Frederick Robert "Fred" Spofforth (9 September 1853 – 4 June 1926), also known as "The Demon Bowler", was arguably the Australian cricket team The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877's finest pace bowler of the nineteenth century.

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Biography

Spofforth was born in the Sydney Sydney is the largest and most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. With an approximate population of 4.5 million in the Sydney metropolitan area the city is the largest municipality in Oceania. Inhabitants of Sydney are called Sydneysiders, suburb of Balmain Balmain is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Balmain is located slightly west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt, the son of Edward Spofforth, a bank clerk, and his wife Anna, née McDonnell.[1] Spofforth spent his early childhood in Hokianga, New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori language name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also and was later educated privately at the Reverend John Pendrill’s Eglinton House on Glebe Road and, for a short time, at Sydney Grammar School Sydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[2]

Spofforth was thereafter employed by the Bank of New South Wales as a clerk. He began his life as a bowler with underarm "lobs" but changed his style when he saw the great England quick bowlers on their tour of the colonies in 1863/64. He decided that he would pursue the overarm action and spent many years mastering it. Spofforth came to notice as a member of the New South Wales New South Wales , Australia's most populous state, is located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland, east of South Australia and encompasses the whole of the Australian Capital Territory. It was founded in 1788 and originally comprised much of the Australian mainland, as well as Van Diemen's Land, Lord Howe eighteen in January 1874 when he took two wickets for sixteen in a match against W.G. Grace's English The England cricket team is the cricket team which represents England and Wales. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) from 1903 until the end of 1996 eleven. He was a regular representative of the New South Wales team in intercolonial fixtures and, in the December 1877 game, went in second wicket down to make 25, the highest score in either innings in a low-scoring match. Although he batted reasonably well during the 1878 and 1880 Australian tours in England, from then he concentrated almost solely on his bowling and established a tremendous reputation.

Spofforth played his first Test match Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It is generally considered the ultimate test of playing ability and endurance in the sport in 1877 in Melbourne The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park in inner Melbourne, home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the largest stadium in Australia, and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre, and is serviced by Richmond and. It was the second match of the first-ever Test series, against an English team led by James Lillywhite, Jr. Spofforth took three wickets in the first innings and another in the second, but England went on to win the match by four wickets. He had boycotted the First Test because of Jack Blackham's selection as wicket-keeper ahead of Spofforth's close friend and fellow New South Welshman Billy Murdoch.

Spofforth truly announced himself to the cricketing world on 27 May 1878, when the touring Australians met the MCC Marylebone Cricket Club was founded in 1787 as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground near St John's Wood in north London. MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket in England and across the world. Most of its global functions were passed on to the International Cricket at Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the European Cricket Council (ECC) and, until August 2005, the International Cricket Council (ICC). Lord'. In this, the second match of the tour, the might of the MCC was dismissed twice in one day at the fortress of English cricket for paltry scores of just 33 and nineteen. The colonists won by nine wickets, with Spofforth picking up ten for twenty after first clean-bowling Grace for a duck. Tom "Felix" Horan records that, when he did so, "he jumped about two feet in the air, and sang out: 'Bowled! Bowled! Bowled!' And at the finish in the dressing-room, he said: 'Ain't I a demon? Ain't I a demon?' gesticulating the while in his well-known demonaic style. Whether or not he christened himself the demon, he certainly was a demon bowler."[3] Spofforth confirms this: "To myself, it will always be a noteworthy occasion, since it was then that I first earned my popular sobriquet -- 'the Demon'."[4]

As a consequence of this victory, writes Plum Warner, the "fame of Australian cricket was established for all time." Spofforth became known forever as "The Demon Bowler" (a title which first adorned John "Foghorn" Jackson in the 1850s). He was the bowler whom English batsmen most feared and is also regarded as the one who first brought into the game, as a scaring technique, eye-to-eye contact with the batsman. Spofforth would often stare straight into the batsman's eyes to scare and shake him.

This worked to particularly devastating effect in the match that gave birth to the legendary Ashes series The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of international cricket's most celebrated rivalries and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Since cricket is a summer sport, the venues being in opposite hemispheres means the break between series, at The Oval on 28 August 1882. In their second innings, England required a mere 85 runs to clinch the match, but Spofforth refused to give up -- "Boys," he said famously, "this thing can be done" -- and led his team to a remarkable victory, one of the closest ever in the history of Test cricket The game of cricket has a known history spanning from the 16th century to the present day, with international matches played since 1844, although the official history of international Test cricket began in 1877. During this time, the game developed from its origins in England into a game which is now played professionally in most of the. The Australians won by seven runs, Spofforth taking match figures of fourteen for ninety.

During the January Test match of the 1879 Lord Harris' England tour of Australia For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of the roughly 250 language groups. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the immediate north and discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Britain in 177, played on the Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park in inner Melbourne, home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the largest stadium in Australia, and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre, and is serviced by Richmond and, Spofforth became the first man to get a hat-trick In sport, a hat-trick means to achieve a positive feat in the sport three times during a game, or other achievements based on threes. For instance in association football or ice hockey a player might score three goals, whilst in cricket a bowler might take three wickets in three deliveries in Test cricket, dismissing Vernon Royle, Francis MacKinnon and Tom Emmett in three successive deliveries. This was the highlight of a brilliant bowling performance which brought him 13 wickets for 110 runs. In February, Spofforth also played for New South Wales against Lord Harris' tourists in a game that, on the Saturday, descended into the Sydney Riot of 1879 The Sydney Riot of 1879 was a civil disorder that occurred at an early international cricket match. It took place at the Association Ground, Moore Park, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia during a match between a touring English team captained by Lord Harris and New South Wales, led by Dave Gregory, who was also the captain of Australia. The.

