Historical footage: Impressions of some greats

[AndrewB]

FWIW Cricinfo described Allen's bowling as "fast" and Voce's as "fast-medium". I think it was being a left-arm bowler that meant Voce was suited to bodyline.

 

[watson]

Here's a video of Voce then Larwood bowling in the nets.

Voce is obviously taking it easy, but yeah, fast-medium seems like a good description.

I reckon that he'd have a good 'heavy ball' though because of his slinging action.

 

[Top_Cat]

God Larwood's action never gets old.

 

[AndrewB]

Voce is obviously taking it easy, but yeah, fast-medium seems like a good description.

I reckon that he'd have a good 'heavy ball' though because of his slinging action.

That fits with what Ian Peebles said of Voce in "Talking of Cricket": "With his powerful slinging action he made the ball lift awkwardly, moving a bit both ways off the wicket. Voce was not only a fine bowler in England and Australia but an outstanding success on the matting wickets of South Africa, on which he slowed to quick-medium and turned like lightning towards the slips."

And (re Top_Cat's comment) Peebles also wrote "At Trent Bridge Lol Larwood was always worth going to see, whatever the rest of the match, for here was complete perfection."

 

[Starfighter]

We have it folks, footage of Roy Gilchrist bowling. Big strides and a full double rotation of the arm, although not much momentum in the follow through. Reckon there might be a teeny elbow extension there as well.
Very similar to Charlie Griffith, both in terns of the double whirl and being a little sus, although Griffith is more side on and leans back a bit more.

 

[Starfighter]

Here's some footage from the 4th test of the 58/59 Ashes. There's a few of these videos hanging around but this one contains a couple of interesting things. We get some shots of Ray Lindwall, right near the end of his career. Notice just how roundarm his delivery is. The best thing is we get clear footage from a good distance of Gordon Rorke bowling. You can not only see the throwing but also his enormous drag that caused some chatter. He seems to have worn a nice footmark just beyond the non-striker's popping crease.

 

[Starfighter]

Apparently I've taken over the role of Watson in making lots of posts in this thread.

Starts a few minutes in.
Here's some nice colour footage if Australia's opening match of the 1964 tour of England against Worcestershire. There's another video here with narration but with less footage. It's got Norman Gifford and Len Coldwell who took 7/53 in Australia's first innings. McKenzie, who took 5/47, seems to be bowling a less than threatening pace. Does anyone here want to have a stab at what speed he bowled in test matches? D'Oliveira's medium pace is something to behold, the faster balls look like they might be nudging the 100 km/h mark. Think there might be a shot of Graham Corling in there too.

 

[Starfighter]

Want an opinion here. This video from the 3rd Aus vs WI test in 60/61 has a few shots of Meckiff bowling. Is it just me or is it not relatively clean? Certainly there's a big jerk in the 58/59 Ashes footage, but there'a not much here. I've also seen slow motion footage somewhere from the test where he was actually called (or at least one of his later matches) and I must say that he looked completely fine there.

 

[54321]

Not sure if this was posted before, but a very short clip of Ranji and C.B Fry batting in 1901. (Ranji originator of the helicopter shot confirmed?)

I've also always wondered if there was any footage of Tom Richardson, and it seems like there was in fact some footage of him bowling. However this has most likely been lost.

From 12 to 16 November 1897, the English cricket team played the New South Wales colonial team at the Sydney Cricket Ground. On the afternoon of 11 November, i.e. prior to the match, Ranjitsinhji was practising batting. The last day of the match was 16 November, and England won. And there were reports of filming the players on this last day:

"Some amusement was caused at the conclusion of the match yesterday by a number of the players going on to the field again and putting in some imaginary cricket for the special benefit of the cinematograph, the batsmen being Ranjitsinhji and Hayward, and the bowlers M'Kibbin and Richardson. About a dozen runs were scored, and then the players returned."8

and:

"A cinematographic picture was taken of the Prince and Hayward batting, Richardson and M'Kibbin bowling, Kelly keeping the wickets, and [Iredale] and Gregory in the field. Two pictures were taken, one while "Ranji" was batting and the other when Hayward was striking."9

The 1897-1898 cricket test match films

 

[jimmy101]

Nice to see those legends' techniques back to back. Ranji was much more orthodox looking and free flowing than CB Fry.

