Bernard Bosanquet (cricketer)
Encyclopedia
Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet (13 October 1877 – 12 October 1936) was an English cricket
er best known for inventing the googly
, a delivery
designed to deceive the batsman
. When bowled, it appears to be a leg break
, but after pitching the ball turns in the opposite direction to that which is expected, behaving as an off break
instead. Bosanquet, who played first-class cricket
for Middlesex
between 1898 and 1919, appeared in seven Test matches
for England as an all-rounder
. He was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1905.
Bosanquet played cricket for Eton College
from 1891 to 1896, before gaining his Blue at Oriel College, Oxford. He played with moderate success as a batsman who bowled at fast-medium pace for Oxford University
between 1898 and 1900. While still a student, he made several appearances for Middlesex and achieved a regular place in the county side as an amateur.
While playing a tabletop game, Bosanquet devised a new technique for delivering a ball, later named the "googly", which he steadily practised during his time at Oxford. He first began using it in cricket matches around 1900, abandoning his faster style of bowling, but it was not until 1903 that his new delivery began to attract attention. Having gone on several minor overseas tours, Bosanquet was selected in 1903 for the fully representative Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC) tour of Australia. During that tour, he made his Test debut for England and although his batting was unsuccessful, he performed well as a bowler and troubled all the opposing batsmen.
More success followed; in the 1904 season, he took more than 100 wickets and his bowling career peaked when he spearheaded England to victory in the first Test against Australia in 1905. However, he never mastered control of good length bowling
and remained an erratic performer. After 1905, Bosanquet's bowling went into decline; he practically gave it up and made fewer first-class appearances owing to his business interests. After taking part in the First World War in the Royal Flying Corps
, he married and had a son, Reginald Bosanquet
, who later became a television newsreader. He died in 1936, aged 58.
, Middlesex, on 13 October 1877. He was one of five children of Bernard Tindal Bosanquet and his wife Eva Maude Cotton; Bosanquet had a younger brother and three sisters. Many of his relations were well known in their fields, including his uncle and namesake Bernard Bosanquet
the philosopher. His grandfather, James Whatman Bosanquet, was a banker and achieved distinction as a biblical historian. His father worked for the banking firm Bosanquet & Co., and became a partner in a firm of hide, leather, and fur brokers in London; he was also High Sheriff
of Middlesex from 1897 to 1898 and captained Enfield cricket club.
After going to Sunnymede School in Slough, Bosanquet attended Eton College
between 1891 and 1896. While at Eton, he received cricket coaching from the Surrey
professionals Maurice Read
and Bill Brockwell
. They improved his play to the point where he played for the cricket first eleven in 1896. Against Winchester College
, he took three wickets and scored 29 not out
in the second innings, while at Lord's Cricket Ground
against Harrow School
, Bosanquet scored 120 runs in 140 minutes. At this time, he bowled fast-medium pace, while as a batsman he had developed, in the words of his obituary in The Times
, "a rather curious, wristless style; stiff and yet powerful".
In 1897, Bosanquet went to Oriel College, Oxford, and although he left in 1900 without completing a degree, he recorded many sporting accomplishments. He was awarded his cricket Blue in 1898. Making his first-class debut for Oxford University
against a team selected by Middlesex
captain A. J. Webbe, he had little batting success during the season, having a top score of 17 runs. He was more successful with the ball, twice taking five wickets in an innings for Oxford. Selected for the University Match
, he made 54 not out
, his highest score of the season. After the University season, he made two appearances for Middlesex, but did not distinguish himself, scoring 17 runs and taking no wickets. In all first-class matches in 1898, Bosanquet scored 168 runs at a batting average of 14.00 and took 30 wickets at a bowling average
of 18.70. At the end of the season, he joined a team led by Plum Warner which toured America. He took a total of 10 wickets in the two first-class matches, and had further bowling successes in minor matches.
Bosanquet improved his record for Oxford in 1899, scoring two fifties and taking five wickets on three occasions before the University match. Against Cambridge, he failed with the bat but took seven wickets for 89 runs in the first innings. Bosanquet's record earned him selection for the Gentlemen against the Players
; in this prestigious match he took only one wicket but scored 61. He played another two matches for Middlesex and ended the season with a batting record of 419 runs in all matches, at an average of 27.93, and 55 wickets at 22.72. He played some end of season non-first-class matches for I Zingari
, taking 16 wickets in a game against Ireland, and went on another tour of America, led by K. S. Ranjitsinhji, which included two first-class matches.
Bosanquet's final season for Oxford was his best. He scored his maiden first-class century against London County
and, against Sussex
, he recorded what were to be the best bowling figures of his career, taking nine for 31 in the second innings and a total of 15 wickets in the game for 65 runs. His final match for Oxford was the 1900 University match, in which he scored 42 and 23. For the remainder of the season, Bosanquet re-joined Middlesex, and in his second match, against Leicestershire
, achieved the rare distinction of a century in each innings
: 136 in 110 minutes in the first innings, followed by 139 in 170 minutes in the second. He scored three further fifties for Middlesex and once took five wickets in an innings, but bowled comparatively rarely, only once bowling more than 13 overs
in an innings. In all first-class matches in the season, Bosanquet scored 1,026 runs at 34.20 and took 50 wickets at 23.20.
In all his matches for Oxford, Bosanquet scored 801 runs at an average of 25.03 and took 112 wickets at an average of 19.49. In other sports, he also received half-Blues for hammer-throwing
and billiards, as well as achieving success in ice hockey
.
, a delivery designed to deceive the batsman. When bowled, it appears to be a leg break
, but after pitching the ball turns in the opposite direction to that expected, behaving as an off break
instead. However, Bosanquet was a pace bowler in his university days. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
described his bowling from this period as "very useful ... but that was all, and had he kept to his original style real distinction at cricket would only have come to him through his batting". Nor did he enjoy bowling quickly, believing he was destined to be used only as a last resort and not enjoy much success. Instead, Bosanquet gradually came to change his style. In the mid-1890s, he often played a game called Twisti-Twosti, where a player had to bounce a tennis ball on a table so that it could not be caught by the opposing player. According to Bosanquet, he began to experiment with ways of throwing the ball so that, after pitching, it turned and spun in an unexpected direction, without the other player being able to detect any difference in the delivery. Finding he could do this successfully, he began to practise using the same method to bowl in a form of soft-ball cricket and then in the cricket nets
with a hard ball, but did not at the time take his discovery seriously. It was not until 1899 or 1900 that Bosanquet began to practise in earnest, and developed an orthodox leg break in the nets to complement his new style of delivery, which spun in the same direction as an off break. During the lunch breaks in Oxford matches, he would often bowl to the best opposing batsmen in the nets, delivering several leg breaks, followed by an off break, without changing his bowling action; the ball would sometimes hit the bemused batsman on the knee, to the amusement of spectators. A slightly different version of events was provided by the son of Louise Bosanquet, Bernard's cousin, who claimed in 1965 that Bosanquet conceived the idea in 1890 and practised bowling to Louise with a tennis ball from 1893 onwards.
Practising throughout 1899 and 1900, Bosanquet began to use the googly in minor matches before using it in important cricket. His first use of the new delivery in first-class cricket came in the match against Leicestershire in 1900 in which he scored two centuries. In the second innings, Samuel Coe
had scored 98 when Bosanquet, still known as a fast-bowler, bowled his off break; the ball bounced four times and the batsman was stumped (although, writing in 1925, Bosanquet recalled Coe had been bowled
). Bosanquet later wrote that the wicket "was rightly treated as a joke, and was the subject of ribald comment". Middlesex captains permitted him to try googlies if there was little pressure on, but he later wrote "Though I could claim some five or six wickets before the close of the season, my efforts produced far more laughter than dismay in the hearts of opposing batsmen". However, Bosanquet persisted with the delivery and achieved success to the point where he began to be noticed by influential cricketers. In later life, Bosanquet stated that Pelham Warner and Middlesex wicket keeper Gregor MacGregor quickly realised the delivery's potential. Even so, they remained silent because Bosanquet wished to maintain the impression that his off break was an accident so that the batsmen were not expecting it; other bowlers occasionally bowled such a ball, but not deliberately. Bosanquet tried to play down his successes: he feigned surprise, acting as if they were similarly accidental. Batsmen were accustomed to off break or leg break bowlers, but it was an unprecedented problem to face a bowler who could bowl both types of delivery at will, disguising which one he bowled.
