Top wicketkeepers in Test Cricket between the two World Wars

Bert Oldfield

Leslie Ames

The only wicketkeeper with 100 dismissals to his credit between the two World Wars was the great Australian William ‘Bert’ Oldfield. He pouched 78 catches and effected 52 stumpings, totalling 130 dismissals, in his 54 Tests between 1920 and 1937. He was a competent right-handed batsman too, scoring 1427 runs at an average of 22.65 with a highest score of 65 not out, and 4 half-centuries. 

 

England’s Leslie Ames narrowly missed the 100 dismissals mark. He took 72 catches behind the stumps and caused 23 stumpings, for an aggregate of 95 dismissals in 47 Tests between 1929 and 1939. He had two more catches to his name as a fielder. Ames was a top-class right-handed batsman, and many believed that he was in the Test side more for his batting skills than his prowess behind the stumps. He hit up 2434 runs at an average of 40.56, with 149 as his top score and 8 hundreds and 7 half-centuries. No other wicketkeeper had a century to his name in this period. 

George Duckworth was arguably the best English wicketkeeper in this era, but was eclipsed by the far superior batting skills of Ames in the latter part of his Test career. Duckworth held 45 catches and carried out 15 stumpings, aggregating 60 dismissals in 24 Tests from 1924 to 1936. He scored 234 runs with a best of 39 not out, averaging 14.62 with his right-hand batting. 

 

The South African Horace ‘Jock’ Cameron was the fourth wicketkeeper to bag 50 dismissals and more between the Wars. In 26 Tests between 1927 and 1935, Cameron totalled 51 dismissals comprising 39 catches and 12 stumpings. He was a fine right-handed batsman, accumulating 1239 runs at an average of 30.21, with a top-score of 90, and 10 fifties. 

Herbert ‘Bert’ Strudwick’s career straddled the First World War, making his Test debut for England in 1910. In 17 Tests between 1920 and 1926, Strudwick held 38 catches and triggered 4 stumpings, for an aggregate of 42 dismissals. He played 11 Test matches before the War, taking 23 catches and effecting 8 stumpings. Bert Strudwick played a total of 28 Test matches till 1926, finishing with 61 catches and 12 stumpings, a total of 73 dismissals. A right-hander, he did not have much pretentions as a batsman, scoring 139 runs after the War, with his all-time best of 24 and an average of 8.17. He aggregated 230 runs in his 28 Tests, averaging 7.93. 

Hanson ‘Sammy’ Carter played 8 Test matches for Australia after the First World War, in 1921, clutching 16 catches and having a hand in 11 stumpings, snaring 27 dismissals. A right-handed batsman he scored 218 runs at an average of 27.25, with a highest score of 47. Sammy Carter made his Test debut in 1907. He played 20 Test matches before the First World War, taking 28 catches and effecting 10 stumpings. He scored 655 runs in that phase at an average of 21.83, with a highest score of 72 and 4 fifties. He finished his 28-Test career with 44 catches and 21 stumpings, in all 65 dismissals. He aggregated 873 runs at an average of 22.97, the top score and half-centuries coming before the Great War. 

West Indies gloveman Ivan Barrow appeared in 11 Test matches from 1930 to 1939, grabbing 16 catches and making 5 stumpings, for a total of 21 dismissals. He took 1 more catch in the field. Right-handed with the willow, he scored 276 runs, averaging 16.23. He hit up a best score of 105, his only century, and he had no fifty to his name. 

Thomas ‘Tommy’ Ward played 13 Test matches for South Africa after the First World War, from 1921 to 1924 , holding 11 catches and effecting 6 stumpings, for a total of 17 dismissals. A right-hander he hit up 316 runs at an average of 17.55, with a highest score of 64 and 2 fifties. Earlier, between 1912 and 1914, Tommy Ward held 8 catches and effected 7 stumpings in 10 Tests. He scored 143 runs, averaging 9.53. Overall, he ended his 23-Test career with 19 catches and 13 stumpings, for a total of 32 dismissals. He aggregated 459 runs at an average of 13.90, his top score of 64 and 2 fifties achieved after the War. 

