Top allrounders in Test cricket between the two World Wars

Maurice Tate was the only player to score 1000 runs and take 100 wickets between the two World Wars.

The two decades between the two World Wars were not known for their Test allrounders. The only player to score 1,000 runs and capture 100 wickets was England’s Maurice Tate.

His compatriot the remarkable Wilfred Rhodes had played his best cricket before the First World War. His Test career lasted for 30 years, spanning the generations of W.G. Grace and Don Bradman. He became the first to achieve the feat of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets.

Charles Kelleway's Test career straggled the two World Wars.

Jack Gregory.....top-class fast bowler and left-handed batsman.

The two genuine, and best, allrounders between the wars were the Australians Charles Kelleway and Jack Gregory. Kelleway’s Test career straggled the First World War, having played 15 Tests earlier. Similarly, Frank Woolley’s career was divided by the First World War.

The English duo of Walter Robins and Gubby Allen too were versatile players who made valuable contributions.

Wally Hammond was, of course, one of the all-time great batsmen who would wheel over his medium pace. Stan McCabe too was a handy bowler of the same variety. Their allround quotient was boosted by their tremendous batting records.

There were bowlers from around the cricketing world who could wield the willow, the world-class English slow left-armer Hedley Verity, the South African slow left-armer Cyril Vincent, the West Indies speedster Learie Constantine, and the great Aussie leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett.

The top allrounders with at least 1000 runs and 50 wickets in Test cricket between the two World Wars were:

Wally Hammond (England 1927-1939), Right-hand bat, Right-arm medium-pace

Tests 77, Highest score 336*, Runs 6883, Average 61.45, 100s 22, 50s 22

Best bowling 5/36, Wickets 83, Average 37.77, 5WI 2, 10WM -, Quotient 1.62

Jack Gregory (Australia 1920-1928), Left-hand bat, Right-arm fast

Tests 24, Highest score 119, Runs 1146, Average 36.96, 100s 2, 50s 7

Best bowling 7/69, Wickets 85, Average 31.15, 5WI 4, 10WM -, Quotient 1.18

Maurice Tate (England 1924-1935), Right-hand bat, Right-arm fast-medium, off-break

Tests 39, Highest score 100*, Runs 1198, Average 25.48, 100s 1, 50s 5

Best bowling 6/42, Wickets 155, Average 26.16, 5WI 7, 10WM 1, Quotient 0.97

The best allrounders with at least 500 runs and 25 wickets in Test cricket between the two World Wars were:

