SF Barnes

[The Sean]

Sorry - my attempt at a joke - I meant minus as in it's so low as to actually register as a negative.

I need to be the one apologising actually - complete misread on my part!

[The Sean]

What I've discerned most from all this is that lots of different people thought lots of different people the fastest and second-fastest.

Only two constants seem to be there - just about everyone seems to place Kortright and Larwood as very fast indeed.

True on both counts. While it's always useful to take eye-witness accounts into consideration, even the men who faced these bowlers often provide inconsistent assessments. Hobbs and Sutcliffe, for example, didn't agree on which of Gregory or MacDonald was faster during the early 1920s. Neither man, it seems, was as quick as Tibby Cotter before WWI - though it's hard to tell from contemporary accounts whether Cotter or Jones was the fastest Australian bowler up to that point.

That Kortright was faster than just about anyone seems near-univerally acknowledged, and he could clearly bowl as well - he wasn't just fast and nothing else. Which in itself begs the question - even with competition of the immortal stature of Richardson and Lockwood, how did the man not get given a single Test?

[Goughy]

Whilst obviously a posed photograph and whilst he was not as quick as Kortright, I find this photo interesting.

His grip is clearly of a fast off-spin/cutter.

If that is the grip used in games then I dont think the pace could be comparable of those quicks from after the 'golden-age'

[SJS]

Okay, here is a treat. Action pictures of Richardson. He is slightly older and a bit rotund I am afraid. :-)

Tom Richardson - Delivery Stride



Tom Richardson - Follow Through

[SJS]

Someone mentioned Cotter. Here is another treat. Action pictures of one of the bowlers mentioned in every short list of the fastest bowlers.

Albert (Tibby) Cotter - Action 1



Albert (Tibby) Cotter - Action 2



Albert (Tibby) Cotter - Action 3



Albert (Tibby) Cotter - Action 4

When I first saw these pictures, my day was made. I hope you enjoy them too.

[The Sean]

Someone mentioned Cotter. Here is another treat. Action pictures of one of the bowlers mentioned in every short list of the fastest bowlers.

When I first saw these pictures, my day was made. I hope you enjoy them too.

Fantastic SJS, thanks for this. I'd only ever seen the second pic before and always thought there was more than a hint of Thommo to his action. The others are new to me and wonderful to see.

[The Sean]

Whilst obviously a posed photograph and whilst he was not as quick as Kortright, I find this photo interesting.

His grip is clearly of a fast off-spin/cutter.

If that is the grip used in games then I dont think the pace could be comparable of those quicks from after the 'golden-age'

Honest Tom was renowned for his mastery of what was called the "break-back" from off to leg, and the grip in that shot tends to validate this. As you say though, it's so pronounced as to preclude genuine express paced bowling if that's the case.

And yet all accounts of his bowling, particularly during his prime, tend to talk of his great speed. While contemporary writings could be written off by the fact that no one else bowled any faster, he was still being put forward as a model of both skill and pace for years after his retirement - you would think if his pace had been noticeably down on those that followed then this would have been noted.

Perhaps judgements of Richardson are clouded a little by nostalgia - he certainly does remain one of the most romantic of all fast bowlers. Cardus likened his bowling to "a great wave of the sea about to break" and chose him as one of the Six Giants of Wisden's first 100 years. Bill Lockwood, when comparing himself to Richardson, once said "I wasn't in the same street" and the stories of his marathon spells and quotes such as, when asked about the increase in the number of balls in an over from five to six, he replied "Give me ten!" have surely only enhanced his mystique to the point of making it exceedingly difficult to separate the fact from the fiction. Perhaps, though, that's just all part of the appeal.

[Uppercut]

Wow- Albert Cotter reminds me of Shaun Tait, of all people. This picture's particularly scary:



Could get some serious power from that position.

[Goughy]

The Cotter photos are fascinating.

It is an action that is built for pace that only a rare athlete could manage.

Im just leaving work, Ill try and write more later as I think they are great pics.

[SJS]

Kortright himself thought the long forgotten Arthur "Timber" Woodcock of Leicestershire to be the fastest ever but as a Gentleman, and doubtless a modest one, I don't suppose we can read too much into that.

What might be more illuminating is that Plum Warner, who thought Kortright the fastest, considered the South African Kotze the second fastest - Kortright's biographer follows that one up with confirmation that Halliwell, the South African 'keeper, was known on occasions to stand up to Kotze and take leg side stumpings!

JJ Kotze coming up next

[zaremba]

Thanks for the photos guys - magnificent.

Where are the photos of Cotter taken by the way? It look like the same place where the photos taken of Barnes were taken.

[fredfertang]

The nursery at Lords

[JBH001]

Great pics, SJS.

Especially love the Cotter pics. I would be trembling in my boots if I were a batsman and saw that unfurling at the other end.

[Goughy]

Ive written and coach a lot about aspect of fast bowling that are comparable to bending a ruler back as far a possible and then letting it go.

Ive seldom (if ever) seen a bowler that has the amount of flex and elasticity that Cotter displays in the photos.

The 'ruler' is being bent back to almost breaking point and possesses a great deal of explosion.

[Goughy]

On Cotter