Arthur Mold
Encyclopedia
Arthur Webb Mold was an English professional cricket
er who played first-class cricket
for Lancashire County Cricket Club
between 1889 and 1901. He played three Test matches
for England in 1893 and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year
in 1892. A fast bowler
, he was one of the most effective bowlers in England during the 1890s. However, his career was overshadowed by controversy over his bowling action
. Many critics thought he threw
rather than bowled the ball, and he was one of several bowlers at the time about whom there were suspicions. The controversy peaked when Mold was no-balled
for throwing by Jim Phillips
, an umpire who had no-balled several prominent bowlers. Phillips no-balled Mold once in 1900; then in 1901, Mold was no-balled 16 times by Phillips on the opening morning of a match. Mold's reputation was ruined and after a few more appearances in 1901, he retired at the end of the season. After his departure from the game, throwing ceased to be a problem in English cricket for 50 years.
in Northamptonshire
. His family had links with the thatching trade, but Mold pursued a career in professional cricket. He began to play cricket for the village side, making good progress as a bowler; in 1882, Middleton Cheney were unbeaten and Mold had the best bowling average
in the team. In 1885 and 1886, he played as a paid professional at Banbury
Cricket Club. In one match in his second year, he played against Free Foresters
, a prestigious amateur team, for whom two Lancashire
cricketers were appearing. They were impressed by Mold's bowling, and in 1887 Mold was employed by Manchester
cricket club. After he also played a few non first-class cricket matches for Lancashire that season, Northamptonshire
, at the time not a first-class county, asked Mold to represent their team. Playing as a professional, Mold was immediately successful, taking ten wickets in a game against a team from Surrey
and seven wickets for 22 runs
(seven for 22) in an innings against Staffordshire
. Although he continued to play for Northamptonshire in the following season, he aimed to represent Lancashire. At the time, players who wished to play for a county in which they were not born had to live there for two years before they qualified. As well as for Northamptonshire, Mold played professional cricket for Enfield
and Skipton
, in both cases opposing Burnley
. He also played for Nelson
against Burnley in 1889.
Mold made his first-class debut for Lancashire in a match against Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC) on 9 May 1889, taking one wicket in a drawn match. Throughout the rest of the season, Mold impressed critics. His best performance statistically was seven for 35 against Yorkshire County Cricket Club
, in a match in which he took 13 wickets. In all matches against county opposition, Mold took 80 wickets at an average of 11.69; in all first-class matches he took 102 wickets at an average of 11.81. This placed him third in the national bowling averages. Although less successful in 1890, he took 80 county wickets at an average of 14.49, and 118 wickets in all first-class games at 14.72, which was eleventh in the averages. His best figures, nine for 41, once more came against Yorkshire. In the first official season of the County Championship
, Lancashire finished in second place.
, "The season of 1891 brought him a great increase of reputation, and all through the summer he was uniformly successful." In all first-class matches, he took 138 wickets at 12.49 and in nearly half of the innings in which he bowled, he took five or more wickets. As a result of his good performances in the season, he was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
. Lancashire finished as runners-up once again.
In 1892, Mold's aggregate of wickets fell to 120 at an average of 13.63, but he had the best bowling figures of his career when he took nine for 29 against Kent
and he was chosen in a representative match for the first time when he played for the North against the South. During the 1893 season, Mold took 166 wickets at 16.96; at the end of the season, The Times
described him as a great bowler and noted that he and Johnny Briggs
were the only two effective bowlers for Lancashire. As well as once more representing the North, this time in a match against the touring Australian team, Mold made his debut in the prestigious Gentlemen against Players
match, playing for the professional "Players" and taking nine wickets in the game. He also made his international debut, playing for England in all three Test matches against Australia, the only such appearances of his career. In the first game, he took three for 44 in Australia's only innings, his best figures of the series, and took four wickets in the other two matches to finish with seven wickets at an average of 33.42. It is likely that doubts about the legality of his bowling action
prevented him from playing further Test matches, or touring Australia.