Charles Kelleway (Australia 1920-1928), Right-hand bat, Right-arm fast-medium

Tests 11, Highest score 147, Runs 590, Average 34.70, 100s 1, 50s 2

Best bowling 4/27, Wickets 29, Average 27.75, 5WI -, 10WM -, Quotient 1.25

Stan McCabe (Australia 1930-1938), Right-hand bat, Right-arm medium

Tests 39, Highest score 232, Runs 2748, Average 48.21, 100s 6, 50s 13

Best bowling 4/13, Wickets 36, Average 42.86, 5WI -, 10WM -, Quotient 1.12

Walter Robins (England 1929-1937), Right-hand bat, Right-arm leg-break

Tests 19, Highest score 108, Runs 612, Average 26.60, 100s 1, 50s 4

Best bowling 6/32, Wickets 64, Average 27.46, 5WI 1, 10WM -, Quotient 0.96

Gubby Allen (England 1930-1937), Right-hand bat, Right-arm fast

Tests 22, Highest score 122, Runs 656, Average 25.23, 100s 1, 50s 3

Best bowling 7/80, Wickets 76, Average 28.60, 5WI 5, 10WM 1, Quotient 0.88

Frank Woolley (England 1920-1934), Left-hand bat, Left-arm medium, Slow left-arm

Tests 42, Highest score 154, Runs 2346, Average 37.83, 100s 4, 50s 15

Best bowling 7/76, Wickets 44, Average 43.00, 5WI 1, 10WM -, Quotient 0.87

Hedley Verity (England 1931-1939), Right-hand bat, Slow left-arm

Tests 40, Highest score 66*, Runs 669, Average 20.90, 100s -, 50s 3

Best bowling 8/43, Wickets 144, Average 24.37, 5WI 5, 10WM 2, Quotient 0.85

Cyril Vincent (South Africa 1927-1935), Left-hand bat, Slow left-arm

Tests 25, Highest score 60, Runs 526, Average 20.23, 100s -, 50s 2

Best bowling 6/51, Wickets 84, Average 31.32, 5WI 3, 10WM -, Quotient 0.64

Learie Constantine (West Indies 1928-1939), Right-hand bat, Right-arm fast-medium

Tests 18, Highest score 90, Runs 635, Average 19.24, 100s -, 50s 4

Best bowling 5/75, Wickets 58, Average 30.10, 5WI 2, 10WM 1, Quotient 0.63

Clarrie Grimmett (Australia 1925-1936), Right-hand bat, Right-arm leg-break googly

Tests 37, Highest score 50, Runs 557, Average 13.92, 100s -, 50s 1

Best bowling 7/40, Wickets 216, Average 24.21, 5WI 21, 10WM 7, Quotient 0.57

In their entire careers these allrounders achieved the following figures:

Charles Kelleway (Australia 1910-1928), Right-hand bat, Right-arm fast-medium

Tests 26, Highest score 147, Runs 1422, Average 37.42, 100s 3, 50s 6

Best bowling 5/33, Wickets 52, Average 32.36, 5WI 1, 10WM -, Quotient 1.15

Wilfred Rhodes (England 1899-1930), Right-hand bat, Slow left-arm

Tests 58, Highest score 179, Runs 2325, Average 30.19, 100s 2, 50s 10

Best bowling 8/68, Wickets 127, Average 26.96, 5WI 6, 10WM 1, Quotient 1.11

Frank Woolley (England 1909-1934), left-hand bat, Left-arm medium, Slow left-arm

Tests 64, Highest score 154, Runs 3283, Average 36.07, 100s 5, 50s 23

Best bowling 7/76, Wickets 83, Average 33.91, 5WI 4, 10WM 1, Quotient 1.06

Gubby Allen (England 1930-1948), Right-hand bat, Right-arm fast

Tests 25, Highest score 122, Runs 750, Average 24.19, 100s 1, 50s 3

Best bowling 7/80, Wickets 81, Average 29.37, 5WI 5, 10WM 1, Quotient 0.82

Hammond bowled just one over for 3 runs after the Second World War, his quotient being 1.54.

Quotient is batting average divided by bowling average.

Bradman’s finest innings, double century in the Lord’s Test of 1930. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

Bradman's finest innings. The Don considered his brilliant 254 at Lord’s in 1930 as his best, a flawless exhibition in the second Test that levelled the series 1-1.

There was much delight and nostalgia at Lord’s when two of first-class cricket’s biggest run-getters, Jack Hobbs and Frank Woolley, walked out together to open the batting for England in the absence of Herbert Sutcliffe, who had sustained an injury in the first Test. Thanks to Duleepsinhji’s superb 173 on first appearance against Australia, the hosts ran up a total of 425. Woodfull and Ponsford were sailing along, having raised 162.

Ponsford then seemed to lose focus, having just greeted King George V, who was visiting the ground. What followed was a Bradman gem. Woodfull was solid as ever but Bradman was in a different plane, smashing the English bowling in a stunning display over two-and-a-half hours that afternoon. The partnership realised 231 runs, and by close of play Australia were 404 for two, with Bradman on 155.

Kippax then featured in a stand of 192, and by the time Bradman made his first and last mistake, Australia had already taken a lead of 160. He had made a magnificent 254, having been at the crease for 341 minutes and stroked 25 boundaries in his 376-ball sojourn. Australia declared at 729 for six. The world now acknowledged the arrival of the run-getting phenomenon.

