Empire Cricket Booklet

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THE GOOGLY, GOLD AND THE EMPIRE

Gordon White, a fine free-scoring batsman on his first tour, who bowled occasional leg spin, also began to develop the method and in all matches took 56 wickets at 23.66 each in England. But the real impact began with Schwarz's return to South Africa.The tenth Currie Cup tournament in 1904/05 saw Transvaal unbeaten in their four games with Reggie Schwarz taking 26 wickets. Both Aubrey Faulkner and A. E. 'Ernie' Vogler played for Transvaal (Vogler having moved from Natal) in the same team as Reggie Schwarz, but without notable success. Vogler then spent 1905 playing on the MCC ground staff with the intention of qualifying for Middlesex, and observed Bosanquet at close quarters. Ironically this was the last year

that Bosanquet was to bowl the googly seriously. He simply could not bowl it effectively enough to deceive batsmen who were waiting for it. In any case his constant problems with length suggest that he had never really learned to eradicate a fatal propensity to impart unintended backspin in varying amounts. Cricket, though, was happy to buy into Bosanquet's mysticism of the delivery, irrationally noting that he had come under the spell of theorists, and 'the moment a bowler knows what is the secret of his famous ball, he begins to lose control over it'. 33 By the First Test of 'Plum' Warner's 1905/06 tour, the first official side to be sent out by the MCC, South Africa was laying the foundations of this new attack. After a three-year delay since the last international tour, South Africa awaited Warner's team with much anticipation. Unlike the 1902 Australians, the MCC had time to acclimatise to matting wickets, with five easy wins in the Cape before they headed for the Transvaal. The Transvaal team proved a very different proposition, however. Following a glorious 132 not out by David Denton, the MCC took a 130 run lead into the second innings, but thanks to a solid batting performance, including fifties from W. A. Shalders and Aubrey Faulkner, the MCC had to make 176 runs to win. They fell 60 runs short, Schwarz taking 5/34 in 14.3 overs and Faulkner ending with 3/62. Before the Transvaal match, Warner's team may not have concerned themselves overly with the likely threat from googly bowling. Schwarz had taken cheap wickets in the previous Currie Cup, but Faulkner had taken only two first-class wickets. Gordon White, the leg-spinner, had not played Currie Cup cricket since the 1904 tour, and Vogler, who, like Faulkner, was making his debut at this level, had only managed nine victims in the 1903/04 and 1904/05 tournaments. 34 But Warner, as Bosanquet's county captain, had overseen the development of the googly from the start and was aware of the threat it could pose. While Schwarz's potential threat would 'Plum 1 Warner and the South African Triumph

Aubrey Faulkner represented South Africa in 25 Tests, scoring1154 runs (average 40.79) and taking 82 wickets (average 26.58)