Description: Harold Larwood's life embodied drama and romance given to few cricketers. One of the rare fast bowlers in the game's long history to spread terror in opposition ranks by the mere mention of his name, he was, in turn, a young tearaway breaking free in the 1920s from a life in the Nottinghamshire coalmines; an English ogre and villain who bowled bumpers (as the bouncer was then called) at the heads and bodies of Australian batsmen; a 'disgraced' hero banished to obscurity; and eventually a post-war migrant welcomed to Sydney in 1950 with his wife and family, the warmth of acceptance by those once so hostile to this aggressor proving both touching and slightly incomprehensible to him. There was one further phase. As the year lived in Australia came to equal those spent in his native England, Larwood became something of a curiosity, still generously receiving pilgrims and journalists at his Kingsford home, even though his eyesight failed in later years. And when British Prime Minister John Major gave Larwood's cricket achievement belated recognition by awarding him the MBE in 1993, his picture made the newspapers again, together with characteristic quotes from the old fast bowler as he contemplated the changes that had overtaken cricket in the many years since he was headline news himself. Scoffing at the amount of protective gear worn by modern batsmen, Larwood described them as 'trussed up like turkeys' and asserted that they 'should stand up and be counted like men'. Larwood, who died in hospital in Sydney on July 22, aged 90, was the key figure in the never-to-be-allowed-to-be-forgotten 'Bodyline' Test series of 1932-33, when England's supercilious, icy and provocative captain Douglas Jardine instructed him to bowl what they both insisted on calling 'leg theory' at the Australian batsmen. With Bill Voce, his hefty Notts team-mate, bowling fast left-arm from the other end, 'Lol' Larwood spearheaded England to a 4-1 series victory, taking 33 wickets at just under 20 apiece as batsmen ducked, weaved and skipped, the heavy concentration of vulture-like leg-side fielders ready for catches from hurried defensive jabs. Larwood's classical action, copied by countless schoolboys - including Ray Lindwall in Sydney - culminated in a side-on delivery, the ball's velocity touching the highest ever recorded Don Bradman, the prime target was reduced to comparative mediocrity with an average of 56 - he had made 974 runs (at 139.14) in England in the previous Ashes series of 1930 - with Larwood hurrying him into indiscretions and taking his wicket four times in eight Test innings (and twice in the only other match in which they were in opposition, the Australian XI match at Melbourne before the First Test). In the Adelaide Test, Australian exasperation reached white heat as the captain, Bill Woodfull, was struck stunningly over the heart by a lifting ball from Larwood - whose captain cynically switched to the Bodyline field as soon as Woodfull was able to continue - and Bert Oldfield suffered a fracture when edging another Larwood delivery onto his temple. Mounted police mustered behind the pavilion as the masses of spectators hooted and jeered and threatened to storm the field. Woodfull later made some terse remarks to the sheepish MCC manager P. F. Warner, and the Australian Cricket Board fired off a cable to Lord's, protesting at the English bowling tactics. The respective governments were drawn into the controversy, but financial considerations saw to it that the series was played out, and Larwood even heard himself cheered wildly by the Sydney crowd in the final Test as he walked off after scoring 98 as nightwatchman batsman. The worst of the personal vilification was behind him, and some humour even emerged from the battleground. Lines from a popular contemporary revue ran: 'Oh, they'd be a lot calmer in Ned Kelly's armour/When Larwood the wrecker begins.' He finished with a painfully damaged foot, but Jardine would not let him leave the field until Bradman was dismissed, the fast bowler's continuing presence serving as a depressant to Australia. The two principal adversaries left the field together, neither speaking. Larwood never played for England again. Welcomed home as a popular hero, he soon found that 'diplomacy' was at work. At Lord's members of the MCC committee had begun to understand the cause of Australian indignation. That cricket had been damaged was becoming obvious to all but the blindly partisan. Moves to outlaw the leg-side field-setting, if not the short-pitched fast ball, were instituted. And a letter of apology was drawn up for signature by Harold Larwood, the arch-exponent of Bodyline. Since he had been bowling to orders and believed in his heart that there was nothing sinister in his method of attack, he refused to sign the letter. His Test career was over at 28. The broken left foot prevented him from bowling in 1933, but when Woodfull's 1934 team landed in England, speculation was high. Would Larwood resume combat with the Australians? Overlooked for the First Test allegedly because of a bruised foot, he spared the selectors any dilemma by stating before the Lord's Test: 'I refuse to play in any more Tests. Politicians are trying to hound me out of cricket. I was fit for the last Test. They feared I would burst the Empire.' He took 82 cheap wickets for Notts that summer, and over 100 in 1935 and 1936, topping the national bowling averages in 1936 for the fifth time in his life, a deed unmatched by any other