Harry Boyle of Bendigo was the medium-pacer who shared the new ball with Fred Spofforth on Australia's first six tours of England. At Lord's on 27 May 1878 he took 3/14 and 6/3 against MCC; he played 12 Tests, took 32 wickets, and was Spofforth's accuracy-and-cunning foil for a decade.
Boyle was born in Sydney in December 1847 and moved to Bendigo as a teenager. He played for Victoria from the early 1870s, often in the same XI as Midwinter and Allan.
On the 1878 tour Boyle was the steady partner to Spofforth's hostile fast-medium. The opening day at Lord's saw the pair bowl unchanged through both MCC innings.
Boyle was 30 in May 1878, a Bendigo native who had emerged in Victorian intercolonial cricket in the early 1870s. He was a slow-medium right-armer with a famously accurate length, who positioned himself short and square at silly mid-on for his own bowling — the position that became known to a later generation as 'Boyle's mid-on' and is the ancestor of the modern silly point. At Lord's on 27 May 1878 he took 3/14 and 6/3, the latter analysis among the great match-deciding spells of the decade. He toured England in 1878, 1880, 1882, 1884, 1888 and managed the 1890 side. Across 12 Tests he took 32 wickets at 20.03. His finest hour was at the Oval in August 1882, when he caught Peate at silly mid-on off Spofforth to win the famous 'Ashes' Test for Australia by 7 runs.
3/14 and 6/3 against MCC, 27 May 1878
Toured England 1878, 1880, 1882, 1884, 1888
12 Tests, 32 wickets at 20.03
Caught Peate at silly mid-on for the Ashes Test win at Oval, 1882
Managed 1890 Australian touring side
Dec 1847
Born in Sydney
1870s
Plays for Victoria with Midwinter and Allan
27 May 1878
3/14 and 6/3 vs MCC at Lord's
Aug 1882
Catches Peate to win Oval Test by 7 runs
Nov 1907
Dies at Bendigo
“Boyle, more than anyone else except Spofforth and Blackham, made the fame of the first Australian eleven in England.”
Boyle retired from international cricket after the 1888 tour and managed the 1890 side. He was a successful Bendigo businessman, a leading figure in country Victorian cricket, and died in Bendigo on 21 November 1907.
The most reliable accuracy bowler in the early Australian sides — and the player who took the catch that won the Ashes Test of 1882.
Boyle is one of the great accuracy bowlers of the 19th century and Spofforth's most successful partner. The fielding position he invented — 'Boyle's mid-on' — survives in the modern silly point.
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.