It was an innings that Bradman himself rated as his best. Every shot except one, he reminisced, went exactly where he intended, even the stroke that got him out. While making that last hit Bradman just overlooked that Percy Chapman, who took the catch, was a very tall man, and he also regarded it as one of the best catches he had ever seen.

Bradman is quoted in the Jack Bannister-compiled The Innings of My Life as saying, “It was my first innings in a Test at Lord’s, recognised as the home of cricket, and there was understandably a great deal of pressure on me. I have picked this innings because, though I played more valuable and important innings, I never played one so technically perfect. There was only one delivery I didn’t hit where I wanted (when on 191), and even that went along the ground to second slip.”

In an interview with Mike Popham of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television for the 200th anniversary of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1987, Bradman reiterated that this was indeed the best innings he ever played in any class of cricket. He spoke about the atmosphere at Lord’s: “Like every young boy I was anxious to play at Lord’s, to have my first look at the ground. It has an atmosphere about it no other ground possesses. It’s not the best pitch, it’s not the best playing field, but it has this atmosphere. You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, but you can feel it. I think it’s got a great influence on the way you perform. You have to walk through the Long Room. You’re a part of history walking out there to bat, and I think that helps to inspire you to give a good performance.”

In the second innings, needing just 72 runs to win, he fell for 1, to another brilliant catch by Chapman, the bowler being Tate for the fourth time in Bradman’s young career. Australia won by seven wickets, the series pegged at 1-1.

“This was one of the great Test matches of history,” Bradman continued in the BBC interview, “it finished within four days. There were just over 1600 runs made off a rate of bowling which averaged roughly 130 overs a day.”

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

Don’s Century

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The conditions under which W.G. Grace played and why he was such a great batsman. Excerpt from Indra Vikram Singh’s book ‘Don’s Century’

W.G. Grace's last Test match, Nottingham, June 1899.

Inarguably, the first great batsman was W.G. Grace. He is credited with developing batting technique as we know it today. Another wizard who joined Grace during the later stages of his career, K.S. Ranjitsinhji wrote in The Jubilee Book of Cricket (1897): “He revolutionized batting. He turned it from an accomplishment into a science….. Before W.G. batsmen were of two kinds; a batsman played a forward game or he played a back game….. It was bad cricket to hit a straight ball; as for pulling a long hop, it was regarded as immoral. What W.G. did was to unite in his mighty self all the good points of all the good players and to make utility the criterion of style. He founded the modern theory of batting by making forward and back play of equal importance, relying neither on one nor the other, but both….. I hold him to be, not only the finest player born or unborn, but the maker of modern batting. He turned the old one-stringed instrument into a many chorded lyre.”

The emergence of Grace saw significant developments in the game. In 1864, over-arm bowling was approved. Grace was then able to develop batting technique that countered this revolutionary over-the-shoulder style of delivering the ball. Cricket received the impetus it required. County cricket began the same year, as was Wisden first published.

The popular image of Dr. William Gilbert Grace is that of the Grand Old Man, portly, ageing, with a flowing grey beard. But his best came very early in his career. It is reckoned that he was at eighteen years the best batsman in England, and consequently the world. That was in 1866 when, as Vic Marks wrote in The Wisden Illustrated History of Cricket: “W.G. was creating new standards that no one else could reach.” Playing for an England XI against Surrey, Grace scored 224 not out in a crushing victory of an innings and 300 runs. Marks recounted: “On the last afternoon his captain gave him permission to pop off to Crystal Palace to run in a 440-yard hurdle race - he won. Three weeks later he scored 173 not out for the Gentlemen of the South against Players of the South at The Oval, having already taken seven wickets whilst bowling unchanged throughout the Players’ innings.”