Mold continued to increase his number of wickets in the next seasons. In 1894, he again represented the North and the Players, took 207 wickets in total at an average of 12.30, and again came close to taking five wickets in half the innings in which he bowled. The following year, he reached his highest seasonal tally with 213 wickets at 15.96, and made his final appearance for the Players. The Times commented that Mold and Briggs were effective as a pair of opening bowlers and said: "Mold preserves all his pace and break in bowling, and his success on the hard wickets was phenomenal." Although Mold appeared for the North against the Australians, who toured again in 1896, Mold did not play any Tests or other representative cricket that year and his wicket total fell to 150 at 18.12; after this season, his bowling began to decline in effectiveness. He failed to reach 100 wickets in the season for the first time when he took 98 in 1897, and his 90 wickets in 1898 were taken at an average over 20, the only time his bowling average was so high. He improved his statistics in 1899 with 115 wickets at 18.68. The following year, he was awarded a benefit match
by Lancashire which raised £2,050, a record at the time.
s; several bowlers were believed to throw
rather than bowl the ball. Lancashire had a particularly poor reputation among other county teams for utilising bowlers who threw: by the early 1880s, up to four of Lancashire's main bowlers were judged to be unfair, including John Crossland
who bowled very quickly. By the mid 1880s, several other teams refused to play Lancashire on account of their bowling attack. Mainly through the actions of Lord Harris
, many of the suspect bowlers were forced out of cricket, and bowling actions became more legitimate. However, some players continued to bowl with questionable actions, including some in the Lancashire team. The matter became more serious in 1896, when two of the Australian touring team, Ernie Jones
and Tom McKibbin
, appeared to throw the ball regularly; Sydney Pardon
, the editor of Wisden, wrote: "The mortifying fact was that the illegal bowling was due entirely to our own weakness in not having the laws of the game carried out. The Australians only did against us what we had over and over again done against them."
Following the 1896 tour, the English authorities realised action needed to be taken. Jim Phillips
, an Australian-born umpire who travelled each year between his native country and England, travelled to Australia with an English touring team. During two of the matches he umpired, Phillips no-balled
Ernie Jones for throwing. Upon returning to England for the 1898 season, Phillips also no-balled C. B. Fry, a prominent amateur cricketer and all-round sportsman, for throwing. This was the second of three occasions in the season that Fry was no-balled. Other umpires, following Phillips' lead no-balled Fry and Frank Hopkins
. Two further bowlers, albeit not famous cricketers, were no-balled in 1899.
. But the concerted action against throwing reached a peak when Phillips umpired the match between Nottinghamshire
and Lancashire in Nottingham on 26 June.Early on the first morning of the three-day match, Mold came on to bowl when Nottinghamshire had scored 34. In his first over
, Phillips twice no-balled him for throwing. Lancashire's captain, Archie MacLaren, withdrew Mold from the bowling attack at the end of the over and he did not bowl again in the match. However, MacLaren later defended Mold in the press. The match reports in both The Times and Wisden commented that Mold had been lucky never to be no-balled before in his career, but he was the most high profile bowler to be no-balled in the Phillips-led crackdown on bowling actions. Mold played another nine times in 1900 without being no-balled for throwing, but he did not play in any of the Lancashire matches umpired by Phillips. However, Phillips no-balled the Somerset
bowler Ted Tyler
later in the season. By the end of the season, Mold had taken 97 wickets at 14.01.
That December, at their annual meeting at Lord's Cricket Ground
, the captains of the first-class counties discussed the problem of throwing. They voted by a majority of eleven to one that Mold's action was unfair, and that along with other bowlers whose actions were suspected, he should not bowl in the coming season. The captains further recommended that bowlers with illegal actions should be banned, suspended or warned depending on the severity of their transgression. However, the meeting proved controversial, and disputes arose over how many captains had supported the decision. Some critics believed that the captains should not have passed judgement at all. The Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC), responsible for the laws of cricket and the organisation of the English game, were asked to adjudicate by several county committees. Reluctant to let the decision stand, the MCC overruled the decision, preferring to leave the matter to individual umpires to decide.
