GREAT FAST BOWLER

Evening Star, Issue 21544, 17 October 1933, Page 4

GREAT FAST BOWLER

SPLENDID TEST RECORD It is doubtful whether Harold Larwood, the great fast bowler of Nottinghamshire and hero of England’s mighty success in Australia last winter, will over bowl fast again (says an English writer). This is the price that Larwood has had to pay for all the wonderful things he did for England—his left foot is battered and broken from the pounding and hammering it received on the cement-liko Australian wickets. The injured foot, which brought him homo before his colleagues, is no bettor to-day than it was when the accident happened. Nor does it seem that it will ever fully recover. Larwood has been to surgeons and specialists. They tell him that two small bones are broken, but tho great tragedy is that the joint of the big toe is gone. “ They tell me,” said Larwood, “ that time and rest may put things right. When I asked outright ‘ What chance is there of complete recovery ?’ I could get no answer. It has been suggested that the two small bones should be taken away, but no one knows what tho result would be, and the joint cannot be replaced with a new one. ” All I wanted was a chance to bowl in England as I did in Australia,” he said. ‘‘ Then my own people could have passed judgment on my methods. I am afraid, however, that something like a miracle will have to happen if I am to do that.” There is only one satisfactory thing to toll. Larwood may never again bowl fast, but ho will bowl again for Nottinghamshire, and perhaps for England. He can spin the ball. Ho can make it turn both ways, and it may well bo that he will prove a dangerous medium-paced bowler-. And it must not be forgotten that he is a brilliant bat. Larwood’s success in Australia last winter is strikingly emphasised by bis test match analysis. Ho bowled 220 overs in test matches —forty-nine move than his companion fast bowler, G. O. Allen—and his thirty-three wickets cost less than 20 runs each. His batting was also very useful. In seven innings he had an average of 24 runs, bis birrhest score being 98 in the first England innings of the fifth test. Of bis thirty-three test victims seventeen were clean bowled. Ho twice bit Bradman’s wicket, and twice the Australian superbatsman was caught oil bis bowling. Larwood, who has appeared in fifteen tests altogether, first played for England in the Lord’s and Oval matches of 1926, when the ashes were regained. Ho accompanied A. P. F. Chapman’s team to Australia in 1928, and nlaycd for England again in three tests in 1930.