Grace’s halcyon days were in the pre-Test cricket era. Peter Hartland reflected in his book The Balance of Power in Test Cricket 1877-1998: “Picture him in 1873 as a 25-year-old, already known for prodigious feats in track and field athletics. At this stage he scored more runs in his short cricketing career - over 10,000 - than anyone else in history to date, at more than double the average. His career average was now 61, the next best being (reputedly the best professional batsman of the 1860s and 1870s) Richard Daft’s 29. Grace was literally twice as good as anyone who had ever played. With a step-change in broad-batted technique, if not in style, he was the first to show that cricket could be a batsman’s game; that bowlers could be forced on the defensive for long periods. The remarkable thing to remember about Grace is not so much his cricketing longevity, remarkable though that was, but the fact that he established a lead over his contemporaries which has never been equalled.”

It must be remembered that Grace had to play on pitches in the 1860s that were terrible for batting. Hartland continued, “….. pitches, still rough and ready with scant regard for evenness or slope, had barely improved. The only tool in regular use was the scythe, complementing the work of rabbits, sheep and, on one reported occasion at Lord’s a brace of partridges.”

Batting was a hazardous exercise as W.G. Grace’s own observation on wickets bears out: “Many of the principal grounds were so rough as to be positively dangerous to play upon and batsmen were commonly damaged by the fast bowling. When the wickets were in this condition the batsmen had to look out for shooters and leave the bumping balls to look after themselves. In the sixties it was no unusual thing to have three shooters in an over.” And there were only four deliveries in an over in those days!

Later the tracks did improve somewhat, and it is no coincidence that in 1871, around the time the heavy roller came to be used, Grace became the first batsman to score 2000 runs in a season - 2739 runs at an average of 78.25 with 10 hundreds, including two double centuries. That was an age when there was a clear demarcation between the amateurs and the professionals, or the Gentlemen and the Players, as they were called. The Gentlemen were the aristocrats of the game and invariably batsmen, while much of the hard labour, bowling, fell to the lot of the Players. Most of the time it was the Players who triumphed but as Marks recorded “Only during the Grace era did the Gentlemen dominate the fixture. W.G. seemed to save his best performance for the occasion, which serves to emphasise the fact that it was the most important game in the cricket calendar.”

That awesome hitter Gilbert ‘Croucher’ Jessop wrote in the July 1923 edition of The Cricketer International: “In the early days the success of the Gentlemen depended almost entirely on the ‘Old Man’. Fifteen centuries in all did he collect against the ‘Professors’ and on two of the occasions he exceeded the double century. His brightest and best patch occurred before I was born, when in consecutive innings from 1871-73 he took toll of the Players bowling to the extent of 217, 77 and 112, 117, 163, 158 and 70. And in those days, mind you, the wickets, to say the least, were not quite up to the standard of modern days. Yet against ‘rib-roasters’, ‘nose-enders’ - yes, even ‘shooters’ - did the Old Man keep his end up and calmly pursue the path which leads to centuries. Rare indeed was the occasion when ‘W.G.’ gave his wicket away, and yet few balls in the course of a long innings passed his bat.”  

W.G. also bowled accurate medium-paced to slow leg-cutters and became the first to perform the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in a season in 1873.

Grace came up with a stupendous performance in The Gentlemen versus The Players match at Lord’s in 1876. Opening the batting, he scored 169 out of the team’s total of 449. He then bowled 97 four-ball overs, taking three for 81 and six for 41 as The Players collapsed for 219 and 132 in their two innings. That year he became the first batsman to score a triple century in first-class cricket and, as if to celebrate, hit another, two innings later. His sequence of scores were 344, 177 and 318 not out, and in the month of August piled up 1279 runs. 

The 1870s were a golden period for Gloucestershire in the County Championships, W.G. and his brothers, Edward Mills and George Frederick, with a team composed entirely of amateurs won the title jointly with Nottinghamshire in 1873, and then on their own in 1874, 1876 and 1877, and never thereafter.