It was around 1903 that Bosanquet's delivery first became known as a "googly". Pelham Warner claimed that the first use of the word was in the Lyttelton Times, a newspaper based in Canterbury, New Zealand, during a 1902–03 tour, but subsequent research has failed to find it.
. In total, Bosanquet scored 1,240 runs at an average of 32.63, and Warner regarded him as one of the three most reliable batsmen in the Middlesex side. After the season, Bosanquet went on his third tour of America, captaining a team himself. From January to April 1902, he toured West Indies with Richard Bennett's
team. He scored 623 runs at an average of 34.61 with five fifties and 55 wickets at an average of 15.47, including figures of eight for 30 in one innings. Bosanquet's cricket followed a similar pattern in 1902. He scored 749 runs at an average of 24.96, with a century against Cambridge. However, he did not pass fifty after the end of May until his last game of the season. With the ball, he took 40 wickets at an average of 21.17. These included 10 wickets against Oxford and 10 against Nottinghamshire
; the latter performance, when he took seven for 57 in the second innings was described as remarkable by Wisden. It was the first time that his new bowling style attracted attention, although Bosanquet himself tried to play down the success for fear of alerting batsmen to his googly.
team which played matches in New Zealand and Australia and was captained by Warner. In New Zealand, he played two matches against a New Zealand representative side, and in all matches scored 148 runs at an average of 18.50 with one fifty, an innings of 82 against South Island. He also took 18 wickets at an average of 22.61; his style of bowling attracted a great deal of attention. However, the tour was more notable for an incident in the match against Canterbury
. Bosanquet had taken an early wicket in the first innings, but bowled poorly afterwards. He was the fourth bowler used in the second innings and with his third ball, it looked as if he had bowled Walter Pearce behind his legs as he attempted a big hit. However, both umpires were unsighted and the non-striker
Arthur Sims
, who also had his view obscured, urged Pearce not to leave the middle. The tourists' wicket keeper, Arthur Whatman, Bosanquet and other English players surrounded the umpire, who decided Pearce was not out. Bosanquet then turned to Sims and said: "You're a nice cheat. I bowled him round his legs. Anybody could see that." Sims responded that there was reasonable doubt, but Whatman began to swear and call him a cheat. Bosanquet later bowled Sims and Canterbury were easily defeated. However, the incident continued to attract attention. The English team were severely criticised in the press and Sims' employers refused to release him for any further matches unless Bosanquet apologised. Bosanquet wrote letters of apology to Sims and to the Canterbury Cricket Association, and Sims later told him to forget about it, but Sims' employers would not let him take part in the remaining games.
The tour moved to Australia and Bosanquet scored fifties against the three states which Hawke's team played, accumulating 168 runs at an average of 33.60. As a bowler, he took eight wickets at 42.75. His best bowling performance was to take six for 153 out of a New South Wales
total of 463. This included the wicket of Victor Trumper
, the leading Australian batsman and one of the best in the world at the time. He delivered two conventional leg breaks followed by a googly, later described by Bosanquet as the first bowled in Australia, which bowled Trumper. Many critics were impressed by the wicket-taking potential of googly bowling on hard pitches, and Warner later described Bosanquet's bowling as causing a sensation.
, going on to take 10 wickets in the latter match. He also took 12 wickets in a match for Warner's team against a touring side, the Gentlemen of Philadelphia. Bosanquet's contributions helped Middlesex to win the County Championship
for the first time. Although no Test matches were played that season, Warner believed that Bosanquet's form would have gained him a place in a representative side. For the first time since 1899, he was selected for the Gentlemen against the Players, scoring 26 and 3 and taking one for 80 in the Lord's match. Playing in the end-of-season Gentlemen v Players match at Scarborough, he scored 9 and 22 with the bat and took one for 88 with the ball.
Bosanquet's performances during the season earned him a place on Warner's team for the first tour of Australia by the Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC), which was to include Test matches
. Warner later wrote that he was accused of selecting Bosanquet out of favouritism as they played on the same county team, and received "a hail of criticism and disapprobation" as a result. Before the tour began, Sussex and England batsman C. B. Fry wrote an open letter to Warner in the Daily Express
, stating Warner "must persuade that Bosanquet of yours to practise, practise, practise those funny 'googlies' of his till he is automatically certain of his length. That leg-break of his which breaks from the off might win a test match!"
without much success. However, Warner reported that he bowled accurately and puzzled many of the opposing batsmen. In the next match, Bosanquet could not find a good length
and was the only bowler not to impress against Victoria
. After an uncertain start with the bat, he played some powerful shots to score 79. In Victoria's second innings, he took the wicket of William Bruce
, the top scorer in the innings, but again ended the match with one wicket. The third match of the tour was against New South Wales
; Bosanquet scored eight runs in his only batting innings and later took four for 60. His googly caused many problems, particularly for Australia's opening batsman Reggie Duff
. He continuously defeated the batsmen, maintaining his length effectively through the innings. Warner believed by this stage of the tour that Bosanquet was potentially the best bowler in a strong attack if he could bowl a good length, particularly on hard, fast pitches which normally would favour the batsmen. However, Bosnaquet's bowling form remained erratic; he took only one wicket against Queensland
and in a minor match against a weak side, the opposing captain made a joke about his team's bowling being no worse than Bosanquet's.
Bosanquet played in the first Test against Australia, making his Test debut for England. Australia batted first and recovered from a poor start to score 285 runs; Bosanquet took the wickets of Warwick Armstrong
and Syd Gregory
with googlies to finish with two for 52 in 13 overs
. He scored a single run when he batted, out of an English total of 577. In the second innings he bowled 23 overs and took one for 100. The English bowlers came under heavy punishment from the Australian batsmen, Victor Trumper
scored an unbeaten 185 and the team reached 485. Bosanquet had Monty Noble
stumped, and Warner later wrote that he was in good form with the ball, beating Trumper with a googly and troubling others. England needed to score 194 to win and Bosanquet came to the wicket with 13 needed to win; he scored one run before the winning hit was made.
A hand injury forced Bosanquet to miss the second Test. However, with England 2–0 up in the series, he returned for the third Test. On a very good pitch for batting, Australia scored 388. Bosanquet took three for 95 and Warner believed it was the best bowling of his career to that point. None of the batsmen were comfortable against his googly, and his fielding was praised. When England replied, Bosanquet was out for 10 runs, hitting a poor shot as his team were bowled out for 245. In Australia's second innings, Bosanquet bowled badly at first, delivering full toss
es and long hop
s at the end of the third day's play. Next morning, his bowling improved as he established a good length, delivering a spell of seven overs in which he took four wickets for 23 runs and troubled all the batsmen with his googly. He finished the innings with figures of four for 73. However, he failed again with the bat, scoring 10 runs in his second innings as England fell to a heavy defeat.
There followed a break in the series of almost a month as the MCC team played more state teams. In the match against Tasmania
, Bosanquet scored 35 and an unbeaten 124, benefiting from a tiring attack to play an attacking innings which included eighteen fours and five hits over the boundary. However, his bowling was poor, leaving Wilfred Rhodes
and Ted Arnold
to carry most of the bowling workload. Warner wrote that Bosanquet "bowled abominably". After being rested from the second game against Tasmania, Bosanquet returned to play without success against Victoria. The next match was against New South Wales, a team the tourists regarded as the biggest challenge outside of the Test matches. In the first innings, Bosanquet scored 54 runs in 65 minutes, hitting the ball hard, but after a mixed bowling performance in which he took two for 51, he played an innings regarded by Warner as the best of his career. Unbeaten on 17 at the start of the third day, Bosanquet scored 97 runs in 65 minutes, driving particularly effectively and hitting the turning ball onto the leg side
, before being dismissed for 114. Bosanquet followed this with figures of six for 45, including two wickets bowled by the googly.