Mold continued to play for Lancashire at the start of the 1901 season, but he missed two matches in which Phillips was the umpire, wishing to avoid a confrontation. However, Lancashire were criticised by the public for omitting Mold from these matches; consequently, he played in the game against Somerset umpired by Phillips, which started on 11 July at Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Under the captaincy of MacLaren, Mold opened the attack and bowled with Phillips at square leg and Phillips no-balled Mold for throwing. Acting at the request of the Lancashire committee, MacLaren then switched Mold to bowl from the opposite end so that Phillips would be at the bowler's end. Even so, Phillips continued to no-ball him, and after 10 overs, Mold had been no-balled 16 times by Phillips. MacLaren removed Mold from the attack, although he returned to bowl later without Phillips taking further action. For the remainder of the match, Mold bowled from Phillips' end without censure; Phillips believed he had made his point. According to Wisden, Phillips' actions caused "a great sensation ... The incident naturally gave rise to much excitement, and for the next few days nothing else was talked about in the cricket world." At the conclusion of the match, Mitchell and Kenyon
, a film-making company based in Blackburn, filmed the players leaving the field and took footage of Mold bowling in the nets
. Phillips received criticism for his actions and Mold had some support in the press. But Mold's Times obituary noted: "Mold did not lack defenders, but those who argued that he was, and always had been, a perfectly fair bowler, had a very bad case. The weight of expert evidence was overwhelmingly against them."
who operated from a very short run-up
, Mold bowled extremely quickly, releasing the ball with his arm very high. Unusually for a bowler of his pace, he could make the ball deviate from straight, either through seam movement
or cutting his fingers over it before release
. If the pitch was uneven or otherwise difficult for batting, he was extremely difficult to bat against: in 1892, Wisden noted: "On anything like a rough or bumpy wicket he is, beyond all question, the most difficult and dangerous bowler of the day, the ball getting up from the pitch so high and so fast as to intimidate all but the very pluckiest of batsmen." The Times later noted that he was very successful for Lancashire and a difficult bowler to face.
Mold was popular with other cricketers. The Times said: "Apart from the burning question of throwing, not a word could be said against him. He was liked by all his brother professionals, and popular wherever he played." However, his achievements were always qualified by suspicion over the legality of his bowling action, even before he was no-balled by Phillips. A batsman who played against him when he first appeared for Northamptonshire said: "If he is fair he is the best bowler in England, but I think he is a worse thrower than ever Crossland [the Lancashire bowler of the 1880s with a suspect bowling action] was." His Times obituary stated: "He was a deadly fast bowler, but, all through his career, even his best feats in the cricket field were spoken of with something of apology".
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
between 1889 and 1901. He played three Test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for England in 1893 and was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
in 1892. A fast bowler
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
, he was one of the most effective bowlers in England during the 1890s. However, his career was overshadowed by controversy over his bowling action
Bowling action
In the sport of cricket, the bowling action is the set of movements that result in the bowler releasing the ball in the general direction of the batsman.The bowling action can be broken down into a number of parts:*Grip*Approach...
. Many critics thought he threw
Throwing (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, throwing, commonly referred to as chucking, is an illegal bowling action which occurs when a bowler straightens their arm when delivering the ball. The Laws of Cricket specify that a bowler's arm must be fully extended and rotated about the shoulder to impart velocity to...
rather than bowled the ball, and he was one of several bowlers at the time about whom there were suspicions. The controversy peaked when Mold was no-balled
No ball
In the sport of cricket a no ball is a penalty against the fielding team, usually as a result of an illegal delivery by the bowler. The delivery of a no ball results in one run to be added to the batting team's score, and an additional ball must be bowled...
for throwing by Jim Phillips
Jim Phillips
James Phillips was a Victorian First-class cricketer and Test match umpire....
, an umpire who had no-balled several prominent bowlers. Phillips no-balled Mold once in 1900; then in 1901, Mold was no-balled 16 times by Phillips on the opening morning of a match. Mold's reputation was ruined and after a few more appearances in 1901, he retired at the end of the season. After his departure from the game, throwing ceased to be a problem in English cricket for 50 years.