Kenneth James of New Zealand appeared in 11 Test matches between 1930 and 1933, pouching 11 catches and causing 5 stumpings, totalling 16 dismissals. Right-handed with the bat, he scored 52 runs, averaging 4.72 with a highest of 14. 

England’s Arthur Wood played 4 Test matches in 1938-1939, holding 10 catches and effecting 1 stumping. A right-hander, he scored 80 runs, averaging 20. His top score of 53, was his only half-century. 

Ultimately, Oldfield and Ames were in a league all their own among stumpers between the two World Wars.

The phenomenon of Don Bradman before the Bodyline series, and his dominance of the South Africans in 1931-32. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century'

It may not have been an auspicious beginning to the 1931-32 season, as Bradman was dismissed for a duck against Queensland. That, as usual, was an aberration for which the bowlers paid dearly. In an exhibition match to inaugurate an experimental malthoid pitch at Blackheath, about 100 kilometres west of Sydney, on 3rd November 1931, Bradman smashed a hundred off 22 deliveries in 3 eight-ball overs. Representing a Blackheath Invitation XI, Bradman roughed up the bowlers of Lithgow Pottery in an astonishing hitting spree. In the first over he crashed 33 runs (6.6.4.2.4.4.6.1); in the second he hammered 40 (6.4.4.6.6.4.6.4); in the third his partner Bill Wendell took a single off the first ball, then Bradman clouted 6.6.1, Wendell took a single off the next, before Don blasted 4.4.6. It was exactly a hundred. He went on to score 256 in two-and-a-half hours with 25 fours and 14 sixes. This was not a first-class match, but those who had been treated to the Bradman magic did not care.

The South Africans were touring this season and Bradman had something special in store for them. Woolloongabba, or the Gabba as it is popularly known, was staging its inaugural Test and the irrepressible Bradman celebrated the occasion in style. He was unbeaten on 200 at close on the first day. During the course of this 22nd innings of his 15th Test, he passed 2000 runs. Australia were 341 for six. He had put on 163 for the second wicket with Woodfull (76) and 81 for the fourth with McCabe (27). Next morning when his seventh-wicket partnership with Oldfield (56 not out) was worth 60, Bradman was trapped leg-before for 226. He had been in for 277 minutes and hit 22 boundaries. Australia totalled 450, and there was a sense of déjà vu as the woes of -the West Indies in the previous season began to be replicated by the South Africans now. They were beaten by an innings and 163 runs, being bowled out for 170 and 117. 

Batting first in the Sydney Test, they fared no better, dismissed for 153. This time Keith Rigg, playing his second Test for Australia, was given the opportunity to bat at no. 3. The Victorian grabbed it with both hands, recording his only Test century, and adding 137 for the second wicket with Woodfull. Bradman joined Rigg on the second day, and they put on 111 for the third wicket. Rigg scored a well-compiled 127. McCabe now joined Bradman, and their stand was worth 93 when The Don was dismissed for a belligerent 112. He had batted for 155 minutes and hit 10 boundaries. This time Australia made 469. South Africa folded up for 161. The margin of defeat was an innings and 155 runs.

It appeared that there was a reversal of fortune, and performance, in the third Test at Melbourne, but the South Africans only flattered to deceive. They got rid of Australia for only 198 runs, with Bradman suffering his only failure of the series, caught behind by skipper Jock Cameron off Neville Quinn for 2. South Africa then put up a brave fight with Kenneth Viljoen scoring a resilient century. His 104-run eighth wicket stand with Quintin McMillan appeared to have taken the game away from Australia, as they took a first innings lead of 160 runs.