The fourth Test proved to be the crucial game of the series. England scored 249, of which Bosanquet made 12 before falling to the final ball of the first day, and Australia replied with 131 with Bosanquet required to bowl only two overs. He failed again in the second innings, scoring seven but England reached 210. Australia required 329 to win, which was considered possible on a good wicket; Warner recorded that Australia's batsmen believed their team to be favourites. Bosanquet came on to bowl shortly before the tea interval and immediately took the wickets of Clem Hill
and Syd Gregory. Assisted by a fast-paced pitch, he went on to take another four wickets, at one point having taken five wickets for 12 runs, to complete figures of six for 51. England won by 157 runs to ensure they could not lose the series, being 3–1 up with one game remaining. Australia recorded a consolation victory in favourable conditions for the bowlers in the final Test, and Bosanquet scored 20 runs in the match and bowled four overs without taking a wicket. In the final match of the tour, Bosanquet scored 22 and took three for 70 in the first innings, one wicket coming when the batsman gave a catch to the wicketkeeper from a wide ball which bounced three times.
In all first-class matches on the tour, Bosanquet scored 587 runs at an average of 36.68 and took 37 wickets at an average of 27.27. In Test matches, he took 16 wickets at an average of 25.18 and scored 62 runs at an average of 8.85 with a top-score of 16. Following the team's return home, Bosanquet wrote an article giving his impressions of the tour for Wisden. The main Wisden report stated: "Bosanquet's value with the ball cannot be judged from the averages, as on his bad days he is, as everyone knows, one of the most expensive of living bowlers. When he was in form the Australians thought him far more difficult on hard wickets than any of the other bowlers, Clement Hill saying, without any qualification, that his presence in the eleven won the rubber."
, the eventual 1904 County Championship winners, Bosanquet took six for 99 for Middlesex and in a drawn game against Yorkshire, who finished second in the table, he scored 141 and took 10 for 248. Immediately following the Yorkshire game, Bosanquet took 12 for 240 in a defeat of Nottinghamshire. After a quiet time in the return game against Lancashire, Bosanquet had a run of three consecutive successful matches. In the first, he took six for 75 against Surrey. In a close victory over Kent, he took five for 23 and eight wickets in the match after scoring 80 runs, and he achieved figures of 14 for 190 in a win against Sussex. In an end of season festival game, Bosanquet took five for 89 for the South against the North. In all first-class matches, Bosanquet achieved the double
of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets: he scored 1,405 runs at an average of 36.02 and took 132 wickets at an average of 21.62, the only time in his career he passed 100 wickets in a season. He accumulated five fifties and four centuries; with the ball he took 10 or more wickets in four matches and had 14 five wicket hauls.
His performance in 1904 earned him selection as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year
; the citation noted he was more likely that any other bowler to dismiss a strong side on a good batting wicket, and no batsmen had deciphered how he bowled the googly. However, it also remarked that "he sends down more bad balls than any other front rank bowler."
in their second innings. Australia were set 402 to win, which was considered unlikely in the time available so the tourists had to bat until the end of the game to achieve a draw. The pitch remained good for batting and Australia reached 62 without losing a wicket. Subsequently, Bosanquet took five quick wickets, including a good catch from his own bowling to dismiss Hill, to reduce Australia to 100 for five. Although the tourists managed a partial recovery, Bosanquet continued to take wickets. With very little time remaining owing to poor light—if play had stopped, Australia would have achieved a draw—he took the last wicket to fall, giving England a 213-run victory. Bosanquet had taken his best Test figures of eight for 107. Wisden reported: "The Englishmen owed everything to Bosanquet ... He gained nothing from the condition of the ground, the pitch remaining firm and true to the end."
After two county matches in which he did little with bat or ball, Bosanquet played in the second Test. However, in his two innings, he scored only six and four not out, and did not bowl in the only innings. After taking 11 wickets for Middlesex against Kent in the only match he played between the Tests, in the third match of the series, Bosanquet scored 20 and 22 not out and took one wicket in the match. This was his final appearance of the series as he was dropped for the final two Tests. Wisden reported that "Bosanquet was a complete disappointment". The almanack also commented in the report on the first Test: "In the first flush of his triumph his place in the England team seemed secure for the whole season, but he never reproduced his form, and dropped out of the eleven after the match at Leeds." This was his final Test. In seven matches for England he scored 147 runs at an average of 13.36 and took 25 wickets at 24.16.
In the remainder of the season, Bosanquet never took more than three wickets in an innings, although he scored a century against Essex and three other fifties. He played for the Gentlemen against the Players scoring 38 and 19 but did not take a wicket in the 17 overs he bowled. In 20 first-class matches, Bosanquet scored 1,198 runs (average 37.43) and took 63 wickets (average 27.77). After this season, he rarely bowled and later stated that he did not bowl the googly after 1905, particularly after one embarrassing attempt to do so in a match at Harrow. In another eight seasons of first-class cricket, he took only 22 wickets. However, his batting seemed to improve in this time.
Bosanquet did not appear in first-class cricket again until 1911 when he played two matches in the Scarborough Festival
at the end of the season. During the first game, he scored a century in 75 minutes for the Gentlemen against the Players, who had an attack including Sydney Barnes
. In 1912, he played for Middlesex against the Australians but did not bat or bowl, before appearing in three festival games in August and September. He played twice in 1913, hitting two fifties for L. Robinson's XI against Cambridge University and scoring a third fifty in a match at the end of the season, while in 1914 he appeared for Middlesex against Hampshire and for L. Robinson's XI against Oxford University. After the First World War, Bosanquet made seven appearances in the 1919 season, six of them for Middlesex, scoring three fifties in an aggregate of 335 runs (average 27.91). He did not appear again in first-class cricket. He ended his career with 11,696 runs at an average of 33.41 with 21 centuries. With the ball, he took 629 wickets at an average of 23.80. He continued to be successful in a good class of club cricket and in matches at country houses. His son later recalled how he "drifted from one country-house party to the next, tipping the butler on Monday morning, before travelling to his next social-cum-sporting invitation."
Bosanquet did not bat in a style typical of a cricketer from Eton, where batsmen were taught to play with style and grace. Warner described him as "decidedly stiff and awkward looking ... He does not seem to play the ball in a free, unconstrained way, but rather stabs at it and gives one the impression of making his stroke at the very last moment." In Australia, Bosanquet was troubled by fast pitches and struggled against bowlers such as Monty Noble
and Bert Hopkins who could make the ball move towards him through the air. Nevertheless he displayed great confidence in his ability and on a pitch which assisted spinners, he could flick the ball onto the leg side very effectively. He could hit the ball hard, particularly when driving. The Times said: "He had a wonderful eye and great strength of fore-arm and anything short he could hit very hard."
. On 5 April 1924, he married Mary Janet Kennedy-Jones, the daughter of a Member of Parliament. They had one child, Reginald
, who later achieved fame as a television newsreader. In February 1933, Bosanquet wrote a letter, published in The Times in defence of England's Bodyline
tactics during the 1932–33 tour of Australia in which he claimed that such bowling was not new and implying that the Australians were afraid of it. When his father died, Bosanquet sold the family home in Middlesex and moved to Wykehurst Farm, Surrey, where he died on 12 October 1936. He left an estate valued at £2,276 0s. 4d.