Hartland continued, “When the Test match era began in 1877, the process of allowing the batsman as fair a chance as the bowler, though reasonably advanced, still had a long way to go.” In the early 1880s, the heavy roller was complemented by the grass mower, which were used over tended soil. This made life a bit easier for batsmen. Given the awesome stature that he had already acquired, it seemed almost inevitable that W.G. would score a hundred on his Test debut. He did, at the Oval in 1880, the second such distinction after Charles Bannerman’s feat in the inaugural Test at Melbourne in 1876-77. Grace’s 152 helped England win by five wickets. Australian terror Fred Spofforth was injured during that Test, but Grace was at his best against fast bowling.

His duels with Spofforth were exhilarating, one such occasion being in what came to be known as ‘Spofforth’s match’ at the Oval in August 1882 when Australia lost at home for the first time. It was this Test that led to the creation of the Ashes. On a treacherous wicket rendered well nigh unplayable due to rain, England were set 85 to win. At 51 for two, with Grace still at the wicket, victory seemed in sight. But he holed out to mid-off for 32, and England collapsed to 77 all out. Spofforth took seven wickets in each innings, and the rest is history.

In 1886 Grace performed the astounding feat of scoring a hundred and capturing all ten wickets in an innings in the same match. He hit up 104 in MCC’s only innings, and bagged two for 60 and ten for 49, against Oxford University.

As late as 1895, at nearly 47 years, Grace was a rejuvenated man. He resurrected his career by becoming the first to score over 1000 runs in May, a cherished achievement at the beginning of the English season when it is generally cold and damp, and the ball darts around; and to notch up 100 first-class hundreds, achieving the coveted landmark in the game against Somerset at Bristol. As if to celebrate, he went on to hit up 288 out of a total of 474. Grace was the lone man to achieve these two distinctions in the 19^th century. He topped the run tally for the season with 2346 runs. The next year he made his third triple century, two decades after he had compiled his first two.    

Amazingly, Grace was captain of Gloucestershire from 1871 to 1898. He led England in 13 Tests, playing 22 in all and scoring 1098 runs at an average of 32.29 with two centuries both at the Oval against Australia, 170 being the highest in 1886. Though he played his last first-class match in 1908, when he was sixty, the same year that Bradman was born, W.G.’s career was effectively over by the close of the nineteenth century. His final appearance at Lord’s for The Gentlemen was in 1899. He was still captain but did not bowl, and batted only at no. 7, instead of his customary position at the top of the order. He scored 78 before being run out, his age and bulk unable to meet the demands of sprinting up and down the pitch with youthful partners.

As Marks noted: “The Gentlemen won by an innings, which was hardly surprising since the side contained many of the men who were to become legendary figures of the Edwardian era (Archie) MacLaren, (C.B.) Fry, (K.S.) Ranjitsinhji, and F.S. Jackson. On the Players side was a 21-year-old Yorkshireman Wilfred Rhodes, who was to have the rare privilege - and pain - of bowling to both W.G. and his Australian counterpart of the next generation, Donald Bradman.” Grace aggregated 6008 runs for the Gentlemen against the Players - more than twice the next man - and also took 276 wickets.

In addition to his three first-class triple centuries, Grace knocked up 10 double centuries in his tally of 126 three-figure knocks. He made up 1000 runs in a season 28 times, the only other player to achieve it so many times being Frank Woolley. Grace scored a hundred in each innings of a match thrice. His career aggregate of 54,896 runs at an average of 39.55 was then a record. It is remarkable that in such a long career played on uncovered wickets of dubious quality, Grace did not bag a single pair. Lord Harris paid his tribute later: “Grace was just as watchful when his score was 200 as when he was on 0 - and just as reluctant to leave the wicket on dismissal.” He also took 2876 first-class wickets at an average of 17.92 and, as was only to be expected from a man of his temperament, a brilliant fielder off his own bowling. Amazingly, even a century later, W.G. Grace is still fifth in the all-time rungetters list, and sixth among the wicket-takers, in the first-class arena.  

