 Harold
Larwood was a bowler of great speed combined with
considerable control. This made him a force to
be reckoned with in the years between 1926 and
1933. Although not a large man, his superb action
allowed him to bowl in excess of 90 mph, and also
provided some movement through the air. The 1932
tour of Australia was notorious for the tactics
employed by England under the captaincy of Jardine,
who instructed his faster bowlers to aim at the
batsman, not the wicket. This was a terrifying
prospect when Larwood was bowling. The political
repercussions of the tour resulted in Larwood
never being picked for England again (after refusing
to apologise), and occasional oversight of how
effective Larwood was when bowling conventionally.
He
was a hard hitting and successful batsman, making
98 against Australia in the final test in 1933.
David Frith (in "The Fast Men", Corgi Books, 1977)
describes his action as follows: " The run up
was smooth and silent, the leap composed and balanced,
long left arm high, the lunge of the front foot
giving maximum pull. " He was timed at 96 mph,
but may well have been faster. Numerous batsmen
suggest that he was the fastest of his time, and
possibly the fastest high class bowler ever. (Dave
Liverman)
The
Beginning :
Time
hung heavily on the hands of a two year old boy
one June day in 1907 in the tiny Nottinghamshire
mining village of Nuncargate. Discovering a pint
of paraffin in a bottle in the scullery of his
father's modest cottage, the child promptly swallowed
part of the contents. A hastily summoned doctor
pumped out the oil in time to save the child's
life.
The
incident started something, for the boy's father
decided that his son needed some kind of interest
to keep him out of mischief. From and old fence
paling he made a tiny cricket bat and presented
it to his son together with a rubber ball to push
about the garden. It solved the problem and the
boy began spending hours in the backyard playing
with his new toys.
It wasn't long before young Harold Larwood was
pestering his father for more bats and balls.
'I can remember only from the time when I was
about five. From that age I hardly spent any leisure
time without a bat or ball in my hands. I kept
my father poor buying me ninepenny balls. They
usually lasted about a week because I hit them
so hard and so often. I became attached to the
game, so far as I understood it, that unless my
father kept me in bed under threat of punishment
- and he could dish it out - I would even get
up before breakfast to play. By now I was carving
my own bats out of any old piece of wood I could
find.'
At
the age of 14 the legal age a boy could work down
a mine, Larwood became a pit boy. On the very
first day he mustered a team of pit boys, played
a team of local boys and bowled them out in 3
overs. He was a pit boy for 3 years, on pay days
gave every penny to his mother. The wages were
32 shillings, it was a lot of money. When Larwood
turned 17 he took a job on the night shift at
another mine near by, the Langton Colliery.
'Cricket
was my outlet. I played often in the late summer
evenings although very tired after a day's work.
As a slightly built boy of fifteen I played in
the Nuncargate second eleven as a fast bowler,
the other players being men in their 20's. In
my first season I took 76 wickets at an average
of less than 5 runs. Two years later I was promoted
to the village's first team. Bowling in sandshoes
because I didn't own a pair of boots, I sent down
20 overs during the match, even though I'd worked
down the mine all the previous night.'
'I
remember the game as if it were last week. After
a few overs my nose began to blled. Team mates,
men they were , urged me to leave the field. I
refused and kept on bowling. Down the mine I dreamed
of cricket; I bowled imaginery balls in the dark;
I sent the stumps spinning and heard them rattling
in the tunnels. No mishap was going to stop me
from bwoling in the real game, especially this
one.'
'My
nose bled worse than ever, spattering my shirt.
I was again advised to go off but I continued
to bowl. Then a ball caught the middle stump.
My next delivery scattered the incoming batsman;s
wicket. Although feeling a bit weak by now I got
ready for one more, and hit the off stump. It
was my first hat-trick.'
'Cricket
was my reason for living.'
One day about a year later
he got the shock of his life. Joe Hardstaff went
up to Harold in Nuncargate and said "Harold, my
boy, how’d you like to go to Trent Bridge for
a trial ?". Larwood couldn’t believe it, how was
it possible ? "Surely not, Mr Hardstaff ?". "I
think you have possibilities, you might even become
a great cricketer one of these days". Little did
Joe Hardstaff know then that Larwood would become
the most feared fast bowler in his time.
"To
be frank, I did not believe I would get as far
as a trial with Notts. But Joe arranged it, otherwise
it might never have happened. I had to have the
proper gear and it cost my father £9 - a small
fortune at the time. I’d have been laughed off
the ground without them."
In
1923, Larwood was then 18 years old and with his
father to accompany him made his way to Trent
Bridge, home of Nottinghamshire Country Cricket
Club for the trial. He bowled to several batsmen
at the nets, but they all played him without any
problems. He was bowling to experienced County
players, one or two even made encouraging remarks. "I must have made a good
impression because a club official to us into
his office and asked me if I would sign on for
a year with a view to becoming a professional".
Needless
to say, Harold accepted ! A year after joining
Notts as a probationer he was given his first
County game, against Northants and he took one
wicket. "I wasn’t ready and was
sent back to the nets" he
said.
Half
way through the 1925 season, when he was 20, he
had his first real start in County cricket against
Yorkshire at Sheffield. "Herbert Sutcliffe faced
up to me. Or rather, I faced up to him. He looked
surprised at the speed of my first ball as it
went past him. The second came off his bat and
flew into the safe hands of my skipper, Arthur
Carr, at slip."
After
taking Sutcliffe’s wicket and two others in the
Yorkshire game he had a permanent place in the
Notts side and from that moment on all he wanted
to do was keep his place. His first County 50
came in the return fixture against Northants in
1925, two months after he had won his Cap and
blazer. (In the two months he had taken 52 wickets
at less than 22 runs each). "I
went on to make 70 in the match in a 151 run partnership
with W. Payton. Almost 5,000 people applauded
and cheered me when I got to my 50."
The
pony pit boy had come a long way.
The
quotes above are taken from Harold Larwood's book
'The Larwood Story' written
by Harold and Kevin Perkins. |