As the googly caused a sensation following its invention, many other cricketers tried to emulate Bosanquet. Reggie Schwarz
, the South African cricketer, learned how to bowl the googly from Bosanquet through observation and he in turn passed it on to the South African bowlers Aubrey Faulkner
, Bert Vogler
and Gordon White
. These four bowlers raised the bowling of the googly to a high standard and raised fears of the detrimental effect it would have on batting. Following the development of googly bowling by South Africans, it was further refined by English and Australian cricketers until it became firmly established. In later years, the googly was blamed for a deterioration in the quality and attractiveness of batting. Bosanquet refused to accept any blame and published a defence in The Morning Post during 1924, later reprinted in Wisden, defending himself and humorously downplayed the impact of the googly. He wrote: "It is not for me to defend it. Other and more capable hands have taken it up and exploited it, and, if blame is to be allotted, let it be on their shoulders. For me is the task of the historian, and if I appear too much in the role of the proud parent, I ask forgiveness."
Up until the invention of the googly, bowling was expected to be predictable, and the googly may initially have been considered an underhand tactic. On one occasion, Nottinghamshire batsman William Gunn was stumped after running down the pitch in an attempt to stop a ball bowled by Bosanquet. Gunn's team-mate Arthur Shrewsbury
then protested that Bosanquet's bowling was unfair. On another occasion, when asked if the googly was not illegal, Bosanquet is said to have replied, "Oh no, only immoral." For many years, the googly was known in Australia as a "Bosie". His Times obituary stated, "no man probably has in his time had so important and lasting an influence on the game of cricket".
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 best known for inventing the googly
Googly
In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie , an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet.- Explanation :...
, a delivery
Delivery (cricket)
A delivery or ball in cricket is a single action of bowling a cricket ball towards the batsman.During play of the game, a member of the fielding team is designated as the bowler, and bowls deliveries towards the batsman...
designed to deceive the batsman
Batting (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, while the act of hitting the ball is called a shot or stroke...
. When bowled, it appears to be a leg break
Leg break
A leg break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. A delivery of a right-handed leg spin bowler. Leg breaks are also colloquially known as leggies or wrist spinners, as the wrist is the body part which is primarily used to impart spin on the ball, as opposed to the fingers in the case of...
, but after pitching the ball turns in the opposite direction to that which is expected, behaving as an off break
Off break
Off break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is the attacking delivery of an off spin bowler. Off breaks are known as off spinners....
instead. Bosanquet, 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 Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex 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 Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
between 1898 and 1919, appeared in seven 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 as an all-rounder
All-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists...
. He was chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1905.
Bosanquet played cricket for Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
from 1891 to 1896, before gaining his Blue at Oriel College, Oxford. He played with moderate success as a batsman who bowled at fast-medium pace for Oxford University
Oxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
between 1898 and 1900. While still a student, he made several appearances for Middlesex and achieved a regular place in the county side as an amateur.
While playing a tabletop game, Bosanquet devised a new technique for delivering a ball, later named the "googly", which he steadily practised during his time at Oxford. He first began using it in cricket matches around 1900, abandoning his faster style of bowling, but it was not until 1903 that his new delivery began to attract attention. Having gone on several minor overseas tours, Bosanquet was selected in 1903 for the fully representative 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) tour of Australia. During that tour, he made his Test debut for England and although his batting was unsuccessful, he performed well as a bowler and troubled all the opposing batsmen.
More success followed; in the 1904 season, he took more than 100 wickets and his bowling career peaked when he spearheaded England to victory in the first Test against Australia in 1905. However, he never mastered control of good length bowling
Good length ball
A good length ball is a type of delivery in cricket that pitches at a distance from the batsman that makes it difficult to score runs. Furthermore, such a delivery is difficult for the batsman to judge whether to play on the back-foot or on the front-foot...
and remained an erratic performer. After 1905, Bosanquet's bowling went into decline; he practically gave it up and made fewer first-class appearances owing to his business interests. After taking part in the First World War in the Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
, he married and had a son, Reginald Bosanquet
Reginald Bosanquet
Reginald Bosanquet was a British journalist, best known for presenting ITN news in the 1970s.-Early life:He was the son of the cricketer Bernard Bosanquet, inventor of the "googly" and a cousin of the public relations executive Christopher Bosanquet...
, who later became a television newsreader. He died in 1936, aged 58.
Early life
Bosanquet was born in Bulls Cross, EnfieldEnfield Town
Enfield Town is the historic town centre of Enfield, formerly in the county of Middlesex and now in the London Borough of Enfield. It is north north-east of Charing Cross...
, Middlesex, on 13 October 1877. He was one of five children of Bernard Tindal Bosanquet and his wife Eva Maude Cotton; Bosanquet had a younger brother and three sisters. Many of his relations were well known in their fields, including his uncle and namesake Bernard Bosanquet
Bernard Bosanquet (philosopher)
Bernard Bosanquet was an English philosopher and political theorist, and an influential figure on matters of political and social policy in late 19th and early 20th century Britain...
the philosopher. His grandfather, James Whatman Bosanquet, was a banker and achieved distinction as a biblical historian. His father worked for the banking firm Bosanquet & Co., and became a partner in a firm of hide, leather, and fur brokers in London; he was also High Sheriff
High Sheriff
A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
of Middlesex from 1897 to 1898 and captained Enfield cricket club.
After going to Sunnymede School in Slough, Bosanquet attended Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
between 1891 and 1896. While at Eton, he received cricket coaching from the 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...
professionals Maurice Read
Maurice Read
John Maurice Read was an English professional cricketer. Wrote Harry Altham of him in that truly magisterial work, A History of Cricket, "Maurice Read had been recognised as a dashing player up to Test Match form, to say nothing of being a wonderful fielder in the country." A hard-hitting and,...
and Bill Brockwell
Bill Brockwell
William Brockwell was an English cricketer. Although primarily remembered as a batsman, he began his career as a fast-medium bowler. With George Lohmann, Tom Richardson and William Lockwood carrying all before them, Brockwell had few opportunities until they declined...
. They improved his play to the point where he played for the cricket first eleven in 1896. Against Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
, he took three wickets and scored 29 not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
in the second innings, while 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...
against Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
, Bosanquet scored 120 runs in 140 minutes. At this time, he bowled fast-medium pace, while as a batsman he had developed, in the words of his obituary in 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...
, "a rather curious, wristless style; stiff and yet powerful".
Oxford University
Oxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
against a team selected by Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex 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 Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
captain A. J. Webbe, he had little batting success during the season, having a top score of 17 runs. He was more successful with the ball, twice taking five wickets in an innings for Oxford. Selected for the University Match
The University Match (cricket)
The University Match in a cricketing context is generally understood to refer to the annual fixture between Oxford University Cricket Club and Cambridge University Cricket Club...
, he made 54 not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
, his highest score of the season. After the University season, he made two appearances for Middlesex, but did not distinguish himself, scoring 17 runs and taking no wickets. In all first-class matches in 1898, Bosanquet scored 168 runs at a batting average of 14.00 and took 30 wickets at a 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...
of 18.70. At the end of the season, he joined a team led by Plum Warner which toured America. He took a total of 10 wickets in the two first-class matches, and had further bowling successes in minor matches.
Bosanquet improved his record for Oxford in 1899, scoring two fifties and taking five wickets on three occasions before the University match. Against Cambridge, he failed with the bat but took seven wickets for 89 runs in the first innings. Bosanquet's record earned him selection for the Gentlemen against the 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...
; in this prestigious match he took only one wicket but scored 61. He played another two matches for Middlesex and ended the season with a batting record of 419 runs in all matches, at an average of 27.93, and 55 wickets at 22.72. He played some end of season non-first-class matches for I Zingari
I Zingari
I Zingari are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs.-History:...
, taking 16 wickets in a game against Ireland, and went on another tour of America, led by K. S. Ranjitsinhji, which included two first-class matches.