It was not to be. After he had helped Ponsford raise a half-century first up, Woodfull, as was his wont, dropped anchor. And, just as usual, Bradman took charge. By stumps on the third day, Australia were 206 for one, with Woodfull on 73, and Bradman on the verge of his 11^th Test hundred, at 97 not out. He was relentless even after completing his century. The second-wicket partnership was worth 274 when Bradman fell for 167. He had batted for just over three hours and hit 18 fours. After Woodfull’s five-hour vigil encompassing 161 runs and five boundaries ended, Kippax and McCabe put Australia further ahead. They were finally all out for 554, setting South Africa a target of 395 runs. The task was way beyond the capabilities of the tourists. They did manage to stretch the Test to the sixth day even as Grimmett got among the wickets. He finished with six for 92, while Ironmonger took the other four. South Africa folded up for 225, and Australia wrapped up the series.

The South Africans did take some confidence into the next Test at Adelaide. Bill O’Reilly was now back in tandem with Grimmett, but the visitors batted well right through the order, led by Bruce Mitchell and Herbie Taylor. Grimmett bagged seven for 116 as South Africa totalled 308. Woodfull was again Bradman’s ally after Ponsford fell with only 9 runs on the board. This time they put on 176. Then it was Bradman all the way. He cantered to his hundred. Kippax and McCabe failed but Rigg hung around while Bradman blazed away. Rigg contributed 35 to a partnership of 114. The Don reached his double century, and was aided by Oldfield, Grimmett and O’Reilly. When the last man, debutant Pud Thurlow joined him, Bradman was closing in on his triple ton. This time he was to be denied. While Bradman was scampering for his 300th run, Thurlow was run out. Australia were all out for 513. Bradman had batted almost through the innings for his unbeaten 299 in six hours and thirty-six minutes, having hit 23 fours.

Yet again Bradman had taken the game away from the bewildered South Africans. He had simply pulverized them through the series. “Every ball is for me the first ball, whether my score is 0 or 200, and I never visualise the possibility of someone getting me out,” was how The Don once described his mindset. Even though Mitchell and Taylor fought valiantly again, it was Grimmett who stole the show with another seven-wicket haul. His match figures were fourteen for 199, the first time since the First World War that a bowler had captured so many wickets in a Test. Only 70 runs were required for a win, which Woodfull and Ponsford hit off without much difficulty.

With rain intervening, and the South Africans a demoralised lot, the final Test at Melbourne produced the lowest-ever aggregate for a completed Test match. South Africa were shot out for 36 and 45, and Grimmett was not required to bowl in either innings. In between Australia were dismissed for 153, with Bradman unable to bat through injury. Ironmonger this time picked up eleven wickets for 24 runs.

Bradman had hit hundreds - two centuries and two double-centuries - in each of the four Tests that he batted. Geoffrey Tebbutt said of his style: “Do not assume that young Don is a batsman without delicacy of touch. I have seen him score many hundreds, in his many thousands of runs, by strokes of a delicacy which a billiardist might envy.” He aggregated 806 runs at an average of 201.50, best-ever in a five-Test series. The next best on either side was Woodfull with 421 runs at 70.16 per innings and one hundred, and he batted in all five Tests. The only other centurions were Rigg and Viljoen, who also got one each. That was the extent of Bradman’s dominance. At the time this was the third-highest aggregate in a Test series after his own 974 in 1930 and Hammond’s 905 in 1928-29. Grimmett and Ironmonger took 64 wickets between them.

In ten first-class matches of this season, Bradman scored 1403 runs at an average of 116.91 with 7 three-figure knocks. His Test record at this juncture, before the Bodyline series, stood at 19 matches, 2695 runs at an average of 112.29, 6 hundreds, 5 double hundreds and a triple hundred. Complementing these mesmerising statistics were the record knocks in first-class as well as Test cricket. Such was the phenomenon of Bradman. The cricket world was aghast, and it was now up to the English, who were touring the next season, to devise a strategy to contain him.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

Don’s Century 

Published in India by Sporting Links 

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0 

Fully illustrated 

Paperback French Fold 

11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches 

Weight 480 grams 

188 pages

 

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859 

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=131474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1

