Famous Cricketers No 4 - F.E.Woolley

Until injury restricted him after the 1924-25 tour to Australia, Woolley was a very fine slow left arm bowler. When he wished it he could have taken his place amongst the game's very greatest. His style was not unlike his great mentor Blythe, bowling slightly “behind the back”, although as his biographer Ian Peebles noted, the arm came from the hip pocket rather than the right armpit, as in the latter's case. His height again proved of great assistance, giving him a lively degree of bounce on all pitches and with his great power of spin lethal on a responsive turf. No better example can serve than the Warwickshire match at Tonbridge in 1913 when with Blythe, these two great exponents of their art caught their opponents on a damp pitch and in 50 minutes had the whole side back in the pavilion for just 16. Then under these same conditions, which as Wisden noted “put batsmanship at such a disadvantage”, he scored 76 in 80 minutes to secure a very unlikely victory. After 1918 with Blythe dead, Woolley dominated the Kent side with both bat and ball, leaving Wisden to frequently fear the effect of this overwork on his batting. A knee injury however reduced his bowling effectiveness and he bowled less and less in the late twenties and early thirties, during which time “Tich” Freeman dominated the Kent attack. Nevertheless in the twilight of his career with Freeman gone he had a mild rejuvenation and was still bowling usefully in his last season. Woolley was arguably in his time the complete all-rounder, and as such, one must not forget his catching. In his early days he was a useful deep fielder, but it is his record as a slip catcher where again his great reach and lively reflexes were a distinct advantage, that is unique. Contemporaries state that before the First World War at least he had no peer. It is fashionable today not to place Frank Woolley in the front rank of Test cricketers. Yet even now no Englishman can match his achievement of automatic selection for the national side for a period of 17 years. Between The Oval Test of 1909 and the Test at the same venue in 1926, he missed not a single game. His figures may not be exceptional, but in these days before the expansive scoring of Bradman, Hammond etc., nor really were many others. This was the period when bowling dominated, not the least in the immediate post-war years with the Australian pace attack of Gregory and McDonald at their peak. Yet in the 1921 series, with Hobbs injured and then ill, Woolley alone emerged with his reputation intact, playing in the process what he and many others regard as his two finest innings, 95 and 93 at Lord's. As he once recalled “I don't think I ever forced a ball in front of cover as many times and only got two for it. A fellow named Pellew stopped it every time. If that had been a county match, I'd have got 150 both innings!” At 51 in 1938 Woolley was batting as well as ever, making 81 in an hour against the Australians at Canterbury. He was even enjoying an Indian summer as a bowler, taking eleven wickets in the following match. But fêted around the country, he called it a day. Thereafter he did some coaching but a more familiar sight was his ever stately appearance adorning as a spectator those Kent grounds he so graced as a player. Even after a second marriage and consequent emigration to Canada, he could still be found at Canterbury Cricket Week until well into his eighties. He died on 18 October 1978 at Halifax, Nova Scotia. After an impressive memorial service in Canterbury Cathedral, his ashes were scattered on the St. Lawrence Ground in front of the stand that bears his name. 1906 In the Kent side initially through an accident to Colin Blythe, the 19-year-old Woolley survived a traumatic debut match - dropping Johnny Tyldesley (295*) three times, and out third ball - to play a significant part in Kent's annus mirabilis . Six wickets in an innings in his second match, a match-winning all-round performance at The Oval in his third, followed by a maiden century on his first county appearance on his native Tonbridge ground, were notable achievements. The superabundance of amateur talent cost him his place during Canterbury Week, but he nevertheless impressed Wisden sufficiently to produce one of its more famous predictions:- “Good as he already is, Woolley will no doubt ..... go far ahead of his first season's doings. It is quite possible .... he will be the 6