Bosanquet's final season for Oxford was his best. He scored his maiden first-class century against London County
London County Cricket Club
London County Cricket Club was a short-lived cricket club founded by the Crystal Palace Company. In 1898 they invited WG Grace to help them form a first-class cricket club. Grace accepted the offer and became the club's secretary, manager and captain. As a result, he severed his connection with...
and, against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
, he recorded what were to be the best bowling figures of his career, taking nine for 31 in the second innings and a total of 15 wickets in the game for 65 runs. His final match for Oxford was the 1900 University match, in which he scored 42 and 23. For the remainder of the season, Bosanquet re-joined Middlesex, and in his second match, against Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
, achieved the rare distinction of a century in each innings
Innings
An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is...
: 136 in 110 minutes in the first innings, followed by 139 in 170 minutes in the second. He scored three further fifties for Middlesex and once took five wickets in an innings, but bowled comparatively rarely, only once bowling more than 13 overs
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....
in an innings. In all first-class matches in the season, Bosanquet scored 1,026 runs at 34.20 and took 50 wickets at 23.20.
In all his matches for Oxford, Bosanquet scored 801 runs at an average of 25.03 and took 112 wickets at an average of 19.49. In other sports, he also received half-Blues for hammer-throwing
Hammer throw
The modern or Olympic hammer throw is an athletic throwing event where the object is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name "hammer throw" is derived from older competitions where an actual sledge hammer was thrown...
and billiards, as well as achieving success in ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
.
Genesis
Bosanquet is remembered mainly as the inventor of the googlyGoogly
In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie , an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet.- Explanation :...
, a delivery designed to deceive the batsman. When bowled, it appears to be a leg break
Leg break
A leg break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. A delivery of a right-handed leg spin bowler. Leg breaks are also colloquially known as leggies or wrist spinners, as the wrist is the body part which is primarily used to impart spin on the ball, as opposed to the fingers in the case of...
, but after pitching the ball turns in the opposite direction to that expected, behaving as an off break
Off break
Off break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is the attacking delivery of an off spin bowler. Off breaks are known as off spinners....
instead. However, Bosanquet was a pace bowler in his university days. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
described his bowling from this period as "very useful ... but that was all, and had he kept to his original style real distinction at cricket would only have come to him through his batting". Nor did he enjoy bowling quickly, believing he was destined to be used only as a last resort and not enjoy much success. Instead, Bosanquet gradually came to change his style. In the mid-1890s, he often played a game called Twisti-Twosti, where a player had to bounce a tennis ball on a table so that it could not be caught by the opposing player. According to Bosanquet, he began to experiment with ways of throwing the ball so that, after pitching, it turned and spun in an unexpected direction, without the other player being able to detect any difference in the delivery. Finding he could do this successfully, he began to practise using the same method to bowl in a form of soft-ball cricket and then in the cricket 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...
with a hard ball, but did not at the time take his discovery seriously. It was not until 1899 or 1900 that Bosanquet began to practise in earnest, and developed an orthodox leg break in the nets to complement his new style of delivery, which spun in the same direction as an off break. During the lunch breaks in Oxford matches, he would often bowl to the best opposing batsmen in the nets, delivering several leg breaks, followed by an off break, without changing his bowling action; the ball would sometimes hit the bemused batsman on the knee, to the amusement of spectators. A slightly different version of events was provided by the son of Louise Bosanquet, Bernard's cousin, who claimed in 1965 that Bosanquet conceived the idea in 1890 and practised bowling to Louise with a tennis ball from 1893 onwards.
Practising throughout 1899 and 1900, Bosanquet began to use the googly in minor matches before using it in important cricket. His first use of the new delivery in first-class cricket came in the match against Leicestershire in 1900 in which he scored two centuries. In the second innings, Samuel Coe
Samuel Coe
Samuel Coe was an English cricketer. He was a left-hand batsman and left-arm slow-medium bowler who played for Leicestershire....
had scored 98 when Bosanquet, still known as a fast-bowler, bowled his off break; the ball bounced four times and the batsman was stumped (although, writing in 1925, Bosanquet recalled Coe had been bowled
Bowled
Bowled is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is covered by Law 30 of the Laws of cricket.A batsman is out bowled if his wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the bowler...
). Bosanquet later wrote that the wicket "was rightly treated as a joke, and was the subject of ribald comment". Middlesex captains permitted him to try googlies if there was little pressure on, but he later wrote "Though I could claim some five or six wickets before the close of the season, my efforts produced far more laughter than dismay in the hearts of opposing batsmen". However, Bosanquet persisted with the delivery and achieved success to the point where he began to be noticed by influential cricketers. In later life, Bosanquet stated that Pelham Warner and Middlesex wicket keeper Gregor MacGregor quickly realised the delivery's potential. Even so, they remained silent because Bosanquet wished to maintain the impression that his off break was an accident so that the batsmen were not expecting it; other bowlers occasionally bowled such a ball, but not deliberately. Bosanquet tried to play down his successes: he feigned surprise, acting as if they were similarly accidental. Batsmen were accustomed to off break or leg break bowlers, but it was an unprecedented problem to face a bowler who could bowl both types of delivery at will, disguising which one he bowled.
It was around 1903 that Bosanquet's delivery first became known as a "googly". Pelham Warner claimed that the first use of the word was in the Lyttelton Times, a newspaper based in Canterbury, New Zealand, during a 1902–03 tour, but subsequent research has failed to find it.
Regular use in County Cricket
Apart from some early season games for MCC and A. J. Webbe's XI, all of Bosanquet's cricket in 1901 was for Middlesex. He maintained his faster style of bowling but also began to bowl slow leg breaks, with the as-yet unrecognised googly mixed in as variation. Later, he found he could not effectively maintain both styles and decided to concentrate on spin, gradually dropping his quick bowling. His bowling brought him 36 wickets at an average of 37.52 in 1901 but did not take more than three wickets in an innings. With the bat, it took until July for him to pass fifty runs in an innings but his form improved in August with four fifties. He ended the season with consecutive centuries against Surrey and EssexEssex County Cricket Club
Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...
. In total, Bosanquet scored 1,240 runs at an average of 32.63, and Warner regarded him as one of the three most reliable batsmen in the Middlesex side. After the season, Bosanquet went on his third tour of America, captaining a team himself. From January to April 1902, he toured West Indies with Richard Bennett's
Richard Bennett (cricketer)
Richard Alexander Bennett was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire from 1896 to 1899...
team. He scored 623 runs at an average of 34.61 with five fifties and 55 wickets at an average of 15.47, including figures of eight for 30 in one innings. Bosanquet's cricket followed a similar pattern in 1902. He scored 749 runs at an average of 24.96, with a century against Cambridge. However, he did not pass fifty after the end of May until his last game of the season. With the ball, he took 40 wickets at an average of 21.17. These included 10 wickets against Oxford and 10 against 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...
; the latter performance, when he took seven for 57 in the second innings was described as remarkable by Wisden. It was the first time that his new bowling style attracted attention, although Bosanquet himself tried to play down the success for fear of alerting batsmen to his googly.
Controversy in New Zealand
In the winter of 1902–03, Bosanquet took part in another tour, this time with Lord Hawke'sMartin Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke
Martin Bladen Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke of Towton , generally known as Lord Hawke, was an English amateur cricketer who played major roles in the sport's administration....
team which played matches in New Zealand and Australia and was captained by Warner. In New Zealand, he played two matches against a New Zealand representative side, and in all matches scored 148 runs at an average of 18.50 with one fifty, an innings of 82 against South Island. He also took 18 wickets at an average of 22.61; his style of bowling attracted a great deal of attention. However, the tour was more notable for an incident in the match against Canterbury
Canterbury Wizards
The Canterbury Wizards are a New Zealand first class cricket team based in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is one of six teams that make up New Zealand Cricket and has been the most successful domestic team in New Zealand history...
. Bosanquet had taken an early wicket in the first innings, but bowled poorly afterwards. He was the fourth bowler used in the second innings and with his third ball, it looked as if he had bowled Walter Pearce behind his legs as he attempted a big hit. However, both umpires were unsighted and the non-striker
Batting (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, while the act of hitting the ball is called a shot or stroke...
