English leg spinners?

[Truekiwijoker]

I was chatting with a workmate today, who bought up the subject of Ashley Giles, Eddie Hemmings and the overall mediocrity of England's international spinners over the years.

Of all the spinners we thought of, Shaun Udal, Robert Croft, etc..., every single one wa a finger spinner. We couldn't name a single wrist spinner whose played for either England or the MCC in its entire history!

Can anyone out there name a single English Leg spinner or Chinaman spinner?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Doug Wright (108 Test wickets)
Eric Hollies (Ended Bradman's career)
John Wardle (mixed SLA and SLC)
Ian Salisbury (not too great)
Chris Schofield (worse still)
Me (even worse)

 

[Chubb]

My mum's old employer, the chain-smoking Robin Hobbs. Last leggie to take 1000 1st class wickets, as he rarely forgets to tell anyone. Didn't actually do too badly in tests, better than Salisbury and Schofield by quite some way, and I know that Mike Brearly mentions him in The Art Of Captaincy as being a bowler who could have done far more if he had been treated better by his captain at Essex, who wanted him to bowl like a SLA and be economical. He was probably the worst captain in Glamorgan's history, too.

He is also well known for hitting one of the fastest centuries in history against Australia in a tour match at Chelmsford.

 

[Langeveldt]

I went to Lords for coaching with Terry Jenner and its pretty obvious the talent is there, most of our good leggies are of asian descent, bar Mark Lawson..

I dont see what the fuss is about, there is no point in looking for a leggie that might be okay, thats not good enough, may as well concentrate on the country's fast bowling strengths.. I think when Warne goes people will stop searching so much..

 

[BoyBrumby]

I went to Lords for coaching with Terry Jenner and its pretty obvious the talent is there, most of our good leggies are of asian descent, bar Mark Lawson..

I dont see what the fuss is about, there is no point in looking for a leggie that might be okay, thats not good enough, may as well concentrate on the country's fast bowling strengths.. I think when Warne goes people will stop searching so much..

I think it's inevitable that when a genuine great comes along other teams try to find their own version of him. We tried to find our Warne for many years (seems incredible now to think Schofield was actually one of the first dozen central contracts) & Oz are now doing it to an extent in their search for a Freddie-clone. Watson & now Symonds are being given runs in their test team on the strength of their bowling when there are (IMHO) better batters in Oz.

WRT English leg-spinners, didn't Lord Ted bowl a few in his day too? I know some thought Athers has a bit of potential as a part-time leggie before his back went too.

 

[Chubb]

Atherton actually has 108 first-class wickets. In his autobiography he says that after his debut one of the Australians said he liked the look of his bowling but not his batting. Nasser was a very, very good schoolboy legspinner too, though he says he didn't really understand why he was so good at it, and he lost it when he started getting taller.

 

[Autobahn]

What's annoying is that someone who had the talent (Schofield) was an arrogant **** who never worked on his accuracy or even his game and expected stuff just to happen while someone who worked so hard at their game for years (Salisbury) just didn't posses the raw talent.

It's a right funny old game.

 

[a massive zebra]

Bob Barber
Bernard Bosanquet
Len Braund
Freddie Brown
Douglas Carr
Robert Cuttell
Percy Fender
Tich Freeman
Tommy Greenhough
John Hartley
Ernie Hayes
Young Jack Hearne
Robin Hobbs
Eric Hollies
Roly Jenkins
Father Marriott
Walter Mead
Tommy Mitchell
Jack O'Connor
Cecil Parkin
Ian Peebles
Walter Robins
Ian Salisbury
Chris Schofield
Jim Sims
Peter Smith
Greville Stevens
Bill Storer
Charlie Townsend
Len Wilkinson
Doug Wright

 

[honestbharani]

Chris Schofield > Brooke Walker.

 

[marc71178]

WRT English leg-spinners, didn't Lord Ted bowl a few in his day too? I know some thought Athers has a bit of potential as a part-time leggie before his back went too.

I believe it was a genuine leg-spinning all-rounder rather than just a part-timer.

 

[Tom Halsey]

My mum's old employer, the chain-smoking Robin Hobbs. Last leggie to take 1000 1st class wickets, as he rarely forgets to tell anyone. Didn't actually do too badly in tests, better than Salisbury and Schofield by quite some way, and I know that Mike Brearly mentions him in The Art Of Captaincy as being a bowler who could have done far more if he had been treated better by his captain at Essex, who wanted him to bowl like a SLA and be economical. He was probably the worst captain in Glamorgan's history, too.
He is also well known for hitting one of the fastest centuries in history against Australia in a tour match at Chelmsford.

So, he went to Glamorgan and it didn't work out. (And while undoubtedly bad, I don't think he was the worst ever).

He was still a very, very good bowler.

 

[Chubb]

So, he went to Glamorgan and it didn't work out. (And while undoubtedly bad, I don't think he was the worst ever).

He was still a very, very good bowler.

You're right. Excuse the hyperbole. He was far too far past his best to succeed really. It was an odd choice from Glam and from him to accept.

Thinking of another Essex leggie, Peter Smith was serious class, and a good down-the-order batsman too.

I was just about to edit in to say Smith once scored 168* from no. 11

 

[Neil Pickup]

You're right. Excuse the hyperbole. He was far too far past his best to succeed really. It was an odd choice from Glam and from him to accept.

Thinking of another Essex leggie, Peter Smith was serious class, and a good down-the-order batsman too.

An icon to number elevens everywhere.

 

[Langeveldt]

What's annoying is that someone who had the talent (Schofield) was an arrogant **** who never worked on his accuracy or even his game and expected stuff just to happen while someone who worked so hard at their game for years (Salisbury) just didn't posses the raw talent.

It's a right funny old game.

Yeah thats true, can't believe that rubbish schofield had with lancs cricket club.. He was dire, so why shouldn't they have gotten rid of him?

 

[open365]

Has anyone metioend Simon Marshal yet?

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Has anyone metioend Simon Marshal yet?

I think a few more may have heard of him had Lancashire not signed Kartik at the end of last season, should get a few more games this year. Funnily enough I was speaking to one of the coaches who saw him at an early age the other day, said he was a class above anyone else as soon as you saw him. Apparently he's the best player to come through the West Cheshire area schemes of late, and this coach was telling me that you can tell instantly whether someone will be a FC player or not... it's just in you.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Generally it's pretty easy to tell the "not"s. I'd dispute the former assertion - when someone's a kid, you can tell if they've got the *potential* to play FC - but there is so much more to it, i.e. growing up, first.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Generally it's pretty easy to tell the "not"s. I'd dispute the former assertion - when someone's a kid, you can tell if they've got the *potential* to play FC - but there is so much more to it, i.e. growing up, first.

I mean more the natural ability - those who 'are' mostly fall apart, only a few make it. But no matter how much I for one tried, I wouldn't make it

 

[Langeveldt]

I mean more the natural ability - those who 'are' mostly fall apart, only a few make it. But no matter how much I for one tried, I wouldn't make it

I've been told by some former FC players that I had the potential to play FC, I never believed what any of them said, and sure as anything, I fell apart spectacularly when I was 17..

And guys like Chris Martin who were playing 2nd XI school cricket and went on to play tests, I doubt there is a hard and fast feeling you get (although there are obviously those that smash everyone whos many years older than themselves that obviously get fast tracked)

 

[Neil Pickup]

I reckon you can also pick the mental edge at a very young age as well.