Some old bowlers...

[Starfighter]

Now, those of you who follow my (irregular and often pointless) posting on here would know that I post a lot in the historic footage thread, and am a bit of an afficiando of pace bowlers from the newsreel era. Now, I once read someone (not very bright and perhaps not representative of the board's views) make a claim about about bowling that meant that batting was supposedly easier before, say, 1970 than nowadays, a claim which was rather at odds with what I was observing about that era's bowlers.

So I made this collage here. It's a collection of stock photos (some with watermarks) and crappy screenshots from old newsreels, but I feel it does convey a feature (depending strongly on definition of course) about pace bowling in that era that is treated as strange and exotic now but, from my observation, was perfectly normal then.

So, can anyone name all these bowlers (good luck with some of the screenshots) and what feature is it that links them?

 

[trundler]

Think I see Larwood in the 3rd row.

 

[vcs]

what feature is it that links them?

They're all bowlers

 

[trundler]

They're all bowlers

Look quite a bit more roundarm than contemporary bowlers.

 

[Bijed]

Is the third-to-last one giving the batsmen the v-sign as he bowls?

 

[kingkallis]

8. Alan Davidson

 

[Red]

So Starfighter is Watson?

 

[Engle]

#6 could be a young Fiery Freddie

What feature links them could be they're all bowling using the side on action

 

[fredfertang]

Those I can immediately recognise are all English or Australian, so I suspect what they have in common is the Ashes

 

[Flem274*]

all pre-1970 bowlers were starfish

 

[Gnske]

Slung arm behind the back?

 

[Athlai]

I just placed a protractor on my screen and I can confirm half these bastards are chucking

 

[Starfighter]

Slung arm behind the back?

(I thought you had me on ignore )

Yes. Now what this poster who I don't remember alleged was that it wold have been easier batting then than now because no-one ever had to face a bowler with a slinging action 'like Johnson'. As you can see that is actually completely opposite the truth, slinging actions were actually a lot more common then than now. Now this actually makes a lot of sense if you think about how bowling evolved. Guys like George Freeman and Frank Tarrant were perceived to be as fast anyone from, say the 1890's such as Tom Richardson, yet bowled with their arms only a little above the shoulder. Now, I'm not going to get into a debate about how fast people *actually* bowled then, but just think about the mechanics for a moment. If you merely bring your arm up from your side like most modern bowlers you can only have a very restricted swing that would make it very difficult to bowl fast. If you go behind your back, like Lasith Malinga, you solve this problem. Slinging is the natural way for a roundarmer to bowl fast, and this was carried into overarm bowling an extent, before gradually fading away (I don't know why, though I could speculate). WG Grace in his 1891 book speaks about the idea of not presenting a 'full front' to the batsmen but rather maintaining a side position, because 'the arm and hand are hidden till the last moment'. This can only describe a more slinging action, as side on non-slinging actions like Lillee and Holding don't conceal the ball. The principle seems to have applied to everyone and it's not hard to find spinners who bowl in much the same way, only much slower of course. Nobody really bothered to point out any particular bowler as having a 'slinging' action even though there are some there with their shoulders extended remarkably far beyond that of a modern bowler, yet these days it is considered an unusual and noteworthy trait.

 

[Starfighter]

8. Alan Davidson

That's the easy one.

#6 could be a young Fiery Freddie

What feature links them could be they're all bowling using the side on action

There's no Trueman, by my observation no. 6 (counting left-right, top-bottom) is a left armer. They are all bowling side on (and isn't it wonderful) but as explained above it's how​ they're bowling side on.

Those I can immediately recognise are all English or Australian, so I suspect what they have in common is the Ashes

Nope. There exists a possibility that quite a few of these you don't recognise aren't English or Australian. Particularly one nearer the right hand side.

 

[Burgey]

 

[Starfighter]

Is that a picture from your younger years Burgey?

 

[Burgey]

Is the third-to-last one giving the batsmen the v-sign as he bowls?

It's Bill Johnston uim.

 

[Starfighter]

Think I see Larwood in the 3rd row.

No.

It's Bill Johnston uim.

Yes.

 

[Burgey]

Is second row on the left Bill Voce?

Top row, second left Monty Noble?

Second row, far right Frank Tyson?

 

[Starfighter]

Yes, no and no. I did think about Tyson but I was divided on whether he was slingy enough. Noble's an interesting choice I must say.

Also four of these pictures were pinched from an older CW thread.