Arthur Sims
Arthur Sims
Sir Arthur Sims was a New Zealand first class cricketer who played for Canterbury. He was born in Lincolnshire, England...
, who also had his view obscured, urged Pearce not to leave the middle. The tourists' wicket keeper, Arthur Whatman, Bosanquet and other English players surrounded the umpire, who decided Pearce was not out. Bosanquet then turned to Sims and said: "You're a nice cheat. I bowled him round his legs. Anybody could see that." Sims responded that there was reasonable doubt, but Whatman began to swear and call him a cheat. Bosanquet later bowled Sims and Canterbury were easily defeated. However, the incident continued to attract attention. The English team were severely criticised in the press and Sims' employers refused to release him for any further matches unless Bosanquet apologised. Bosanquet wrote letters of apology to Sims and to the Canterbury Cricket Association, and Sims later told him to forget about it, but Sims' employers would not let him take part in the remaining games.
The tour moved to Australia and Bosanquet scored fifties against the three states which Hawke's team played, accumulating 168 runs at an average of 33.60. As a bowler, he took eight wickets at 42.75. His best bowling performance was to take six for 153 out of a New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
total of 463. This included the wicket of Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby...
, the leading Australian batsman and one of the best in the world at the time. He delivered two conventional leg breaks followed by a googly, later described by Bosanquet as the first bowled in Australia, which bowled Trumper. Many critics were impressed by the wicket-taking potential of googly bowling on hard pitches, and Warner later described Bosanquet's bowling as causing a sensation.
Recognition of the googly
In the English 1903 season, Bosanquet's batting record improved. He scored a century against Oxford in the second match of the season, followed by six for 31 in Oxford's second innings. He went on to score nine fifties, including three in successive innings, in an aggregate of 1,082 runs at an average of 34.90. With the ball, he recorded his best wicket haul in a season, taking 63 wickets at an average of 21.00. While this was not seen as a particularly impressive record, Wisden noted that "the batsmen who played against him came to the conclusion that he had immense possibilities." Critics recognised that Bosanquet had developed a new style of bowling. While he could not always control the place the ball would land, making him erratic, several cricketers including Warner believed if he could gain more control, he would become one of the best bowlers in the world. Although his bowling was still developing, he took six wickets in consecutive innings against Surrey and KentKent 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...
, going on to take 10 wickets in the latter match. He also took 12 wickets in a match for Warner's team against a touring side, the Gentlemen of Philadelphia. Bosanquet's contributions helped Middlesex to win the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
for the first time. Although no Test matches were played that season, Warner believed that Bosanquet's form would have gained him a place in a representative side. For the first time since 1899, he was selected for the Gentlemen against the Players, scoring 26 and 3 and taking one for 80 in the Lord's match. Playing in the end-of-season Gentlemen v Players match at Scarborough, he scored 9 and 22 with the bat and took one for 88 with the ball.
Bosanquet's performances during the season earned him a place on Warner's team for the first tour of Australia by 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), which was to include 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...
. Warner later wrote that he was accused of selecting Bosanquet out of favouritism as they played on the same county team, and received "a hail of criticism and disapprobation" as a result. Before the tour began, Sussex and England batsman C. B. Fry wrote an open letter to Warner in the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
, stating Warner "must persuade that Bosanquet of yours to practise, practise, practise those funny 'googlies' of his till he is automatically certain of his length. That leg-break of his which breaks from the off might win a test match!"
MCC tour of Australia
Bosanquet played in the first match of the tour against South AustraliaSouthern Redbacks
The South Australia cricket team, nicknamed the Southern Redbacks and known as the West End Redbacks due to their sponsorship agreement with local brewers West End, are an Australian first class cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia, and represent the state of South Australia...
without much success. However, Warner reported that he bowled accurately and puzzled many of the opposing batsmen. In the next match, Bosanquet could not find a good length
Good length ball
A good length ball is a type of delivery in cricket that pitches at a distance from the batsman that makes it difficult to score runs. Furthermore, such a delivery is difficult for the batsman to judge whether to play on the back-foot or on the front-foot...
and was the only bowler not to impress against Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
. After an uncertain start with the bat, he played some powerful shots to score 79. In Victoria's second innings, he took the wicket of William Bruce
William Bruce (cricketer)
William Bruce was an Australian cricketer who played in 14 Tests between 1885 and 1895....
, the top scorer in the innings, but again ended the match with one wicket. The third match of the tour was against New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
; Bosanquet scored eight runs in his only batting innings and later took four for 60. His googly caused many problems, particularly for Australia's opening batsman Reggie Duff
Reggie Duff
Reginald Alexander Duff was an Australian cricketer who played in 22 Tests between 1902 and 1905....
. He continuously defeated the batsmen, maintaining his length effectively through the innings. Warner believed by this stage of the tour that Bosanquet was potentially the best bowler in a strong attack if he could bowl a good length, particularly on hard, fast pitches which normally would favour the batsmen. However, Bosnaquet's bowling form remained erratic; he took only one wicket against Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
and in a minor match against a weak side, the opposing captain made a joke about his team's bowling being no worse than Bosanquet's.
Bosanquet played in the first Test against Australia, making his Test debut for England. Australia batted first and recovered from a poor start to score 285 runs; Bosanquet took the wickets of Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921 and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two...
and Syd Gregory
Syd Gregory
Sydney Edward Gregory , sometimes known as Edward Sydney Gregory, was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. At the time of his retirement, he had played a world-record 58 Test matches during a career spanning 1890 to 1912...
with googlies to finish with two for 52 in 13 overs
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....
. He scored a single run when he batted, out of an English total of 577. In the second innings he bowled 23 overs and took one for 100. The English bowlers came under heavy punishment from the Australian batsmen, Victor Trumper
Victor Trumper
Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby...
scored an unbeaten 185 and the team reached 485. Bosanquet had Monty Noble
Monty Noble
Montague Alfred Noble was an Australian cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-hand batsman, right-handed bowler who could deliver both medium pace and off-break bowling, capable fieldsman and tactically sound captain, Noble is considered as one of the great Australian...
stumped, and Warner later wrote that he was in good form with the ball, beating Trumper with a googly and troubling others. England needed to score 194 to win and Bosanquet came to the wicket with 13 needed to win; he scored one run before the winning hit was made.
A hand injury forced Bosanquet to miss the second Test. However, with England 2–0 up in the series, he returned for the third Test. On a very good pitch for batting, Australia scored 388. Bosanquet took three for 95 and Warner believed it was the best bowling of his career to that point. None of the batsmen were comfortable against his googly, and his fielding was praised. When England replied, Bosanquet was out for 10 runs, hitting a poor shot as his team were bowled out for 245. In Australia's second innings, Bosanquet bowled badly at first, delivering full toss
Full toss
A full toss is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It describes any delivery that reaches the batsman without bouncing on the pitch first....
es and long hop
Long hop
A long hop is a type of inadvertent delivery in the sport of cricket. It describes a short delivery which is not especially fast, which is thus easy for the batsman to hit because he has plenty of time to observe the speed and direction of the ball after the bounce and choose his shot accordingly...
s at the end of the third day's play. Next morning, his bowling improved as he established a good length, delivering a spell of seven overs in which he took four wickets for 23 runs and troubled all the batsmen with his googly. He finished the innings with figures of four for 73. However, he failed again with the bat, scoring 10 runs in his second innings as England fell to a heavy defeat.
There followed a break in the series of almost a month as the MCC team played more state teams. In the match against Tasmania
Tasmanian Tigers
The Tasmanian cricket team, nicknamed the Tigers, represents the Australian state of Tasmania in cricket tournaments. They compete annually in the Australian domestic senior men's cricket season, which currently consists of the first-class Sheffield Shield, the limited overs Ford Ranger Cup, and...