Early life and career
Mold was born on 27 May 1863 in the village of Middleton CheneyMiddleton Cheney
Middleton Cheney is a civil parish and the largest village in South Northamptonshire, England. It is situated between Banbury and Brackley. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 3,753.-Local amenities:...
in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. His family had links with the thatching trade, but Mold pursued a career in professional cricket. He began to play cricket for the village side, making good progress as a bowler; in 1882, Middleton Cheney were unbeaten and Mold had the best bowling average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
in the team. In 1885 and 1886, he played as a paid professional at Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
Cricket Club. In one match in his second year, he played against Free Foresters
Free Foresters Cricket Club
Free Foresters Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club, established in 1856 for players from the Midland counties of England. It is a 'wandering' club, having no home ground....
, a prestigious amateur team, for whom two Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
cricketers were appearing. They were impressed by Mold's bowling, and in 1887 Mold was employed by Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
cricket club. After he also played a few non first-class cricket matches for Lancashire that season, Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
, at the time not a first-class county, asked Mold to represent their team. Playing as a professional, Mold was immediately successful, taking ten wickets in a game against a team from Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
and seven wickets for 22 runs
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
(seven for 22) in an innings against Staffordshire
Staffordshire County Cricket Club
Staffordshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Staffordshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy...
. Although he continued to play for Northamptonshire in the following season, he aimed to represent Lancashire. At the time, players who wished to play for a county in which they were not born had to live there for two years before they qualified. As well as for Northamptonshire, Mold played professional cricket for Enfield
Enfield Cricket Club
Enfield Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Dill Hall Lane in Accrington. For the 2011 season its captain is Adam Bracewell, and its professional is Werner Coetsee of South Africa. The club has won the league on 5 occasions and the cup on 4...
and Skipton
Skipton
Skipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...
, in both cases opposing Burnley
Burnley
Burnley is a market town in the Burnley borough of Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It lies north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun....
. He also played for Nelson
Nelson Cricket Club
Nelson Cricket Club, based at Seedhill in Nelson, Lancashire, are a cricket club in the Lancashire League. They play at the Seedhill ground in Nelson. Their captain for the 2011 season is Thomas Lord and their professional is New Zealand international player Luke Woodcock.Nelson Cricket Club was...
against Burnley in 1889.
Mold made his first-class debut for Lancashire in a match against Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
(MCC) on 9 May 1889, taking one wicket in a drawn match. Throughout the rest of the season, Mold impressed critics. His best performance statistically was seven for 35 against Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
, in a match in which he took 13 wickets. In all matches against county opposition, Mold took 80 wickets at an average of 11.69; in all first-class matches he took 102 wickets at an average of 11.81. This placed him third in the national bowling averages. Although less successful in 1890, he took 80 county wickets at an average of 14.49, and 118 wickets in all first-class games at 14.72, which was eleventh in the averages. His best figures, nine for 41, once more came against Yorkshire. In the first official season of the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
, Lancashire finished in second place.
Leading bowler
Mold established himself as one of the leading bowlers in England during 1891. According to Wisden Cricketers' AlmanackWisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
, "The season of 1891 brought him a great increase of reputation, and all through the summer he was uniformly successful." In all first-class matches, he took 138 wickets at 12.49 and in nearly half of the innings in which he bowled, he took five or more wickets. As a result of his good performances in the season, he was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
. Lancashire finished as runners-up once again.
In 1892, Mold's aggregate of wickets fell to 120 at an average of 13.63, but he had the best bowling figures of his career when he took nine for 29 against Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
and he was chosen in a representative match for the first time when he played for the North against the South. During the 1893 season, Mold took 166 wickets at 16.96; at the end of the season, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
described him as a great bowler and noted that he and Johnny Briggs
Johnny Briggs (cricketer)
Johnny Briggs was a left arm spin bowler for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1879 and 1900 who still stands as the second-highest wicket-taker in the county's history after Brian Statham...
were the only two effective bowlers for Lancashire. As well as once more representing the North, this time in a match against the touring Australian team, Mold made his debut in the prestigious Gentlemen against Players
Gentlemen v Players
The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs and one of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter...
match, playing for the professional "Players" and taking nine wickets in the game. He also made his international debut, playing for England in all three Test matches against Australia, the only such appearances of his career. In the first game, he took three for 44 in Australia's only innings, his best figures of the series, and took four wickets in the other two matches to finish with seven wickets at an average of 33.42. It is likely that doubts about the legality of his bowling action
Bowling action
In the sport of cricket, the bowling action is the set of movements that result in the bowler releasing the ball in the general direction of the batsman.The bowling action can be broken down into a number of parts:*Grip*Approach...
prevented him from playing further Test matches, or touring Australia.