Don Bradman’s superb double century in the final Test clinched the Ashes 1930 series for Australia. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century'

Don Bradman acknowledging the cheers of the crowd on reaching his double century in the final Test at The Oval in 1930. With the series tied 1-1, Bradman’s superb 232 turned this Test in Australia’s favour, a decisive role in regaining the Ashes

With the 1930 series tied 1-1 before the fifth Test at The Oval, it was a game without limit. Bob Wyatt was England captain in place of Percy Chapman, who in the face of Don Bradman’s onslaught was now viewed as prodigal, if not primeval. Sutcliffe dropped anchor, scoring 161 and England logged up a total of 405 in this battle of nerves.

The old firm of Bill Woodfull and Bill Ponsford raised 159 upfront, and it was the latter who was dismissed first after scoring a fine 110. Bradman joined the stonewaller Woodfull, who left after tallying a patient 54 in three-and-a-quarter hours. Bradman was unbeaten with 27 at stumps, with Alan Kippax keeping him company.

Rain now played a part, but Bradman was steadfast on the tricky wet track. Douglas Jardine was a bystander in the series but he reckoned that he saw flaws in Bradman’s game against fast bowling on the damp wicket. At the end of the curtailed third day, Bradman was nevertheless still at the crease with 130 runs to his name, with Archie Jackson by his side. The only wicket lost was that of Kippax, and Australia were just two runs behind.

Bradman stroked his way to a double century and with Jackson put on 243 for the fourth wicket before the talented youngster fell for 73. Stan McCabe helped Bradman add another 64 runs. Australia were 165 ahead when Bradman finally edged Harold Larwood into George Duckworth’s gloves. His 232 had come off 417 balls in 438 minutes, aided by 16 boundaries.

It was a match-winning knock played at a crucial juncture in testing conditions, and it put Australia in the driver’s seat in their quest to reclaim the Ashes. If his breathtaking 254 at Lord’s was instrumental in levelling the series, Bradman’s dominant 232 at London’s other ground clinched it for Australia. McCabe, Alan Fairfax and Bert Oldfield kept up the momentum, the lead mounting to 290. Ian Peebles was rewarded for his 71 overs of toil with a haul of six for 204.

Fairfax bowled Jack Hobbs before stumps and England were pushed against the wall at 24 for one. Rain washed out the fifth day’s play. When the game resumed, England could not forge any partnership of real significance. Percival Hornibrook captured seven of the eight wickets that fell to bowlers on the final day. Wally Hammond was last out for 60 as England folded up for 251. The significance could not have been lost on anyone as the mantle of the best batsman in the world passed on to the superstar from Down Under, Don Bradman.

It was a momentous tour. Having played a pivotal role in winning the Ashes, Bradman scored an unprecedented 974 runs in the series, still unequalled to this day, at an average of 139.14. He got all these runs at 40 an hour without hitting a six. Rarely did Bradman loft the ball. Some felt that this aggregate was the equivalent of Sydney Barnes’ feat of 49 wickets in four Tests against South Africa in 1913-14, but against better opposition. No other batsman from either side got even half of Bradman’s tally, nor even more than one hundred.

Mammoth scores kept coming repeatedly from his willow like giant waves slapping the shore – a century, two double centuries and a triple century. The double hundreds decided the series. Without doubt the English would need to introspect deeply. C.B. Fry, himself a man of many parts and incredibly talented, was enchanted with Bradman’s display: “I wish I could have used my bat like Don. He is a gem of a batsman. I just love his finished technique and inevitable surety.”

As much as the runs that he scored, Bradman filled the counties’ coffers as never before. Jon Stock related a tale, perhaps apocryphal, in The Week: “Don was the bane of every bowler’s life, but he was also a commercial opportunity. Dai Davies, a Glamorgan player, recalls how he once came close to bowling Bradman in 1930. He was flabbergasted when instead of encouraging him, his captain Maurice Turnbull told Davies that his services wouldn’t be required that day. ‘But I’ll get him out the next over,’ Davies pleaded. ‘That’s what we don’t want,’ Turnbull replied. ‘Can’t you see, we’ve got to keep him in for Monday (the August bank holiday)?’ Glamorgan made a small profit at the end of that year thanks entirely to that game’s proceeds.”

