Frank Woolley emerged in the years 1910-1914 as the most beautiful left-handed batsman in cricket — Kent's all-round star, England's middle-order hope and, after the war, one of only nine men to score over 50,000 first-class runs.
Woolley joined Kent in 1906, the year of their first Championship win. He was 19. By 1910 he was the team's most consistent performer.
Kent won the Championship in 1909, 1910 and 1913 — three titles built around Blythe's bowling and Woolley's batting.
Woolley made his Kent debut in 1906 and his first Test in 1909. By 1910 he was Kent's leading batsman; in 1911 he scored over 2,000 first-class runs. Through 1912 — the wet Triangular summer in which most batsmen suffered — he scored a beautiful 133 against Australia at the Oval. In 1913 he hit 1,800 runs and took 121 wickets. By 1914 he was indisputably one of the leading three batsmen in England alongside Hobbs and Hayward. The war interrupted him; he served in the Royal Naval Air Service and saw active duty at Mudros in the Eastern Mediterranean. When he returned in 1919 he was 32 and went on to play until 1938, scoring 58,969 first-class runs (still second on the all-time list) and taking 2,066 wickets. The 1910-14 emergence is the often-overlooked first half of one of the longest first-class careers in cricket history.
1909: Test debut against Australia
1910, 1913: Kent Championship titles
1912: 133 against Australia at the Oval in the Triangular
1914: Pre-war career-best season cut short
1915-18: Serves with the Royal Naval Air Service
1906
Kent debut
1909
Test debut
1912
133 v Australia at the Oval
1914
Last pre-war season
1915-18
RNAS service
“There was all summer in a stroke by Woolley.”
Woolley returned in 1919 and played for another two decades. He died in 1978 at the age of 91.
The pre-war emergence of the most graceful left-hander English cricket has produced.
Woolley's pre-war emergence and post-war longevity together gave him a career that touched both the Edwardian and Bradman eras — a rare bridge in English cricket.
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.