about that sort of bowling. When you deliver with a leg break action, and the ball, instead of breaking from leg, breaks from the off, you have sent down a “ googlie.” Bosanquet was the first to achieve distinction with that ball, yet when he played with Warner’s New Zealand team against Victoria on tbe Melbourne ground, in the season 1902-3, the lookers-on laughed at his lack of length and direction. In that match Harry Graham actually ran out as far as point to smite him. Warner states that by playing stump cricket with a tennis ball Bo^anquet originated the “ googlie.” If his initial efforts excited laughter, there certainly was no laughter in later years, when, by practice and perseverance, he managed to get something like “ length,” and became so effective that the best batsmen in Australia were dismissed by him in this country, and in England, in contests for the cricket supremacy of the world. The South Africans have studied the “ googlie ” with such excellent results that they carried off the laurels in great style against a strong English eleven in a series of TeBt matches last season in South Africa. Doubtless this discomfiture of a fine English team, chiefly by means of “ googlie ” bowling, is the principal reason why Mr. P. A. Vaile writes at some length upon the subject of “ googlie” bowling in “ Pearson’s Magazine” for June. He deals with the “ googlie ” in quite a scientific manner. In his opinion the secret of the “ googlie ” lies in one word, “ overspin.” He explains “ overspin ” thus: —“ Roll the cricket ball along to the bats­ man. It is running over the sward just as a wheel moves along a road. Put the same motion on the ball when it is in the air, and you have overspin. There is, of course, this important difference from the rolling ball. The number of revolutions the roll­ ing ball makes bears a definite proportion to the distance it travels. This is not so with the ball spinning through the air. One ball may in the same distance spin many times as often as another. This partly accounts for the great variation in pace, break and flight of the ball under con­ sideration. It at once occurs to the cricketer that to get break you must have cross spin. Mr. Vaile, however, sticks to the overspin, but he adds:—“ It is overspin lying over at an angle of, say, 50 deg. In­ stead of rolling the wheel down the pitch in an upright position, you start it going with an inclination to one side. This is what the googlie does in the air.” Mr. Vaile does not like the name “ googlie.” He looks upon it as “ somewhat silly.” The first man who used the name was “ the bowler of a century,” Frank Allan. It must be fully 30 years ago when be said, “ I will send him a ‘ googly’ or ‘ googler.’ ” I am not sure now which it was, but it meant a slow ball tossed a bit high. Wyn Murray, of Bendigo, told me last season that years ago a “ Cousin Jack” cricketer advised him to “ googly ” a batsman out. So we have it as a noun and a verb. I do not know what caused Frank Allan to term a slow high ball a “ googler” or “ googlie.” The ball maybe looks infantile, or such as a child would bowl. Hence “ goo.” Then that infantile or childlike toss is supposed to hide some trick or stratagem. Hence “ guile.” Thus we have “ goo-guile,” which, by an easy process of contraction, changes into “ googlie.” But it has to be borne in mind that the googlie in the days of Frank Allan is not the googlie of Bosanquet. Still I remember well the shock I once got when batting against the famous Lancastrian, A. G. Steel, at Scarborough many years ago. He bowled one with his usual leg-break action, and to my intense astonishment the ball broke back, and would have clean bowled me, only, fortunately, my right foot was in front of the wicket, and so I was saved. The ball pitched inches outside the off stump, and, of course, A. G. did not appeal. That ball was undoubtedly a genuine “ googlie,” with a faster break and lower flight than any I have ever seen sent down by Bosanquet. Our own old famous left- handed bowler, Tom Kendall, frequently delivered a ball that, judged by his action, would work away to leg. Yet on pitching it would turn in to the wicket from outside the leg stump. Our slow leg-break bowler, W. H. Cooper, could send down an off break, but his change of action was dis­ tinctly perceptible. I once saw him clean bowl the celebrated Notts batsman, Arthur Shrewsbury, with a beautiful breakback of perfect length in an international match on the Melbourne ground. Harry Trott, too, could bowl an off-break, but Harry’s change of action could easily be detected. George Palmer’s best off-break was a perfect gem. He could also bowl a leg-break, but the altered movement of arm and hand could be readily spotted. Tbe best leg- break I ever saw bowled was sent down by him on the Melbourne ground, when he clean bowled the Lancastrian Vernon Royle on a billiard-table pitch on the Melbourne ground. The batsman had made 75, and seemed set for the century. Yet so abso­ lutely perfect was the length and the break that he was completely non-plussed and beaten. It is worth noting that in his Oxford University days Bosanquet was quite a fast bowler. By changing into a “ googlie ” bowler he has achieved such distinction that one would reasonably expect young bowlers in England inclined to adopt his method. Yet Mr. Vaile says to English cricketers, “ Why cannot we bowl the googlie ? If the South Africans can learn it, Englishmen can. Granted this, we are face to face with the fact that English cricketers do not trouble to acquire the deadliest mode of attack known in ' their national game. It must be either stupidity or laziness. There is nothing else for it.” In Sydney BosanqUet has had several imitators, and, judging by his success in America, young Hordern is the best. He, I think, will play for New South Wales next season, and from what I have heard he is likely to perform well. In Melbourne we have had for some seasons a “ googlie ” bowler in Barry, of East Mel­ bourne and South Melbourne. He breaks from either Bide without any noticeable change of action. I once saw him clean bowl G. Healy with a leg-break action ball, which pitched more than a foot outside the off stump, and not only broke back, but never left the grass. It was a staggerer. The great drawback is that Barry’s length is anyhow in its glorious uncertainty. Mr. Vaile specially refers to the success of the googlie in South Africa, and quotes