Empire Cricket Booklet

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RICHARD PARRY AND DALE SLATER

turn much and he tended to bowl what we would now call top-spinners, which would skid through, often trapping the batsman in front. Vogler's box of tricks also included deceptive flight and a slow yorker which seemed to quiver rather than swing in the air. The 1906/07 Currie Cup showed just how far Vogler had progressed. He played for Eastern Province and was effectively a one-man team as he took 41 wickets at an average of 9.78. Against Griqualand West he clean bowled fifteen batsmen as he recorded the astonishing analyses of 10-5-12-6 and 12-2-26-10 (only the last wicket in the second innings required the intervention of a fielder); and against Orange Free State he finished with 11-2-34-6 and 8.5-3-24-8. He also managed to top the batting averages for Eastern Province (with 320 runs in 8 innings averaging 40.00). Meanwhile, Schwarz took 21 and Faulkner 23 wickets for Transvaal. 41 Vogler's powers were at their height in 1907. R. E. Foster, who captained England, regarded him as then the best bowler in the world. However, despite the success of the googly bowlers, South Africa lost the only decided Test. The miserable weather and wet wickets dominated the tour, and both helped and hindered the tourists. The South African batting, grooved on dry matting was at best inconsistent, but the wet soft wickets lent considerable assistance to the spinners, effectively acting as if they were operating on d ry mat. Although it was assumed that the googly bowlers would need hard wickets, they found they were able to make the ball spit off the wet or drying pitches. The first official Test that South Africa played in England took place at Lord's on a good wicket which did not assist the bowlers. Nevertheless Vogler managed 7/128 in 47.2 overs in England's only innings. Len Braund contributed a hundred and Jessop 93 out of 428 and when rain washed out the third day South Africa were left 103 runs behind with 7 wickets in hand, mainly due to a memorable century by the captain and wicket-keeper, Percy Sherwell. 1907: The Crucial Tour

A less satisfacto ry Test, according to Wisden, had seldom been played than the Second Test at Leeds. The wicket was soft at the start and play was carried on with extreme difficulty between the showers. This time Faulkner proved unplayable in the damp. He bowled a perfect length and 'disguising his off break with the utmost skill, he made the ball turn so much both ways that the batsmen were almost hopeless against him'. The last nine wickets collapsed for 35 runs with Faulkner claiming 6/17 off 11 overs in England's first innings of 76. Lilley, the English wicketkeeper, famously compared the experience of facing him to 'playing Briggs through the air and Richardson off the pitch'. 42 South Africa was unable to seize the advantage, however, against the immacu late slow left-armer Colin Blythe whose control and ability to harness the conditions destroyed them. He took 8/59 in the first innings as South Africa led by 34. England's second innings in murky light on a rain affected pitch was dominated by 54 from C. B. Fry, who had escaped when a ball played onto the stumps from Faulkner failed to dislodge the bails. South Africa, set 129 runs to win, were all out for 75 as Blythe finished them off with 7/40. This may have been unsatisfactory from the point of view of the batsmen perhaps, but it was a Test to be savoured by connoisseurs of slow bowling. 43 The last Test at The Oval began with Vogler trapping Hayward in front off the first ball, and again the most substantial innings of the match was played by Fry with 129. After Vogler and Schwarz each took six wickets in the match, South Africa made a courageous effort to level the series, sending the big hitting Sinclair to open the second innings with Faulkner. Chasing 256 runs in just over 150 minutes, they hammered 100 in an hour before the loss of Snooke and fading light compelled defence and a draw in England's favour. Unfamiliar conditions, particularly for the batsmen, 44 meant the series was lost but, apart from the First Test, South Africa had proved competitive against a full-strength England side, no mean achievement for a side whom many English observers had dismissed before the tour as sub-first class. That they had done so was primarily due to the googly. In practice, the key to their bowling, with the notable exception of