, Bosanquet scored 35 and an unbeaten 124, benefiting from a tiring attack to play an attacking innings which included eighteen fours and five hits over the boundary. However, his bowling was poor, leaving Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets in and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches...
and Ted Arnold
Ted Arnold
Edward George Arnold was an English cricketer who played in ten Test Matches from 1903 to 1907, and most of his 343 first-class matches for Worcestershire between 1899 and 1913...
to carry most of the bowling workload. Warner wrote that Bosanquet "bowled abominably". After being rested from the second game against Tasmania, Bosanquet returned to play without success against Victoria. The next match was against New South Wales, a team the tourists regarded as the biggest challenge outside of the Test matches. In the first innings, Bosanquet scored 54 runs in 65 minutes, hitting the ball hard, but after a mixed bowling performance in which he took two for 51, he played an innings regarded by Warner as the best of his career. Unbeaten on 17 at the start of the third day, Bosanquet scored 97 runs in 65 minutes, driving particularly effectively and hitting the turning ball onto the leg side
Leg side
The leg side, or on side, is defined to be a particular half of the field used to play the sport of cricket.From the point of view of a right-handed batsman facing the bowler, it is the left hand side of the cricket field...
, before being dismissed for 114. Bosanquet followed this with figures of six for 45, including two wickets bowled by the googly.
The fourth Test proved to be the crucial game of the series. England scored 249, of which Bosanquet made 12 before falling to the final ball of the first day, and Australia replied with 131 with Bosanquet required to bowl only two overs. He failed again in the second innings, scoring seven but England reached 210. Australia required 329 to win, which was considered possible on a good wicket; Warner recorded that Australia's batsmen believed their team to be favourites. Bosanquet came on to bowl shortly before the tea interval and immediately took the wickets of Clem Hill
Clem Hill
Clement "Clem" Hill was an Australian cricketer who played 49 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1896 and 1912. He captained the Australian team in ten Tests, winning five and losing five...
and Syd Gregory. Assisted by a fast-paced pitch, he went on to take another four wickets, at one point having taken five wickets for 12 runs, to complete figures of six for 51. England won by 157 runs to ensure they could not lose the series, being 3–1 up with one game remaining. Australia recorded a consolation victory in favourable conditions for the bowlers in the final Test, and Bosanquet scored 20 runs in the match and bowled four overs without taking a wicket. In the final match of the tour, Bosanquet scored 22 and took three for 70 in the first innings, one wicket coming when the batsman gave a catch to the wicketkeeper from a wide ball which bounced three times.
In all first-class matches on the tour, Bosanquet scored 587 runs at an average of 36.68 and took 37 wickets at an average of 27.27. In Test matches, he took 16 wickets at an average of 25.18 and scored 62 runs at an average of 8.85 with a top-score of 16. Following the team's return home, Bosanquet wrote an article giving his impressions of the tour for Wisden. The main Wisden report stated: "Bosanquet's value with the ball cannot be judged from the averages, as on his bad days he is, as everyone knows, one of the most expensive of living bowlers. When he was in form the Australians thought him far more difficult on hard wickets than any of the other bowlers, Clement Hill saying, without any qualification, that his presence in the eleven won the rubber."
1904 season
After a poor start with his batting, the 1904 season was Bosanquet's best with bat and ball. In his first nine innings, he had a best score of 47, but failed to reach double figures in six innings before scoring consecutive fifties. With the ball, he took nine for 107 for MCC against the touring South African team and seven for 83 for I Zingari against Gentlemen of England, going on to take 11 wickets in the latter match. Then for Middlesex, he scored 110 in 85 minutes with 16 fours, in a tied match against the South Africans, and 126 in two hours against Surrey including a five and 16 fours. In the latter match he also took five for 139. This preceded his selection for two Gentlemen v Players matches in six days. In the first at Lord's, he scored nine and 22 and took four wickets in the match. At the Oval, he hit 145 in 210 minutes with two fives and 15 fours. After taking two for 97 in the Players' first innings, he took six for 60 in the second to give the Gentlemen their second victory in a week. In a loss to LancashireLancashire 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...
, the eventual 1904 County Championship winners, Bosanquet took six for 99 for Middlesex and in a drawn game against Yorkshire, who finished second in the table, he scored 141 and took 10 for 248. Immediately following the Yorkshire game, Bosanquet took 12 for 240 in a defeat of Nottinghamshire. After a quiet time in the return game against Lancashire, Bosanquet had a run of three consecutive successful matches. In the first, he took six for 75 against Surrey. In a close victory over Kent, he took five for 23 and eight wickets in the match after scoring 80 runs, and he achieved figures of 14 for 190 in a win against Sussex. In an end of season festival game, Bosanquet took five for 89 for the South against the North. In all first-class matches, Bosanquet achieved the double
Double (cricket)
A cricketer is said to achieve the double if he scores a thousand or more runs and also takes a hundred or more wickets in first-class matches during the course of a single season. The feat is extremely rare outside England because of the smaller number of first-class matches played in most other...
of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets: he scored 1,405 runs at an average of 36.02 and took 132 wickets at an average of 21.62, the only time in his career he passed 100 wickets in a season. He accumulated five fifties and four centuries; with the ball he took 10 or more wickets in four matches and had 14 five wicket hauls.
His performance in 1904 earned him selection as one of Wisden's 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"...
; the citation noted he was more likely that any other bowler to dismiss a strong side on a good batting wicket, and no batsmen had deciphered how he bowled the googly. However, it also remarked that "he sends down more bad balls than any other front rank bowler."
1905 season
The Australians toured England in 1905, but Bosanquet played only three games before the first Test. He scored 93 in the second against Nottinghamshire, while against Sussex, he scored centuries in each innings for the second time in his career. His first innings century took 105 minutes and his second took 75 minutes. He also took eight for 53 in the second innings to bowl Middlesex to victory and give him 11 wickets in the game. He became the first player in first-class cricket to score two centuries and take 10 wickets in the same match; only two further players have since achieved the feat, as of October 2010. Bosanquet was selected for the first Test, his first appearance in England. In England's first innings, he assisted in a recovery, making his highest Test score of 27. Australia took a first innings lead, but despite a failure by Bosanquet, England scored 426 for five declaredDeclaration and forfeiture
In the sport of cricket a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture is when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 14 of the Laws of cricket...
in their second innings. Australia were set 402 to win, which was considered unlikely in the time available so the tourists had to bat until the end of the game to achieve a draw. The pitch remained good for batting and Australia reached 62 without losing a wicket. Subsequently, Bosanquet took five quick wickets, including a good catch from his own bowling to dismiss Hill, to reduce Australia to 100 for five. Although the tourists managed a partial recovery, Bosanquet continued to take wickets. With very little time remaining owing to poor light—if play had stopped, Australia would have achieved a draw—he took the last wicket to fall, giving England a 213-run victory. Bosanquet had taken his best Test figures of eight for 107. Wisden reported: "The Englishmen owed everything to Bosanquet ... He gained nothing from the condition of the ground, the pitch remaining firm and true to the end."
After two county matches in which he did little with bat or ball, Bosanquet played in the second Test. However, in his two innings, he scored only six and four not out, and did not bowl in the only innings. After taking 11 wickets for Middlesex against Kent in the only match he played between the Tests, in the third match of the series, Bosanquet scored 20 and 22 not out and took one wicket in the match. This was his final appearance of the series as he was dropped for the final two Tests. Wisden reported that "Bosanquet was a complete disappointment". The almanack also commented in the report on the first Test: "In the first flush of his triumph his place in the England team seemed secure for the whole season, but he never reproduced his form, and dropped out of the eleven after the match at Leeds." This was his final Test. In seven matches for England he scored 147 runs at an average of 13.36 and took 25 wickets at 24.16.