Vic Marks, in The Wisden Illustrated History of Cricket, summed up the career of cricket’s first superstar: “W.G. Grace was to dwarf all others in the period 1865 to 1900. He became as celebrated as Queen Victoria herself. Unwittingly Grace carried the game of cricket into the modern era almost single-handed.” There is indeed little doubt that he transformed the game and the public’s awareness of it. Perhaps appropriately, the last word on Grace should come from his memorial biography published under the auspices of the MCC. Sir Home Gordon eulogised, “That he will never have an equal in the future is to us equally an axiom because never again will the conditions under which it is played be so difficult as they were when he built up his reputation by demonstrating his superiority alike over them and over his contemporaries, a position he holds for decades.”

Don’s Century

Published by Sporting Links

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Indra Vikram Singh’s latest books published by Sporting Links:

A Maharaja’s Turf  ISBN 978-81-901668-3-6

The Big Book of World Cup Cricket  ISBN 978-81-901668-4-3

Don’s Century  ISBN 978-81-901668-5-0

Crowning Glory  ISBN 978-81-901668-6-7

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The finest left-handed batsmen in cricket's annals

Clem Hill (Australia) ….. Tests span: 1896-1912, Matches 49, Highest Score 191, Runs 3,412, Average 39.21, 7 Hundreds, 19 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1892-1923, Matches 252, Highest Score 365*, Runs 17,213, Average 43.57, 45 Hundreds, 83 Fifties.

Frank Woolley (England) ….. Tests span: 1909-1934, Matches 64, Highest Score 154, Runs 3,283, Average 36.07, 5 Hundreds, 23 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1906-1938, Matches 978, Highest Score 305*, Runs 58,959, Average 40.77, 145 Hundreds, 295 Fifties.

Arthur Morris (Australia) ….. Tests span: 1946-1955, Matches 46, Highest Score 206, Runs 3,533, Average 46.48, 12 Hundreds, 12 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1940-1955, Matches 162, Highest Score 290, Runs 12,614, Average 53.67, 46 Hundreds, 46 Fifties.

Bert Sutcliffe (New Zealand) ….. Tests span: 1947-1965, Matches 42, Highest Score 230*, Runs 2,727, Average 40.10, 5 Hundreds, 15 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1941-1966, Matches 233, Highest Score 385, Runs 17,447, Average 47.41, 44 Hundreds, 83 Fifties.

Neil Harvey (Australia) ….. Tests span: 1948-1963, Matches 79, Highest Score 205, Runs 6,149, Average 48.41, 21 Hundreds, 24 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1946-1963, Matches 306, Highest Score 231*, Runs 21,699, Average 50.93, 67 Hundreds, 94 Fifties.

Gary Sobers (West Indies) ….. Tests span: 1954-1974, Matches 93, Highest Score 365*, Runs 8,032, Average 57.78, 26 Hundreds, 30 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1952-1974, Matches 383, Highest Score 365*, Runs 28,314, Average 54.87, 86 Hundreds, 121 Fifties.

Graeme Pollock (South Africa) ….. Tests span: 1963-1970, Matches 23, Highest Score 274, Runs 2,256, Average 60.97, 7 Hundreds, 11 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1960-1987, Matches 262, Highest Score 274, Runs 20,940, Average 54.67, 64 Hundreds, 99 Fifties.

Allan Border (Australia) ….. Tests span: 1978-1994, Matches 156, Highest Score 205, Runs 11,174, Average 50.56, 27 Hundreds, 63 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1976-1996, Matches 385, Highest Score 205, Runs 27,131, Average 51.38, 70 Hundreds, 142 Fifties.

Brian Lara (West Indies) ….. Tests span: 1990-2006, Matches 131, Highest Score 400*, Runs 11,953, Average 52.88, 34 Hundreds, 48 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1987-2008, Matches 261, Highest Score 501*, Runs 22,156, Average 51.88, 65 Hundreds, 88 Fifties.

