It is a doubtful point amongst cricketers whether Peel of Yorkshire
or Briggs of Lancashire was the best left-handed slow to medium
bowler. In the writer’s opinion Peel was the best. He bowled perhaps
a slightly better length than Briggs, and as he had a more difficult
action to see, was not so easily hit by a resolute batsman as Briggs.
They were both, however, excellent bowlers, but both are now a little
past their prime. Briggs possesses a marvellous strength of wrist and
fingers, which give him great power of twist and pace. His very fast
ball is nearly as good as that of Palmer, the Australian. One of his
best performances was in England _v._ Australia at Lord’s in 1886. None
of the English bowlers on this occasion could do much with the ball
except Briggs. There is one Australian left-handed bowler who we regret
has never been seen on English cricket grounds--Tom Kendall. In 1878,
when the first colonial team visited this country, great accounts of
Kendall’s prowess with the ball had reached us. His name was included
in the list of the players whom we were led to expect, but for some
reason or other, though he did actually start with the team, he left it
at Adelaide or at some other port at which the ship touched. The writer
saw him and played against him in 1882 in Tasmania, and, though getting
on in years and rather on the big side for bowling, he was about as
nasty a left-hander as any batsman could wish to play. He had a high
action, changed his pace well, from slow to medium, and then to very
fast, had lots of work both ways on his slow and medium balls, and the
very fast ones went with the arm. When the writer saw him his length
was not as good as it might have been, or, from all accounts, as it
once was. His action reminded us rather of that excellent bowler J. C.
Shaw, in his day the best left-hander in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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