One of the finest victories Surrey ever won over Yorkshire was at the
Oval. On a perfect wicket Surrey scored over 300 on the first day and a
portion of the second. Richardson at the pavilion and Lockwood at the
gasometer end started the attack, and on the same magnificent wicket
_dismissed Yorkshire for 78!_ Of these, Jack Brown made 48! Those of us
who were playing, and those who were lucky enough to have visited the
Oval that day, could never in their lives have seen finer fast bowling.
Both bowled at a tremendous pace, both bowled at the top of their form;
they seemed almost to be bowling man against man, to be vying for
supremacy. It was a great day to catch the finest natural fast bowler
in conjunction with the finest cultivated fast bowler making sad havoc
of a very powerful side. It was in the second innings of Yorkshire that
poor Frank Milligan made his last appearance at the Oval, and right
well he played, making 64 out of a total of 170 odd. (I should have
mentioned before that F. S. Jackson was unfortunately incapacitated
from batting through an injured thumb. This of course greatly weakened
the Yorkshire batting, but at the time Lord Hawke said he had rarely
seen finer bowling.)
Of Arthur Mold this can be said with absolute certainty, that no bowler
ever attained a similar pace with such a minimum of exertion—two or
three long loose strides, two at a trot, and an arm swinging round
like a flail, a good length, great pace, and on any wicket at times a
considerable flick back from the off—a bowler that, like Richardson or
Lockwood, might bowl a man at any period of his innings, however well
set he might be. For as many of us know, there are certain bowlers,
generally of the slow or medium class, that a respectable batsman,
after an hour or so’s stay at the wicket, can negotiate with safety,
unless of course some violent risk be taken. With these three, and
perhaps one or two more, it is quite possible to be bowled neck and
heels when taking no risk whatever.
Of all the other fast bowlers I have met, the majority, and it is a
large majority too, either go with the arm or go up the pitch straight
as a die. Wass and Barnes are exceptions to this general rule, for
under favourable conditions they bowl with a distinct leg break, and
very difficult to play they are.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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