fast bowler. England had clearly denied themselves a great talent. Captain Jardine, architect of the Bodyline upheaval, paid no penalty, led England in India a year later, and declared himself unwilling to play against Australia again. Harold was the fourth of five sons presented to miner Robert Larwood by his wife. He was born in Nuncargate, Notts on Nov 14, 1904 (precisely the same day as future Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey). Larwood left school at 13 and worked in a shop before becoming a pit-boy, working with the ponies. The teenaged fast bowler showed distinct promise in village and junior league matches, and at 19 he was signed by Nottinghamshire. In 20 matches in 1925 he took 73 wickets and frightened a few batsmen, and the following year found him playing his First Test, against Australia at Lord's where he dismissed Charlie Macartney, Jack Gregory and Herby Collins. England's captain was Arthur Carr, who was also Larwood's county skipper, a tough, uncompromising man who had most to do with developing and encouraging this bright new talent. Larwood was not chosen again until the final Test, when England regained the Ashes at the Oval from an ageing Australian combination. The home team recalled 48-year-old spinner Wilfred Rhodes, and with Hobbs and Sutcliffe making high-class centuries, victory was achieved by 289 runs. Young Larwood captured six wickets. Around 5ft 8ins, but strongly-built with wide shoulders and long arms, he had a smooth, rhythmic approach and a high arm action. His speed was truly exceptional, and because of his lack of height, his bouncer tended to skid, veering into the ribs rather than wastefully over the head. The schoolboy Ray Lindwall drew upon this action after watching through the pickets at the SCG in 1932-33. In more recent times, the Pakistan express bowler Waqar Younis has had much of Larwood's movement about his run-up and delivery. Larwood's stock ball snapped in from the off, and in days when leg-before dismissals could be granted only from balls that pitched between wicket and wicket, he was denied many a dismissal that would have been given to succeeding generations of bowlers. There is a macabre tendency to assess fast bowlers' potency by the injuries they inflict. Larwood always claimed that he never tried to hit a batsman - though legend has it that he and Voce bet each other a packet of fags over who would be first to strike an Indian batsman on the turban in 1932. (Beer and cigarettes, incidentally, were Larwood's staple intake during intervals.) Among batsmen who sustained serious injury from Larwood's thunderbolts were Reg Sinfield of Gloucestershire, the South African 'Jock' Cameron, and Patsy Hendren, a seasoned exponent of the hook shot. All were stretchered off unconscious. Scores of others suffered breaks and bruises in the line of Larwood's fire, and many a batsman in county cricket discovered minor ailments that necessitated their withdrawal before matches against Nottinghamshire. In 1927, Larwood embarked on a marriage which was to last into its seventh decade, and in 1928, after two Test appearances that summer against West Indies, he went to Australia with Percy Chapman's 1928-29 side and was part of a highly successful campaign in which Wally Hammond made 905 runs in the five Tests, and Larwood led off with 6 for 32 in Australia's opening innings, at Brisbane's Exhibition Ground, in a match won by England by a massive margin, 675 runs. It was Don Bradman's maiden Test, bringing onto the stage the two central characters of the drama four years ahead. Larwood impressed as a lower-order batsman and as a fieldsman on this first Australian tour of his, and he gained his 18 Test wickets with fast, straight bowling and admirable stamina. Injuries continued to interrupt his progress, but he always fought his way back to fitness, even though illness cost him an appearance in the 1930 Lord's Test against Australia. This was Bradman's season. He gathered, swiftly, 974 runs in his seven Test innings, and Larwood, who took only four wickets in his three Tests that summer, got the 21-year-old champion out only once, for 232 at the Oval - and that was a dubious decision. England were left in no doubt as to the problem facing them when next they toured Australia. With a triple-century, two double-centuries and an 'ordinary' century under his belt in the 1930 Tests, what might the 'Boy from Bowral' do on his hard pitches at home? Thus Bodyline was conceived. England wicketkeeper George Duckworth observed an uncertainty in Bradman's batting at the Oval when rain freshened the pitch and the ball flew. Notts captain Arthur Carr had significant input into the planning of the leg-side attack, and actually had Larwood and Voce staging rehearsals against hapless county opposition. 