Mold continued to increase his number of wickets in the next seasons. In 1894, he again represented the North and the Players, took 207 wickets in total at an average of 12.30, and again came close to taking five wickets in half the innings in which he bowled. The following year, he reached his highest seasonal tally with 213 wickets at 15.96, and made his final appearance for the Players. The Times commented that Mold and Briggs were effective as a pair of opening bowlers and said: "Mold preserves all his pace and break in bowling, and his success on the hard wickets was phenomenal." Although Mold appeared for the North against the Australians, who toured again in 1896, Mold did not play any Tests or other representative cricket that year and his wicket total fell to 150 at 18.12; after this season, his bowling began to decline in effectiveness. He failed to reach 100 wickets in the season for the first time when he took 98 in 1897, and his 90 wickets in 1898 were taken at an average over 20, the only time his bowling average was so high. He improved his statistics in 1899 with 115 wickets at 18.68. The following year, he was awarded a benefit match
Benefit (sports)
A benefit or testimonial is a match or season of activities granted by a sporting body to a loyal sportsman to boost their income before retirement. Often this is in the form of a match for which all the ticket proceeds are given to the player in question.There have been occasions when a...
by Lancashire which raised £2,050, a record at the time.
Throwing controversy
Background
For many years in England, there had been controversy over bowling actionBowling action
In the sport of cricket, the bowling action is the set of movements that result in the bowler releasing the ball in the general direction of the batsman.The bowling action can be broken down into a number of parts:*Grip*Approach...
s; several bowlers were believed to throw
Throwing (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, throwing, commonly referred to as chucking, is an illegal bowling action which occurs when a bowler straightens their arm when delivering the ball. The Laws of Cricket specify that a bowler's arm must be fully extended and rotated about the shoulder to impart velocity to...
rather than bowl the ball. Lancashire had a particularly poor reputation among other county teams for utilising bowlers who threw: by the early 1880s, up to four of Lancashire's main bowlers were judged to be unfair, including John Crossland
John Crossland
John "Jack" Crossland was an English professional cricketer who played for Lancashire between 1878 and 1887.He was a right-arm fast bowler of great renown but even greater controversy...
who bowled very quickly. By the mid 1880s, several other teams refused to play Lancashire on account of their bowling attack. Mainly through the actions of Lord Harris
George Harris, 4th Baron Harris
George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, GCSI, GCIE was a British politician, cricketer and cricket administrator...
, many of the suspect bowlers were forced out of cricket, and bowling actions became more legitimate. However, some players continued to bowl with questionable actions, including some in the Lancashire team. The matter became more serious in 1896, when two of the Australian touring team, Ernie Jones
Ernie Jones
Ernest Jones was an Australian sportsman, playing Test cricket and Australian rules football....
and Tom McKibbin
Tom McKibbin
Thomas Robert McKibbin was an Australian cricketer who played in 5 Tests from 1895 to 1898....
, appeared to throw the ball regularly; Sydney Pardon
Sydney Pardon
Sydney Herbert Pardon was a sports journalist who was the editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack for 35 editions, from 1891 until his death. He took over following the death of his brother, Charles. Of all the editors of the publication, he was arguably the greatest...
, the editor of Wisden, wrote: "The mortifying fact was that the illegal bowling was due entirely to our own weakness in not having the laws of the game carried out. The Australians only did against us what we had over and over again done against them."
Following the 1896 tour, the English authorities realised action needed to be taken. Jim Phillips
Jim Phillips
James Phillips was a Victorian First-class cricketer and Test match umpire....
