How the leg-side bouncer blighted gentleman’s game

MOST people think that the dreaded short-pitched leg-side delivery was first used in the infamous Bodyline Test series of 1932-33. But the tactic was around long before Douglas Jardine.

England fast bowler Frank Tyson is knocked senseless by a bouncer from Ray Lindwall, one of Bradman’s Invincibles, at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the 1955 Ashes tour.

MANY batsmen fear the dreaded fast, short-pitched leg-side bouncer. Sometimes called “headhunters” they are unpredictable, hard to hit and only a rare few batsmen are able to confidently flick them away for runs. Most fear the ball will make contact, because when it does it can have devastating consequences. As it did with Test cricketer Phillip Hughes, during a NSW vs South-Australia Sheffield Shield match in 2014.

An inquest into Hughes’ death this week questioned whether he was deliberately targeted with short-pitched balls, which were likened to the tactics used by England in the infamous Bodyline Test series. During those matches English bowlers seemed to be deliberately bowling at batsmen’s bodies to intimidate them, at times inflicting injuries. But it is a tactic that was born decades before Bodyline.

In the early days of cricket batsmen were safer from being hit because bowlers actually bowled underarm. Even as late as 1822 English bowler John Willes was no-balled when he tried to sneak in a delivery from almost shoulder height, known as “round-arm”.

Cricketers began defying the ban on “round-arm” deliveries in the 1820s and the rules were changed to allow it in 1835. By then some bowlers were raising the arm above the shoulder, which allowed more accuracy, speed and bounce. In 1864 overarm bowling became permissible.

As bowlers picked up speed in the late 19th century they tried ways of thwarting the batsmen with more speed and bounce, bowling on the leg stump. The tactic appears to have been used sparingly, but it became more regular by about 1900.

Australian bowler Warwick Armstrong employed the “leg theory” tactic during the 1903-4 Test series.

One of the earliest exponents of what became known as “leg theory” was Australian captain Warwick Armstrong. He employed the tactic in the 1903-4 Test series, which Australia lost.

One of the batsmen facing him was Pelham “Plum” Warner who later said: “Armstrong bowled wonderfully well. His leg break, it is true, is much more leg than break” also saying that Armstrong dropped the ball outside leg stump “and with eight men on the on-side it was difficult to score from him”. But Armstrong was a relatively slow bowler and his leg balls were more about accuracy than speed.

In 1912 English bowler Frank Foster wasn’t having much luck with on-side bowling so he began to attack the leg stump. One report mentions Foster “bowling round the wicket a beautifully accurate length, and coming off the pitch at surprising pace. It became next to impossible for right-handed batsmen to get his swinging deliveries away.” Foster gave Aussie batsman Victor Trumper a bruising, but the ball got no higher than Trumper’s thigh and his ribs. Foster took 66 wickets in the series and helped England defeat Australia.

Australian batsman Bill Woodfull ducks to avoid a rising ball from Harold Larwood of England during the Fourth Test match at Brisbane on the 1932-33 Bodyline tour.

But it was the Ashes Series of 1932-33 that brought notoriety to leg-theory, short-pitched balls.

Before the series, English captain Douglas Jardine had looked for a way of neutralising Australia’s gifted young batsman Don Bradman.

He noticed that Bradman shied away from balls that pitched up short on the leg stump and gave orders to his fast bowlers, who included Harold Larwood, to focus their attack on the leg side.

Bill Woodfull clutches his heart after being struck by ball by Harold Larwood during the Australia vs England Third Test in Adelaide in 1932.

The English called it “fast leg theory” but when it was employed in Australia it became known as Bodyline, because it looked like the bowlers were not bowling along the line of the wicket but along the line of the body.

Bradman missed the First Test due to the flu. In the Second Test he was bowled for a duck in his first innings but came back 103 not out in the second innings. Things got nastier in the Third Test in Adelaide when Bill Woodfull took a blow to the heart and Bert Oldfield was cracked on the skull by a ball that came off the top edge of his bat.

Harold Larwood, English fast bowler Harold Larwood during the bodyline 1932-33 Test series.

Douglas Jardine, England cricket captain during the 1932-33 bodyline series

Australian crowds were outraged and there was talk of calling off the tour but it went on, with England winning the series 4-1. The rules of the game were changed to limit bouncers but there were other bouncer wars.

English cricketer Frank “Typhoon” Tyson bruised some batsmen in the 1954-55 Ashes series before copping a bouncer from Australia’s Ray Lindwall.

In 1994, after English tailender Devon Malcolm took a knock on the helmet from South Africa’s Fanie de Villiers, he retaliated with bouncers aimed at de Villiers and his teammates.

Malcolm took nine wickets and won England the game, but like other exponents of the bouncer he also developed a reputation for bruising batsmen.

Originally published as How the leg-side bouncer blighted gentleman’s game