Geez, Fry's batting technique is so incredibly 'amateur' isn't it, you can just see the upper-class, aristocratic pomp oozing from his late-cut.

 

[Starfighter]

Some footage from India's 1936 England tour at the Oval. Shows a somewhat better view than the 1932 footage, Amar Singh bowls the first ball, Nissar the one at the end (doesn't look a fast as the 32 footage IMO). Jahangir Khan and CK and CS Nayadu are the others.

 

[Starfighter]

The second test. Alf Gover is the arm pumping bowler at the start. Note Vizy's lovely 'swing and a miss' technique.
And here's the first test. Not much I can really identify in this one, but Gubby Allen's lovely spring through the crease is there. God I wish the classical action would return, hate all these modern bowlers with their chest on actions.

 

[Starfighter]

Here's a longer video of England vs NZ at Lord's in 1949. Includes shot of Walter Hadlee batting, and a couple of Donnelly.

 

[Starfighter]

Some assorted short newsreels:

Third Test Durban 1939
Fourth Test Johannesburg 1939 - in this one you can see Hammond falling to Norman Gordon, who died in 2014 aged 103, the only test cricketer to make the ultimate century.

There's also a set of 1957 reels but that 'cape summer' video a few pages back is better.

First test Aus vs WI 1955 - Australia's first tour of the West Indies. The fast bowler is Frank King.

Also not from this video but I have decided that Morris is a batsmen of extreme attractiveness.

And a couple of silent clips:

The Oval Test 1935 - This one contains a couple of distant shots of Holcombe 'Hopper' Read in his only test, he was said to be the quickest in England during his brief career, though erratic. Unfortunately he was forced to choose his business career over cricket. Also a notably incompetent batsman with a FC average of 3.59. I saw some footage of Stan Nichols who also opened the bowling in this match somewhere, but I can't remember where.

Warwickshire vs West Indies 1928 - this is the best footage I've seen of Constantine bowling, he looks much quicker than in the 1933 footage. If you stop the video at the right points around 38 seconds you can see he's got a really big leap into delivery.

West Indies Test Highlights:

First Test 1933
Second Test 1933 - Nobby Clark, the lefty with the whirling action, actually is a chucker, as a slow motion shot from an Ashes match that I can't find now showed.
Third Test 1933 - Probably the best of Martindale, who took 5/93. Notably WI managed to bowl England out for 312 in a day, in 108.5 overs. Seems funny how much of a struggle modern teams have to bowl 90 overs, although only a few bowlers had really long runs back then.

First Test 1939
Second Test 1939

And here's the best I've got tonight:

Australia bowled out for 80 at Sydney in 1936, in just 23.7 overs. Bill Voce took 4/10, and Bradman got 0(1).

 

[Starfighter]

This video from the 37 Ashes is nice because it's got shots of some of the best pace bowling talent of the era. with Allen, Voce, Farnes and McCormick. Farnes is huge, cricinfo list him as 6'4" but Bill Bowes said he was 6'7" and I'm inclined to say he was at least closer to the higher figure. There's a slow mo of him bowling in the Bradman Era doc, I once came across the original film it was from but I don't remember what it was called There's a whole wealth of footage from the 36/37 and 38 Ashes that you can find if you look long enough, although cricket against other countries remains much more elusive. It's funny that it seems easier to find stuff from those series than from a lot of mid 60's series.

Oh, and I'd just like to address the long from the second test 1926, because I think I've identified all the bowlers to some certainty. The bowler at 0:45 is Gregory, and just after Fred Root. 2:36 is Tate - funny how much less ungainly he looks in slow motion. 3:34 is Larwood, who seems to bend his front knee a little more than later years. The left armer I think is Kilner, although it could be Woolley, and the one at 8:38 that I haven't seen anyone else identify before is Jack Ryder. The bowler at 9:40 is Arthur Richardson, and 14:53 is of course Arthur Mailey.

 

[Starfighter]

Contains a couple of balls of who I think is Ted McDonald.

He took 8/41 and 4/63 in this match.

 

[Starfighter]

A couple more I think, bowling around the wicket.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Verity has the most aesthetically pleasing action of all the bowlers of that era. So smooth.

 

[smash84]

great work Starfighter, indeed taking over where Watson left.

 

[Burgey]

Stardighter, you're not from Hurstville by chance are you?