Matthew Hayden (Australia) ….. Tests span: 1994-2009, Matches 103, Highest Score 380, Runs 8,625, Average 50.73, 30 Hundreds, 29 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 1991-2009, Matches 295, Highest Score 380, Runs 24,603, Average 52.57, 79 Hundreds, 100 Fifties.

Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) ….. Tests span: 2000-2015, Matches 134, Highest Score 319, Runs 12,400, Average 57.40, 38 Hundreds, 52 Fifties; ….. First-class span: 2000-2015, Matches 235, Highest Score 319, Runs 18,134, Average 50.51, Hundreds 53, Fifties 77.

Excerpts from Indra Vikram Singh's book 'Don's Century' ..... 5 - Chapter 7 : PEERLESS RUNGETTER AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE WILLOW (5. Frank Woolley)

Equally, several people might question why Frank Woolley, with his modest Test record, is spoken of so glowingly. It is perhaps for the same reason as Trumper, for their abundant natural ability and uninhibited strokeplay. They were obviously different. For one, Woolley was a left-hander, He would hit long and straight, while Trumper was more wristy. Later generations who never saw Woolley play get a fair idea of the type of batsman he was from the fact that the golden boy of English cricket of the 1980s, David Gower, is often compared to him for the lazy elegance and nonchalance that characterised their play. So often has it been observed that the abundantly gifted do not achieve the same degree of results as the less endowed, for they do not have to strive as hard at their game, and invariably squander some of the bounty they are blessed with. So it would seem was the case with Woolley, as with Gower. They would exasperate as much as they would delight.

Nonetheless, it must not be forgotten that Woolley remains the second-highest rungetter in first-class cricket after Hobbs, with 58,969 runs at an average of 40.75, having cracked 145 hundreds with a best of 305 not out. Add to this the 2068 wickets at 19.85 apiece and his all-time record of 1018 catches, the only non-wicketkeeper to clutch 1000, and you have truly one of the finest left-handed allrounders that ever graced a cricket field, pun unintended. In all his 28 first-class seasons - interrupted by the First World War - Woolley never failed to reach 1000 runs. Only Grace achieved it as often, but not every time.

The versatile Woolley equalled the then record for six catches in a Test against Australia at Sydney in 1911-12. After the War he stood up manfully to the pace assault of Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald at Lord’s, hitting back with knocks of 95 and 93 even as his colleagues floundered against Warwick Armstrong’s victorious team of 1921.

Having achieved the double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets in the 1914 season, Woolley repeated the feat over three consecutive seasons from 1921 to 1923. No one else has ever done it so often.

Two of Woolley’s finest knocks in first-class cricket, both for Kent, were 215 against Somerset at Gravesend in 1925 when he clouted 8 sixes, and 229 in three hours versus Surrey at The Oval in 1935 when a straight hit landed in a garden on Harleyford Road. Woolley’s first-class record is remarkably similar to W.G. Grace’s, though it must be conceded that the good doctor played on far worse pitches, particularly in the early part of his career. In 64 Tests Woolley scored 3283 runs at an average of 36.07 and took 83 wickets at 33.91 apiece.

The reasons why Woolley was spoken of in such glowing terms can be found in Raymond Robertson-Glasgow’s words: “Frank Woolley was easy to watch, difficult to bowl to and impossible to write about. When you bowled to him, there weren’t enough fielders, when you wrote about him there weren’t enough words.” Indeed, and mere figures are not enough to unravel the delightful package that was Frank Woolley, a lovely gift wrapped in plain brown paper.

Peter Hartland concluded: “Frank Woolley is still the standard by which elegant left-handers are judged. Many words have been written about the effortless beauty of his play, the long reach and full swing sent the ball skimming to, or over, the boundary. Fast bowlers frequently posted a long-off. Perhaps there was something too loose about his batting - more so even than the man from a later generation most often compared with him, David Gower.” It might also be added that Woolley, it seems, had the mindset of an allrounder, rather than a pure batsman, and that is the context in which he should be viewed.

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