By the final Test, his ninth, Bradman had reached an average of 100, and had as many as six three-figure knocks. His aggregate now stood at 1442 runs, the average 103. In all first-class matches during that tour of 1930, Bradman hit up 2960 runs, the most any visiting batsman has done, and notched up 10 hundreds. He topped the averages among all batsmen during that season at 98.66, which he did on all his tours to England.

If anybody had lingering doubts about Bradman’s ability to cope with English conditions, they had been dispelled in the most vehement manner possible. From now on batting had only one don, perhaps forever. That Wisden selected Bradman as one of its cricketers of the year in its 1931 edition is only stating the obvious. A most telling comment came from the great allrounder Wilfred Rhodes, a shrewd judge of the game, and not one to shower praise lightly: “I bowled against all the best from 1900 to 1930 - Hobbs, Trumper, Grace and Ranji among them and many, many more - but Bradman was the greatest.”          

Ian Peebles, who bowled to Bradman during this series, wrote in the World of Cricket: “It was not until the series got underway that the cricket world gradually realised that this young man Bradman had inaugurated a new era and somewhat reinterpreted the old adage that ‘bowlers win matches’. Never before had an individual batsman so consistently given bowlers the opportunity of winning matches by the speed and extent of his scoring.”

Financially, the tour brought Bradman a bonanza. In addition to the ₤ 600 paid by The Board of Control for the six-month effort, which was easily double an average annual wage at the time, and the reward of ₤ 1000 bestowed on him by Arthur Whitelaw, was the contract for his first book Don Bradman’s Book of Cricket and its serialisation in the press. Bradman’s earnings came to a whopping ₤ 5000.

Don Bradman was now a folk hero in Australia, and he began receiving several offers for commercial endorsements. ‘Bradmania’ had besieged the minds of his countrymen. Whenever word spread that Bradman was at Mick Simmons, huge crowds would congregate outside. It was not long before a musical tribute was paid to him. ‘Our Don Bradman’ was an affectionate tune that became popular in the 1930s. Described as a ‘snappy fox trot song’, it hailed ‘Australia’s batting phenomenon’. Deft pianist that he was, Bradman himself composed a song ‘Every Day is a Rainbow Day for Me’.

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

Don’s Century 

Published in India by Sporting Links 

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0 

Fully illustrated 

Paperback French Fold 

11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches 

Weight 480 grams 

188 pages 

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1 

As Bradman wound up his first Test series with a second hundred, critics failed to realise that a legend had arrived. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

 

Since the First World War, the Australians preferred eight-ball overs. But during this 1928-29 home Ashes series, and the next in 1932-33, six-ball overs were bowled. Thereafter again eight-ball overs were in force in Australia until 1979. South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand also tried this at various times. It was now 4-0, and as they say, there was little more than pride to play for in the final Test.

This Test, also at Melbourne, was a triumph for Bradman in more ways than one. Mercifully, Hammond’s run spree was over for the series, but Hobbs and Maurice Leyland got hundreds, and Hendren 95. The result was again a 500-plus total. Woodfull ground out another hundred for Australia, and Bradman came in at no. 5, only to see the opener depart immediately. But Alan Fairfax gave him valuable support in a 183-run partnership. Bradman raised his second Test hundred, a fine 123, this time batting for 217 minutes, having played 247 deliveries and hit 8 boundaries. Australia, though, finished 28 runs in arrears.

