On 13 June 1864 a 21-year-old slow-medium bowler from Burton Joyce in Nottinghamshire made his first-class debut at Trent Bridge against Kent. Alfred Shaw — later 'the Emperor of Bowlers', the man who would bowl the first ball in Test cricket — had spent two seasons as a club professional at Grantham and had taken seven Notts wickets for the Colts in 1863. The 1864-66 emergence at Trent Bridge began a career that, more than any other, established the slow-medium length-and-line bowling that defined the next century of cricket.
The legalisation of overarm bowling in June 1864 — only days before Shaw's debut — opened the field to a new style of bowling, but Shaw's gift was that he never needed it. His low-armed slow-medium, perfected on the rough Notts pitches of the 1860s, would have been legal under any law. Trent Bridge in 1864 was already the most important professional ground in England.
Shaw's professional engagement at Grantham in 1862-63 sharpened his bowling. The Notts Colts seven-for in 1863 brought him into the county side. The legalisation of overarm in June 1864, six days before his debut, had no immediate effect on him: he kept his low arm and his quiet pace.
Shaw was born at Burton Joyce, a few miles upriver from Trent Bridge, on 29 August 1842. After working as a stockman he became professional to the Grantham club in 1862, succeeding his older brother Arthur. The breakthrough came on 4 June 1863 when, playing for the Notts Colts against the County Eleven, he took seven wickets for a small return as the county were dismissed for 41. The Notts committee signed him at once. His first-class debut against Kent at Trent Bridge on 13 June 1864 was modest in the figures, but on his Lord's debut for the Colts of England against MCC later that summer he took seven for 24 and six for 39, announcing himself nationally. By 1865 he was a fixture in the Notts side and was selected at age 22 for the Gentlemen v Players match at the Oval; in the corresponding 1866 match he made 70 with the bat. Shaw's bowling style was unusual: slow-medium, with a low arm action that survived the legalisation of overarm in 1864, almost no spin but immaculate length and a subtle change of pace. Contemporaries said he could pitch six successive balls on a sixpence. Across his career he took 2,026 first-class wickets at 12.13 — figures that even Sydney Barnes would not match. He became the most influential bowler of the 1870s, captained Notts in the Players' strike of 1881, bowled the first ball in Test cricket to Charles Bannerman in March 1877, and continued to play first-class cricket into his fifties.
1862: Shaw becomes professional at Grantham, succeeding his brother Arthur
4 Jun 1863: Notts Colts v County — seven wickets, county all out 41
13 Jun 1864: First-class debut for Notts v Kent at Trent Bridge
Jul 1864: Lord's debut for Colts of England v MCC — 7 for 24 and 6 for 39
1865: Established Notts regular; selected for Gentlemen v Players
Jul 1866: Scores 70 with the bat for Players v Gentlemen at the Oval
Late 1860s: Shaw the leading slow-medium bowler in England
15 Mar 1877: Bowls first ball in Test cricket to Charles Bannerman
29 Aug 1842
Born at Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire
1862
Becomes professional at Grantham
Jun 1863
Seven wickets for Notts Colts v County
13 Jun 1864
First-class debut
Jul 1865
Selected for Gentlemen v Players at age 22
15 Mar 1877
Bowls first ball in Test cricket
“Shaw could pitch six successive balls on a sixpence.”
“His record was made by length and head, not by pace or spin.”
Shaw's career flourished through the 1870s. He took more than 100 first-class wickets in eight successive seasons from 1872 and was the leading wicket-taker in eight different summers. He was central to the Notts strike of 1881, captained the rebel professional sides on tours of Australia and North America, and finished with 2,026 first-class wickets at 12.13.
The first great length-and-line bowler — a slow-medium who proved that accuracy could outperform pace and who set the model for English seam bowling for the next century.
Shaw's record is statistically the strongest of any nineteenth-century English bowler. The 'Emperor of Bowlers' nickname, used in his own lifetime, has stuck. The slow-medium length-and-line bowling he perfected is the direct ancestor of the English seam tradition that runs through Hirst, Tate, Bedser, Statham and beyond. His 1864 debut at Trent Bridge is the historical zero point of that tradition.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.