, an Australian-born umpire who travelled each year between his native country and England, travelled to Australia with an English touring team. During two of the matches he umpired, Phillips no-balled
No ball
In the sport of cricket a no ball is a penalty against the fielding team, usually as a result of an illegal delivery by the bowler. The delivery of a no ball results in one run to be added to the batting team's score, and an additional ball must be bowled...
Ernie Jones for throwing. Upon returning to England for the 1898 season, Phillips also no-balled C. B. Fry, a prominent amateur cricketer and all-round sportsman, for throwing. This was the second of three occasions in the season that Fry was no-balled. Other umpires, following Phillips' lead no-balled Fry and Frank Hopkins
Frank Hopkins (cricketer)
Frank Jesse Hopkins was an English cricketer. Hopkins was a left-handed batsman who bowled left-arm medium pace....
. Two further bowlers, albeit not famous cricketers, were no-balled in 1899.
Mold called for throwing
During the 1900 season, Fry was once more no-balled at the beginning of June, this time by William WestWilliam West (umpire)
William Arthur John West was a first class cricketer and test match umpire . Born in Birmingham in 1863 he played 5 first class matches for MCC, scoring 182 runs at 26 with a highest score of 74 against Lancashire. A right arm quick bowler, he also took 5 wickets at just 20 apiece...
. But the concerted action against throwing reached a peak when Phillips umpired the match between Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
and Lancashire in Nottingham on 26 June.Early on the first morning of the three-day match, Mold came on to bowl when Nottinghamshire had scored 34. In his first over
Over (cricket)
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 is completed by a teammate....
, Phillips twice no-balled him for throwing. Lancashire's captain, Archie MacLaren, withdrew Mold from the bowling attack at the end of the over and he did not bowl again in the match. However, MacLaren later defended Mold in the press. The match reports in both The Times and Wisden commented that Mold had been lucky never to be no-balled before in his career, but he was the most high profile bowler to be no-balled in the Phillips-led crackdown on bowling actions. Mold played another nine times in 1900 without being no-balled for throwing, but he did not play in any of the Lancashire matches umpired by Phillips. However, Phillips no-balled the Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
bowler Ted Tyler
Ted Tyler
Edwin James Tyler was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1907...
later in the season. By the end of the season, Mold had taken 97 wickets at 14.01.
That December, at their annual meeting at Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground
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 and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
, the captains of the first-class counties discussed the problem of throwing. They voted by a majority of eleven to one that Mold's action was unfair, and that along with other bowlers whose actions were suspected, he should not bowl in the coming season. The captains further recommended that bowlers with illegal actions should be banned, suspended or warned depending on the severity of their transgression. However, the meeting proved controversial, and disputes arose over how many captains had supported the decision. Some critics believed that the captains should not have passed judgement at all. The Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
(MCC), responsible for the laws of cricket and the organisation of the English game, were asked to adjudicate by several county committees. Reluctant to let the decision stand, the MCC overruled the decision, preferring to leave the matter to individual umpires to decide.
Mold continued to play for Lancashire at the start of the 1901 season, but he missed two matches in which Phillips was the umpire, wishing to avoid a confrontation. However, Lancashire were criticised by the public for omitting Mold from these matches; consequently, he played in the game against Somerset umpired by Phillips, which started on 11 July at Old Trafford Cricket Ground. Under the captaincy of MacLaren, Mold opened the attack and bowled with Phillips at square leg and Phillips no-balled Mold for throwing. Acting at the request of the Lancashire committee, MacLaren then switched Mold to bowl from the opposite end so that Phillips would be at the bowler's end. Even so, Phillips continued to no-ball him, and after 10 overs, Mold had been no-balled 16 times by Phillips. MacLaren removed Mold from the attack, although he returned to bowl later without Phillips taking further action. For the remainder of the match, Mold bowled from Phillips' end without censure; Phillips believed he had made his point. According to Wisden, Phillips' actions caused "a great sensation ... The incident naturally gave rise to much excitement, and for the next few days nothing else was talked about in the cricket world." At the conclusion of the match, Mitchell and Kenyon
Mitchell and Kenyon
The Mitchell & Kenyon film company was a pioneer of early commercial movies based in Blackburn in Lancashire, England at the start of the 20th century...
