Famous Cricketers No 4 - F.E.Woolley

SUCCESSFUL BOWLERS The following bowlers dismissed Woolley on five or more occasions:- 27 M.W.Tate 19 J.A.Newman 16 A.S.Kennedy 14 V.W.C.Jupp; W.Rhodes 13 P.G.H.Fender: A.A.Mailey; R.A.Sinfield 12 F.Barratt; G.G.Macaulay; E.A.McDonald; C.H.Parkin; F.A.Tarrant 11 F.J.Durston; J.M.Gregory; J.W.Hearne; A.W.Wellard; W.Wells 10 F.R.Foster; G.Geary; H.Larwood; M.S.Nichols; C.W.L.Parker; H.A.Smith; S.J.Staples 9 W.E.Astill; C.P.Buckenham; L.C.Eastman; T.W.J.Goddard; A.E.Thomas; W.Voce; J.C.White 8 F.S.G.Calthorpe; J.W.H.T.Douglas: A.R.Gover; C.V.Grimmett; N.E.Haig; J.W.Hitch; J.H.King; E.Mignon; C.I.J.Smith; E.A.Watts; T.S.Worthington 7 W.Brearley; H.Dean; G.H.Hirst; H.Howell; W.Huddleston; P.F.Jackson; E.C.Kirk; H.W.Lee; W.Mead; T.B.Mitchell; G.J.Thompson; F.B.Watson 6 W.H.R.Andrews; G.Brown; R.D.Burrows; E.W.Clark; G.R.Cox; L.H.Gray; W.T.Greswell; O.W.Herman; J.H.Mayer; W.E.Phillipson; E.Robinson; A.W.Shipman; F.M.Sibbles; A.Staples; R.K.Tyldesley; H.Verity; A.E.E.Vogler 5 G.O.B.Allen; W.E.Benskin; M.W.Booth; W.E.Bowes; F.R.Brown; L.W.Cook; J.H.Cornford; A.E.R.Gilligan; S.Haigh; A.E.Hall; G.R.Hazlitt; G.Hill; J.Iremonger; C.Kelleway; Jas.Langridge; J.W.Lee; A.E.Lewis; W.E.Merritt; P.T.Mills; I.A.R.Peebles; R.T.D.Perks; A.V.Pope; G.H.Pope; A.E.Relf; T.L.Richmond; T.Rushby; T.F.Shepherd; J.H.Vincett; A.Waddington; A.F.Wensley; R.E.S.Wyatt N.B. Woolley was dismissed 6 times in the 1909-10 season by A.E.E.Vogler, while in England he was dismissed 5 times in a season by F.R.Foster in 1914 and by C.H.Parkin and M.W.Tate in 1923. Among the more unexpected bowlers to have dismissed him were J.B.Hobbs and L.Hutton. NINETIES One of the most remarkable aspects of Woolley's career was the number of nineties he made - 35 (including three not out innings). This amounted to 2.28% of his total innings. This included five scores of 99, while the others were made up as follows:- 98-2, 97-4, 96-4, 95-4, 94-5, 93-3, 92-2, 91-2, 90-4. His most famous nineties were the two in the Lord's Test of 1921, and these helped to boost his total there to 7 by far his most popular venue for these scores. Woolley also made three scores in the 190s - 198 (twice) and a 193. DUCKS During the course of his career Woolley was dismissed for 0 on 88 occasions (6.08% of his completed innings). A very high proportion of these were in Tests - 12 (13.18% of his completed Test innings). For Kent he mad 7 0s against Middlesex, but only one against Glamorgan, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. On particular grounds he was never dismissed for 0 in 76 innings at Folkestone, 29 innings at Northampton and 22 innings at Edgbaston, while he made only one 0 in 48 innings at Blackheath. At Old Trafford, after his famous duck in his very first innings he was never again dismissed for this score in 49 further innings. On the other hand, he made 9 0s in 85 innings on his home ground of Tonbridge. Woolley made two “pairs” in his career and J.M.Gregory with 5 dismissals was by some distance the most successful bowler against him on this score. CATCHES Although it has long been acknowledged that Woolley holds the world record for the number of catches in a first-class career, there was over the years a measure of uncertainty as to exactly how many catches that amounted to. For many years the figure accepted by Wisden was 913, a total apparently taken from the season-by-season breakdown of Woolley's career in The Cricketer Annual 1938-39 pages 54 and 55. However even allowing for the notorious vagaries of matching published scores with the scorebook, this figure does not stand close inspection - twelve catches were missed in 1921 alone! Woolley himself always maintained the total exceeded a thousand. In 1970 Wisden amended the figure to a more realistic 1011, raised to 1015 in 1976 and 1018 in 1980, while other reference books had figures as high as 1020. For this publication and the earlier Kent 104