'Cricket's Hiroshima' thus came to pass. With the acrimonious 1932-33 Test series proving to be his last, Larwood finished with a Test record of 78 wickets, average 28.36, in his 21 appearances, and for a further four years he inflicted misery on the lives of English county batsmen until his body finally gave in to the punishment of the years. He took in all 1427 first-class wickets at only 17.52, and there were three centuries among his 438 innings (average 19.92). He had put his name to a book, Bodyline?, which was both a narrative of the Test tour and a wholehearted attempt at justification of the English tactics, and some uncompromising articles appeared under his name in newspapers upon his return home in 1933. But after retirement from cricket, Harold Larwood entered willingly into a secluded obscurity, playing league cricket briefly for Blackpool, then becoming a grower of flowers and vegetables. After the Second World War he bought a confectionery shop in Blackpool, and in 1950, now with five daughters, he and wife Lois decided to join the mass exodus of the disillusioned from war-fatigued Britain. They sailed to Sydney on none other than Orontes, the vessel which had taken Jardine's MCC side to Australia in 1932. Initially they stayed in a hotel, with half the bill, as Larwood later discovered, being paid by former Prime Minister Ben Chifley, one of the fast bowler's numerous unexpected admirers. Jack Fingleton later described with amusement how the broad Australian and Nottingham accents rendered conversation between these two humble men mutually unintelligible. Larwood found employment in a soft-drinks factory, and soon warmed to the egalitarianism of Australian life. He was deeply affected also by the readiness with which he was accepted by old cricket opponents as well as total strangers. Though he never lost his native accent and always spoke nostalgically of England, he knew and repeatedly acknowledged that Australia was the place for him. Just before leaving England, he had passed the time of day with Don Bradman at the 1948 tour farewell dinner, and a year later there was further balm in the form of honorary membership of MCC. Years later he was even elected to life membership of the SCG, scene of some of his most stirring deeds. He told his story in detail, in a book prepared by Kevin Perkins, in 1965. He joined studio discussions during nocturnal broadcasts of Ashes Test matches from England. Occasionally he lent his name to newspaper pieces. On the 50th anniversary of the Bodyline Tests he expressed the opinion that Ian Botham was 'over-rated': 'The way he's been bowling out here, he wouldn't burst a paper bag.' A few months ago he enjoyed a visit from Darren Gough, and telephoned later to congratulate him on his 6 for 49 in the Sydney Test. Harold Larwood, the former 100 miles-per-hour bowler, would dip into his trunkful of memorabilia to oblige visiting admirers. Always he made sure they laid eyes on his presentation ashtray from Douglas Jardine, which symbolised the greatest of his many achievements on the cricket field. It is inscribed 'To Harold for the Ashes' 1932-33 From a grateful Skipper'. Bill Voce, who died at Nottingham on June 6, 1984, aged 74, is largely thought of in these days as the junior in one of the great bowling partnerships, Larwood and Voce, and for the contribution that he made to the bodyline attack in Australia in 1932-33. Although he was somewhat slower than Larwood, his line, from left-arm over the wicket, and the steeper bounce that he obtained from his height, made him formidable enough and the batsmen got no relief when facing him. His job in that 1932-33 series was to maintain the pressure and he did it nobly, taking, besides, fifteen wickets in four matches: he missed the fourth Test owing to injury. The controversy which this tour excited and the amount that has been written since has diverted attention from his performances in the first two Tests in 1936-37. No English side in this century had had such a bad press before the tour started: it was popularly regarded as having no chance whatever. Its captain, G. O. Allen, the third fast bowler on the previous trip, had been irredeemably opposed to bodyline and had refused to bowl it: it is worth recording that he himself had by orthodox methods taken eight for 131 in the third Test. So before the selection of the team was completed the Chairman arranged a meeting between Allen and Voce at which Allen insisted on an undertaking being given that bodyline tactics would not be employed. Voce demurred at first, but finally agreed to fall in with his captain's wishes and throughout the tour bowled over the wicket to an off-side field. In the first Test he took six for 41 and four for 16: Australia lost by 322 runs and the critics were confounded. The second was even more sensational. Allen declared (a step almost unprecedented in a timeless Test) at 426 for six in order to get Australia in on a wet wicket, and with the seventh ball of the first over Voce had O'Brien, a left-hander, caught at slip: from the next ball Bradman was caught at short-leg. A maiden followed and off the second ball of his next over McCabe was caught. Australia were three wickets down for 1 run and Voce had taken them all in four balls. The side was out for 80 and, though they got 324 in their second innings, they lost by an innings, Voce's figures being four for 10 and three for 66. In addition Chipperfield had been missed off his bowling in the first innings. In this match the weather had helped England, in the next it helped Australia, who won by 365 runs. Voce was in no way to blame: though his six wickets cost him 169 runs, he maintained, according to Wisden, his concentration and deadliness right throughout both innings. Unfortunately, at this stage of the tour Voce's back gave out. Allen was strongly opposed to playing him in the fourth Test. He reckoned that no fast bowler can give of his best unless he is completely sound, and he hoped by resting Voce to have him fit to win the fifth Test. However, he was overruled by his selection committee. England again lost: Voce took one wicket only which cost him 135 runs. Nor was he up to form in the last Test