, a film-making company based in Blackburn, filmed the players leaving the field and took footage of Mold bowling in the nets
Cricket nets
Cricket nets are practice nets used by batsmen and bowlers to warm up and/or improve their cricketing techniques. Cricket nets consist of a cricket pitch which is enclosed by cricket nets on either side, to the rear and optionally the roof. The bowling end of the net is left open...
. Phillips received criticism for his actions and Mold had some support in the press. But Mold's Times obituary noted: "Mold did not lack defenders, but those who argued that he was, and always had been, a perfectly fair bowler, had a very bad case. The weight of expert evidence was overwhelmingly against them."
Aftermath
In December 1901, the MCC approved the scheme previously suggested: that the county captains should meet to discuss the fairness of suspected bowlers. It was proposed that any bowler who was judged to be unfair by a two-to-one majority of captains would be banned for at least a season. The MCC also recommended that the counties did not play suspected bowlers and that any bowler called for throwing should be removed from the attack in the interests of the spirit of cricket. In the 1902 Wisden, Sydney Pardon wrote: "Never in the last twenty years or more has there been so little unfair or doubtful bowling as in the season of 1901. Indeed the improvement was so marked as to make it clear that, if the captains stick to their guns, we shall soon be entirely free from the evil of which not very long ago it seemed impossible to get rid." After 1901, there were only isolated incidents regarding illegal bowling actions until the Second World War, and the problem faded: no cricketer was no-balled for throwing in English first-class between 1908 and 1952.Final years and death
Mold played another three matches in 1901 without being no-balled, but his reputation was ruined and he retired at the end of the season. In this final season, he took 59 wickets at 19.35. In his first-class career, he took 1,673 wickets at an average of 15.54. Subsequently, Mold returned to play for Northamptonshire in 1903, and played league cricket in his native county. In his retirement, he became the landlord of a public house, took up shooting as a hobby and looked after his ailing mother. After a long illness, he died on 29 April 1921 in Middleton Cheney, the village in which he had been born.Style and technique
A fast bowlerFast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
who operated from a very short run-up
Run-up (cricket)
The term "run-up" is a cricketing term which refers to the approach a bowler makes when preparing to deliver the ball. The ball must be delivered from behind a bowling crease, but preparation to bowl the ball can be done any way the bowler wishes...
, Mold bowled extremely quickly, releasing the ball with his arm very high. Unusually for a bowler of his pace, he could make the ball deviate from straight, either through seam movement
Seam bowling
Seam bowling is a phrase used for a bowling technique in cricket whereby the ball is deliberately bowled on to its seam, to cause a random deviation. Practitioners are known as seam bowlers or seamers....
or cutting his fingers over it before release
Leg cutter
A leg cutter is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is bowled by fast bowlers.A bowler releases a normal fast delivery with the wrist locked in position and the first two fingers positioned on top of the cricket ball, giving it spin about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the length of...
. If the pitch was uneven or otherwise difficult for batting, he was extremely difficult to bat against: in 1892, Wisden noted: "On anything like a rough or bumpy wicket he is, beyond all question, the most difficult and dangerous bowler of the day, the ball getting up from the pitch so high and so fast as to intimidate all but the very pluckiest of batsmen." The Times later noted that he was very successful for Lancashire and a difficult bowler to face.
Mold was popular with other cricketers. The Times said: "Apart from the burning question of throwing, not a word could be said against him. He was liked by all his brother professionals, and popular wherever he played." However, his achievements were always qualified by suspicion over the legality of his bowling action, even before he was no-balled by Phillips. A batsman who played against him when he first appeared for Northamptonshire said: "If he is fair he is the best bowler in England, but I think he is a worse thrower than ever Crossland [the Lancashire bowler of the 1880s with a suspect bowling action] was." His Times obituary stated: "He was a deadly fast bowler, but, all through his career, even his best feats in the cricket field were spoken of with something of apology".