Famous Cricketers No 66 - Wilfred Rhodes

Foreword Some few years ago when I took on the task of compiling Wilfred Rhodes career I felt quite competent to do so, and it is interesting to me that I have now compiled both Colin Blythe and Wilfred Rhodes, the two most outstanding slow left arm bowlers of that and any other era. Rhodes, of course, was the natural successor to both Edwin Peate and Robert Peel in the Yorkshire team and was to go on to take the most wickets any bowler has ever taken in a career, and is ever likely to take, while Colin Blythe, who might also have come close to that figure, given that it had been probable that he would continue after the Great War, was cut off in his prime. Apart from his bowling Rhodes went on to be a great opening batsman, which of course to some extent affected his bowling so who knows what total he might have reached had he not been so encumbered. I have always been of the opinion that Rhodes, having produced extraordinary bowling figures in his first few years, become bored with the ease of taking wickets and decided to try and become an equally accomplished batsmen. That he succeeded is history, and following the Great War he once more put more effort in to his bowling which had suffered by comparison. Figures are very easy to compile given the time and inclination but it is not so easy to write an introduction to a Yorkshire person when not a Yorkshireman and I shied away from this particular task and instead asked Tony Woodhouse if he would write it for me. This he readily agreed to do. Two or three years later came the call to set the manuscript for publication but by this time Tony had found himself unable to do the task, so Mick Pope suggested Derek Hodgson. Derek produced the required couple of pages almost by return post, and I have to thank him very sincerely for his time and trouble. Tony Woodhouse had already contributed to the book by checking my century wicket partnerships up to the first war and for this I thank him kindly and also Brian Heald who checked the post First World War partnerships. Kit Bartlett as usual produced a seasonal list of items of interest as well as contributing to the Introduction with personal details of Rhodes’s family which Derek wrote into his finished article. He also read the manuscript and unearthed some hidden errors. Others who have given help are Philip Bailey who never seems to me to go to bed and is always on the other end of the telephone, and he helped me by adding to my list of corrections to Wisden , of which there are a considerable number for Rhodes. Robert Brooke kindly checked out the Warwickshire scorebook for the match against Yorkshire at Edgbaston in 1905. The Warwickshire analysis was given as 57.5 overs, agreeing with the Yorkshire Yearbook and Wisden but the actual ball-by-ball figures added to 58.5 overs. I have used the figures which have thus far appeared in print. The usual publications have been consulted in compiling this book and are acknowledged below- Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack The Cricketer History of South African Cricket – M.W.Luckin First Class Cricket in Australia – Volume 1 – Ray Webster The British Library Newspaper section at Colindale Test Cricket – Volume 1 - W.H.Frindall Corrections to Wisden - the late Leslie Fielding 3