Frank Foster, the left-arm fast-medium bowler and middle-order batter from Birmingham, made his Warwickshire first-class debut in 1908. By the close of 1909 he was establishing himself as one of the most promising young all-rounders in England — the foundation for the career that would, two years later, deliver Warwickshire its first county championship and, on the 1911-12 Ashes tour, the new-ball partnership with S.F. Barnes that won the Ashes.
Warwickshire had only been a first-class county since 1894 and was a perennial underachiever in the 1900s. The county's investment in young local talent — Foster, Charlesworth, Quaife, Kinneir — would pay off with the 1911 championship.
Foster was the son of a Birmingham printer and turned 19 the year of his county debut. His action — a high left arm with a deceptive change of pace — was unusual enough that Wisden noted it in its first profile of him after the 1908 season. He played a handful of matches that summer with modest results, but in 1909 he advanced rapidly: as Warwickshire continued to build the side that would shock the championship two years later, Foster's all-round value to the team was already being remarked in the cricket press.
1908: Foster makes Warwickshire first-class debut at age 19
1909: Advances to a regular place in the Warwickshire side
1911: Captains Warwickshire to the county championship and earns Test selection
1911-12: Ashes tour with S.F. Barnes; 32 wickets at 21
1908
First-class debut for Warwickshire
1909
Establishes himself as a regular all-rounder
1911
Captains Warwickshire to county championship
1911-12
Ashes tour with S.F. Barnes
An apprenticeship season for the all-rounder who would, three years later, share the new ball with S.F. Barnes in Australia and win Warwickshire its first championship.
Foster's later career — the 1911 county championship, the 1911-12 Ashes win, then enlistment in 1914 and a 1915 motorcycle accident that ended his cricket — has overshadowed his apprentice years, but the Warwickshire seasons of 1908 and 1909 are where the platform was built.
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.