Although not noted as a batsman, he once top-scored in a Test from the unlikely starting position of number eleven. He hit 50 against England at Melbourne in 1884-85; the next-highest score by an Australian in the match was 35.

Fred Spofforth played his last Test match in Sydney in January 1887 in which he bowled twelve overs In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it shall be completed by a teammate, conceded seventeen runs and took one wicket. England won the match by 13 runs. He represented New South Wales from 1874 to 1885 and Victoria from 1885 to 1887. In 1888 he settled in England and got married. He played for Derbyshire in 1889 and 1890, and in 1896, playing for MCC Marylebone Cricket Club was founded in 1787 as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground near St John's Wood in north London. MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket in England and across the world. Most of its global functions were passed on to the International Cricket, although in his forty-third year, took eight wickets for 74 against Yorkshire Yorkshire County Cricket Club, who represent the historic county of Yorkshire, are one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure. Their limited overs team is called the Yorkshire Carnegie , whose current (2008) kit colours are black with gold trim and the shirt sponsor is Bradford and Bingley (building. He played club cricket for Hampstead for some years after 1890 and secured a large number of wickets at a low cost. In England he went into business as a tea-merchant and became the managing director of the Star Tea Company which belonged to his wife's father and was very successful. He revisited Australia on more than one occasion and retained his interest in the game to the end. When he died, aged 72, on the eve of the 1926 Ashes series (some of which he had wanted to see), Spofforth left behind a fortune of ₤164,000.

Spofforth in later years

6' 3" tall (190.5 cm) and weighing in at 12½ stone (80 kg), Spofforth was lean but very strong. He began as a fast bowler, although he did not have a very long run. After the 1878 tour, as he begun to study medium-paced and slow bowling, his speed quietened down to fast medium-pace with an occasional extra-fast or -slow ball thrown in; "his objective", according to John Trumble, "being a completely disguised combination of the three paces; and those who saw him bowling at his best will remember to what perfection he attained in this direction. His action on delivery was exactly the same for all of the three paces, and it was in his magnificent concealment of change in the pace of his bowling that he stood out from all other bowlers of all time."

Also influencing the general slackening of pace was his discovery that, on the softer English wickets, his break from the off (known then, appropriately, as the "break back") was sharpened when he bowled slower, and only once on the 1882 tour did he resort to his full speed (in unsuccessful retaliation to Grace's unsporting run-out of Sammy Jones in the Test match). Using the break back, he was able to have a large proportion of his victims bowled; indeed, seven of his ten wickets in the 1878 match against the MCC were taken in that fashion. Of his 94 wickets in test matches, 50 were bowled out. [5]

Spofforth might also have been the original inventor of swing bowling (or "swerve", as it was then known). According to Grace, Spofforth first started implementing it during or after the 1878 tour. It is unknown whether or not he had an outswinger, but he could definitely shape the ball back in to the right-handers.

Spofforth's bowling average was not very low for his era, but he always attacked, and he dismissed a great many batsmen. Lord Hawke, who played first-class cricket for a great many years, considered him to be the most difficult bowler he had ever played against. He was often called the best bowler in the game, and he was particularly effective bowling to W.G. Grace, the best batsman of the era.

Fred Spofforth died of chronic colitis In medicine, colitis refers to an inflammation of the colon and is often used to describe an inflammation of the large intestine (colon, cecum and rectum)[1] at the age of 72 in 1926 at Long Ditton in Surrey Surrey is divided into 11 boroughs and districts: Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley, Woking. After the elections of 1 May 2008, the Conservatives are in control of 10 out of 11 councils in Surrey, with Epsom and Ewell in Residents Association control, England.

In 1996 he was posthumously included in the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the ten inaugural inductees along with Jack Blackham, Victor Trumper, Clarrie Grimmett, Bill Ponsford William Harold Ponsford MBE was an Australian cricketer, the only player to twice break the world record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket. Predominantly playing as an opening batsman, he formed a successful and long-lived partnership opening the batting for Victoria and Australia with Bill Woodfull, his friend and state and, Don Bradman, Bill O'Reilly, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall and Dennis Lillee. A sculpture of Spofforth by Cathy Weiszmann was unveiled at the Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian Football League. It is owned and operated by the SCG Trust that also on 5 January 2008.

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Christopher Morris, 'Spofforth, Frederick Robert (1853 - 1926)', Australian Dictionary of Biography The ADB project has been operating since 1957 with staff located at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. Since its inception, 4000 authors have contributed to the ADB and its published volumes contain 9,800 scholarly articles on 10,700 individuals, Vol. 6, MUP Melbourne University Publishing is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne (Australia), 1976, pp 170-171. Retrieved 2009-10-27
  2. ^ Glebe Society Bulletin April/May 2006, p.9
  3. ^ Horan, Tom: Felix on Bowling (The Australasian, 2 October 1897).
  4. ^ Spofforth, Frederick Robert: Australian Cricket and Cricketers: A Retrospect in Grove, Archibald; Henley, William Ernest (eds): New Review (Longmans, Green, 1897), p. 628.
  5. ^ http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283464.html

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by William Chatterton Derbyshire cricket captains 1890 Succeeded by Sydney Evershed

Categories: 1853 births | 1926 deaths | Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees | Australia Test cricketers | New South Wales cricketers | People from Sydney Categories: People by city in Australia | Sydney | People from New South Wales | Victoria cricketers | Test hat-trick takers | Derbyshire cricketers | Derbyshire cricket captains

 

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