when Australia, scoring 604, won by an innings. He took three for 123, giving him a record for the series of 26 wickets at 21.53. During this tour a close and life-long friendship had arisen between Voce and his captain. Years later he told Allen that he now reckoned that bodyline had been wrong, but that, from loyalty to his old friend Larwood, he was not prepared to say anything on the subject to the press. This sidelight on his character helps to explain why he was so widely respected when, after his playing days were over, he coached first at Trent Bridge and later for many years for MCC at Lord's and elsewhere. After starting work in a colliery when fourteen, Voce was noticed in local cricket by Fred Barratt, the Nottinghamshire fast bowler, and engaged on the county staff in 1926. Success in the Second XI brought him a trial for Nottinghamshire in June 1927, against Gloucestershire at Trent Bridge. He seized it by taking five for 36 and followed this a few weeks later with six for 39 against Essex. Strong though the county's bowling was, he kept his place for the rest of the season and finished with 37 wickets at 27.18. At this time he was an orthodox slow left-armer, though in the later matches he sometimes lowered his arm slightly and bowled swingers. In 1928 he definitely settled to bowl fast-medium and many felt that England had lost a great slow left-armer. That may well be true, but it is certain that they had gained a great fast one. After heading the Nottinghamshire averages in 1929 and having a big part in winning them the Championship, he went that winter with MCC to the West Indies and played with considerable success in what were then called Representative matches and have since been canonised as Tests. There was, in fact, simultaneously an MCC side playing Tests in New Zealand and the two teams between them contained only five men who played in the Tests against Australia in 1930. On this tour Voce bowled mainly fast, but his chief success was in Trinidad where, moderating his pace to medium on the matting, he took twelve for 110 against the island and eleven for 119 in the Test. In the Tests in South Africa in the next winter, he took 23 wickets, more than any other bowler on either side, and, after representing England at home against New Zealand in 1931 and India in 1932, he was picked for Jardine's Australian tour. Despite their success there, neither he nor Larwood was selected to play against Australia in England in 1934 and, as Jardine himself had refused to be considered, there was much the same indignation in many quarters as in 1984: it was felt that owing to diplomatic considerations England were fielding something considerably less than their best team. Criticism increased when at Trent Bridge in August Voce took eight for 66 against the tourists and was accused of bouncing the ball at them unnecessarily. Before the 1935 season started both he and Larwood asked MCC not to pick them for any of the Tests. However, midway through 1936 Voce again made himself available if wanted, and, picked for the third Test against India, bowled well without any luck at all: it was this performance that made him a certainty for the side to Australia that winter. With that tour, through no fault of his own, his best days ended. In 1937, after playing in the first Test against New Zealand, he damaged a knee and had to have a cartilage removed, which finished his cricket for the season. In 1938 he was much troubled by synovitis and his wickets were expensive, and he thus shares with J. N. Crawford and D. R. Jardine the distinction of being a great England cricketer who never appeared against Australia in a Test in England. In 1939 he was given a benefit, and modern readers may be surprised to hear that this produced only £980. In 1946 he was 37 and it could hardly be expected that, after six seasons away from serious cricket, he would be the bowler he had been, especially as he was still in the forces and not regularly available. None the less, four for 7 in a Test trial won him a place in the second Test against India and also in the side for Australia in the autumn. The selection was a mistake: the beautiful action remained, the venom had gone, and he now bowled in those whom once he would have bowled out. Moreover his knee still troubled him, and in June 1947 he resigned from the county side. However, appointed their coach, he continued to play occasionally in a crisis till 1952. In his earlier days as a fast bowler he bowled round the wicket. On his first tour of Australia he used to bowl round for five or six overs while the shine lasted and then switch to bodyline, bowled over the wicket. To left-handers he used a normal field, but bowled a generous allowance of bouncers. On Allen's tour he bowled almost entirely over the wicket. In England after his Australian tours he bowled over or round according to circumstances. But his cricket by no means ended with his bowling. A tall, very strong man, he could hit immensely hard and soon became a dangerous batsman who made four hundreds in first-class cricket and in 1933 scored over 1,000 runs. Against Glamorgan at Trent Bridge in 1931 he made 129 in 75 minutes, having reached his 100 in 45 minutes. He was also a splendid fielder and a fine thrower with a very loose arm. In all first-class matches he scored 7,583 runs with an average of 19.19 and took 1,558 wickets at 23.08 a piece. In 27 Tests his figures were 98 wickets at 27.88. (information from Wisden Cricketers' Almanack)