Some fine bowling by paceman Tim Wall (five for 66), helped restrict England to 257. The target was 286 runs, but there were only a few minutes left in the 6^th day’s play. So instead of the regular opening pair of Woodfull and Jackson, a duo of nightwatchmen in the form of wicketkeeper Oldfield and no. 11 Percival Hornibrook went in to face the top-class new-ball pair of Larwood and Tate. The makeshift twosome not only did a commendable job of guarding their wickets till stumps were drawn, but also laid a strong foundation on the morrow by posting 51 runs on the board. Hammond was commissioned to break the stubborn stand, and he finally breached Hornibrook’s defence. The newly-hoisted top-order bat had eked out 18 priceless runs off 116 balls in a stay of 97 minutes.

Oldfield made a bigger point, holding on to score 48 in a stay of more than two-and-a-half-hours. Then it was the turn of the real openers Woodfull and Jackson to get together in a stand of 49, after which Kippax and Ryder added 46. Finally, Bradman appeared at 204 for five on the 8^th day of the Test. Carefully, in harness with the captain, he carried Australia to victory. It had taken 134 overs and one delivery to eventually hand a defeat to the imperial power. Bradman returned unbeaten with 37, just a tiny portent of things to come.

Wally Hammond piled up 905 runs at an average of 113.12. This was the highest aggregate in a Test series by a long way, surpassing the brilliant South African allrounder Aubrey Faulkner’s tally of 732 in 1910-11, and Herbert Sutcliffe’s 734 in 1924-25, both against Australia. For Bradman it was a highly satisfying, if not exhilarating, initiation to Test cricket. He notched up 468 runs in his first four Tests, second in the team’s averages at 66.85 per innings. This was the only rubber that Australia lost, apart from the controversial Bodyline series of 1932-33, during the Bradman years. The 1938 face-off in England was drawn, while the other eight series ended on a victorious note.

Not all Englishmen, though, were convinced by Bradman’s methods. Concluding that the hard, bouncy Australian tracks enabled Bradman to get away with the pull shot he so favoured, Alfred ‘Tich’ Freeman told him, “You won’t be able to use those cross-batted shots of yours in England,” before he stepped on the boat headed home. As events were to prove later, the Kent leg-spinner had spoken a bit too soon. Surrey captain Percy Fender, who wrote a book on that 1928-29 tour, was also sceptical about Bradman’s technique, and there was a widely held view that this tendency to play across the line would cost him dear in England. Even the great medium-pacer Maurice Tate remarked, “You’ll be found out when you come to England if you play like that.” How utterly mistaken ‘experts’ can be in cricket was apparent even in the late 1920s. Bradman went on to register three of his best Test innings in England, the two triple centuries at Leeds, and 254 at Lord’s, which he himself rated as his finest. He averaged over 102 in Tests in England, and in all his four tours topped the all-comers first-class averages. Even in 1948, the English were still trying to figure out how to get rid of The Don.

Decades later, and in retrospect, former England batsman Doug Insole summed up Bradman’s game: “Don was completely different from Lara. He did not use many shots. He got into position so quickly that he could pull anything short and he made balls short that other men would have had to play defensively. He had a late cut and a hit through the off-side. But mostly his runs came from the pull.” This is what Freeman had seen during Bradman’s maiden Test series, and made a hasty judgement.

It was an extraordinary first-class season for Bradman. He hit the first of his six triple centuries, an unbeaten 340 in 488 minutes for New South Wales against Victoria at Sydney. In 13 matches he scored 1690 runs, still a record for an Australian season, at an average of 93.88 with 7 hundreds. It was a season that launched the Bradman legend. For the next two decades he was to dominate the cricket world like few sportspersons have the arenas of their great triumphs. Kenneth Farmer reflected, “He was Legend by the time the world realized he was news.”

(Author Indra Vikram Singh can be contacted on email singh_iv@hotmail.com).

Don’s Century

Published in India by Sporting Links

ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Fully illustrated

Paperback French Fold 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches

Weight 480 grams

188 pages

Available on Amazon at an attractive price: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8190166859  

Indra Vikram Singh's other books available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=Indra+Vikram+Singh&i=stripbooks&rh=p_6%3AA3HSV0N9AV7NOK&dc&qid=1602408830&rnid=1318474031&ref=sr_nr_p_6_1