In the remainder of the season, Bosanquet never took more than three wickets in an innings, although he scored a century against Essex and three other fifties. He played for the Gentlemen against the Players scoring 38 and 19 but did not take a wicket in the 17 overs he bowled. In 20 first-class matches, Bosanquet scored 1,198 runs (average 37.43) and took 63 wickets (average 27.77). After this season, he rarely bowled and later stated that he did not bowl the googly after 1905, particularly after one embarrassing attempt to do so in a match at Harrow. In another eight seasons of first-class cricket, he took only 22 wickets. However, his batting seemed to improve in this time.
Later career
After 1905, Bosanquet played fewer first-class matches owing to his business career, and appeared as a batsman rather than an all-rounder. He played rarely for Middlesex, but usually seemed to make runs despite his lack of practice. He played four matches in 1906. He scored 87 and 101 for Middlesex against Somerset in his first game and took five for 51 against Yorkshire in his second. His good form continued in his third match for Middlesex as he scored two fifties against Essex and he was chosen for the Gentlemen against the Players. Although he did not bowl in that match, he scored 56 in the first innings. In total, he scored 415 runs at 51.87 and took eight wickets at 46.00. The following season, he played six matches for Middlesex, took two wickets and scored 358 runs at 35.00 with three fifties. Bosanquet played more often in 1908. He made 1,081 runs at an average of 54.05, topping the first-class batting averages. He scored centuries for Middlesex against Somerset and Lancashire in addition to five fifties. He represented the Gentlemen v Players twice—at Lord's and in an end of season festival game—without reaching fifty. However, in two other festival games in September, Bosanquet scored a fifty for the South against the North and scored 214, the highest score of his career, for the Rest of England against Yorkshire, the County Champions. In the season, he also took 12 wickets at an average of 29.00, although only bowling more than 10 overs in an innings three times, the final wickets of his career.Bosanquet did not appear in first-class cricket again until 1911 when he played two matches in the Scarborough Festival
Scarborough Festival
The Scarborough Festival is an end of season series of cricket matches featuring Yorkshire County Cricket Club which has been held in Scarborough, on the east coast of Yorkshire, since 1876. The ground, at North Marine Road, sees large crowds of holiday makers watching a mixture of first class...
at the end of the season. During the first game, he scored a century in 75 minutes for the Gentlemen against the Players, who had an attack including Sydney Barnes
Sydney Barnes
Sydney Francis Barnes was an English professional cricketer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the sport's history...
. In 1912, he played for Middlesex against the Australians but did not bat or bowl, before appearing in three festival games in August and September. He played twice in 1913, hitting two fifties for L. Robinson's XI against Cambridge University and scoring a third fifty in a match at the end of the season, while in 1914 he appeared for Middlesex against Hampshire and for L. Robinson's XI against Oxford University. After the First World War, Bosanquet made seven appearances in the 1919 season, six of them for Middlesex, scoring three fifties in an aggregate of 335 runs (average 27.91). He did not appear again in first-class cricket. He ended his career with 11,696 runs at an average of 33.41 with 21 centuries. With the ball, he took 629 wickets at an average of 23.80. He continued to be successful in a good class of club cricket and in matches at country houses. His son later recalled how he "drifted from one country-house party to the next, tipping the butler on Monday morning, before travelling to his next social-cum-sporting invitation."
Style and technique
Warner wrote that Bosanquet was "a great and original cricketer". After he became a leg break bowler, Bosanquet bowled the ball very slowly and did not look dangerous. However, while still appearing to bowl a leg break, he could deliver an off break which confused the best batsmen in the world and this googly was recognised as a completely new style of delivery. He achieved this through dropping his wrist before releasing the ball. The unfamiliarity of this type of bowling increased his effectiveness on the occasions when he could bowl a good length. But never certain of his bowling, on other days, he bowled long hops and full tosses giving away easy runs. Warner noted that Bosanquet had been "described as the 'worst best bowler' in the world".Bosanquet did not bat in a style typical of a cricketer from Eton, where batsmen were taught to play with style and grace. Warner described him as "decidedly stiff and awkward looking ... He does not seem to play the ball in a free, unconstrained way, but rather stabs at it and gives one the impression of making his stroke at the very last moment." In Australia, Bosanquet was troubled by fast pitches and struggled against bowlers such as Monty Noble
Monty Noble
Montague Alfred Noble was an Australian cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-hand batsman, right-handed bowler who could deliver both medium pace and off-break bowling, capable fieldsman and tactically sound captain, Noble is considered as one of the great Australian...
and Bert Hopkins who could make the ball move towards him through the air. Nevertheless he displayed great confidence in his ability and on a pitch which assisted spinners, he could flick the ball onto the leg side very effectively. He could hit the ball hard, particularly when driving. The Times said: "He had a wonderful eye and great strength of fore-arm and anything short he could hit very hard."
Personal life and legacy
In the First World War, Bosanquet was a lieutenant in the Royal Flying CorpsRoyal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
. On 5 April 1924, he married Mary Janet Kennedy-Jones, the daughter of a Member of Parliament. They had one child, Reginald
Reginald Bosanquet
Reginald Bosanquet was a British journalist, best known for presenting ITN news in the 1970s.-Early life:He was the son of the cricketer Bernard Bosanquet, inventor of the "googly" and a cousin of the public relations executive Christopher Bosanquet...
, who later achieved fame as a television newsreader. In February 1933, Bosanquet wrote a letter, published in The Times in defence of England's Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
tactics during the 1932–33 tour of Australia in which he claimed that such bowling was not new and implying that the Australians were afraid of it. When his father died, Bosanquet sold the family home in Middlesex and moved to Wykehurst Farm, Surrey, where he died on 12 October 1936. He left an estate valued at £2,276 0s. 4d.
As the googly caused a sensation following its invention, many other cricketers tried to emulate Bosanquet. Reggie Schwarz
Reggie Schwarz
Major Reginald Oscar Schwarz MC, known as Reggie was a South African cricketer and international rugby union footballer.-Early life:...
, the South African cricketer, learned how to bowl the googly from Bosanquet through observation and he in turn passed it on to the South African bowlers Aubrey Faulkner
Aubrey Faulkner
George Aubrey Faulkner was a leading cricketer for South Africa for two decades.-Early life:...
, Bert Vogler
Bert Vogler
Albert Edward Ernest Vogler was a South African cricketer.Vogler was born in Swartwater, Queenstown, Eastern Cape. He began his cricket career for Natal as an attacking lower order right-handed batsman and fast medium bowler before acquiring the googly from Reggie Schwarz on that player’s return...
and Gordon White
Gordon White
Gordon Charles White was a South African cricketer who played in 17 Tests from 1906 to 1912.White was born in Port St Johns, Cape Province. He died in 1918 in Gaza, Palestine.-References:*...
. These four bowlers raised the bowling of the googly to a high standard and raised fears of the detrimental effect it would have on batting. Following the development of googly bowling by South Africans, it was further refined by English and Australian cricketers until it became firmly established. In later years, the googly was blamed for a deterioration in the quality and attractiveness of batting. Bosanquet refused to accept any blame and published a defence in The Morning Post during 1924, later reprinted in Wisden, defending himself and humorously downplayed the impact of the googly. He wrote: "It is not for me to defend it. Other and more capable hands have taken it up and exploited it, and, if blame is to be allotted, let it be on their shoulders. For me is the task of the historian, and if I appear too much in the role of the proud parent, I ask forgiveness."
Up until the invention of the googly, bowling was expected to be predictable, and the googly may initially have been considered an underhand tactic. On one occasion, Nottinghamshire batsman William Gunn was stumped after running down the pitch in an attempt to stop a ball bowled by Bosanquet. Gunn's team-mate Arthur Shrewsbury
Arthur Shrewsbury
Arthur Shrewsbury was an English cricketer, and rugby football administrator, who organised the first British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888, and who was widely rated as competing with W. G...
then protested that Bosanquet's bowling was unfair. On another occasion, when asked if the googly was not illegal, Bosanquet is said to have replied, "Oh no, only immoral." For many years, the googly was known in Australia as a "Bosie". His Times obituary stated, "no man probably has in his time had so important and lasting an influence on the game of cricket".