In the fifth Test at Sydney in February 1933, Harold Larwood broke two bones in his left foot bowling Bodyline at top pace — and Douglas Jardine kept him on the field, refusing to let him leave until Don Bradman was dismissed. Hobbling, Larwood went out to bat at No. 4 and made 98. He never played another Test. The Bodyline tour's spearhead was effectively retired by the captain who had unleashed him.
England batted first and made 454. Larwood, sent in at No. 4 in the lower order partly to give him a rest, instead made the most of the chance. He was 98 not out at one stage; the SCG, despite itself, was on its feet.
Larwood had taken 33 wickets at 19.51 in the four Tests up to Sydney, the most by any bowler in the series. At the SCG he bowled with the same hostility but in increasing pain; the foot, fractured during a long spell, swelled inside his boot. Jardine, who had stationed Larwood at gully when not bowling, refused to let him leave the field while Bradman was at the crease. 'Down at fine leg, then,' was the closest he came to compromise. Bradman eventually fell to Verity for 71; only then was Larwood permitted to limp off.
When England batted Larwood promoted himself, partly out of pride and partly out of sheer Yorkshire-style stubbornness, and made 98 from No. 4. Australian fast bowler 'Bull' Alexander hit him repeatedly; the partisan SCG crowd, who had booed Larwood for two months, found themselves unable to do anything but applaud as he edged past 50, past 70, past 90. He was eventually dismissed by Ironmonger two short of a Test century. Wisden later called it 'as gallant a 98 as has ever been made in a Test match.'
The foot did not heal cleanly. Larwood missed most of the 1933 English summer and bowled a handful of overs in 1934, by which time the MCC's informal pledges meant Bodyline was effectively banned. He was offered a place on the 1934 Test side conditional on a public apology for Bodyline; he refused. 'I would not say I was sorry for something I had done on the orders of my captain,' he wrote later. He never played another Test.
Larwood bowls at full pace through pain; foot fractures mid-spell.
Jardine refuses to allow him to leave field while Bradman bats.
Larwood limps to fine leg until Bradman is bowled by Verity.
Sent in at No. 4, Larwood makes 98 against Alexander and Ironmonger.
Two short of a Test century when dismissed.
SCG crowd applauds him to and from the pavilion.
Foot injury ends his Australian tour and effectively his Test career.
23 Feb 1933
Sydney Test begins; England bat first.
23 Feb p.m.
Larwood at No. 4 makes 98.
25 Feb
Larwood bowls through fractured foot; Jardine refuses to take him off.
Mar 1933
Larwood sails home injured; series ends 4-1.
1934
Larwood refuses to apologise; Test career over at 28.
“I would not say I was sorry for something I had done on the orders of my captain.”
“As gallant a 98 as has ever been made in a Test match.”
Larwood returned to England, missed most of 1933, and tried to come back in 1934. Selectors offered a Test place if he would publicly disown Bodyline. He refused. Without him England's bowling lacked teeth against Bradman; the Australians took the 1934 Ashes 2-1.
Larwood later emigrated to Australia in 1950, settling in Sydney — the city whose crowd had booed him most harshly — and spent his last decades as a much-loved figure in the country he had once been sent to humble. Bradman wrote the foreword to one of his late memoirs; the two had become, against all expectation, friends.
A captain so ruthless he kept his injured spearhead on the field, a bowler so loyal he obeyed — and a 98 with a broken foot that became the most quoted innings of Larwood's career. He was 28 and never bowled for England again.
Larwood's last Test sits in cricket folklore alongside Trumper at the Oval, Hobbs at Melbourne and Botham at Headingley as one of the great 'last' performances. His 78 Test wickets at 28.35 are a small body of work; his 33 at 19.51 in 1932-33 will probably never be matched as a series effort by an English fast bowler in Australia. He died in Sydney in 1995, aged 90, having outlived almost every player who had been on the field at Adelaide.
England
1932-08-12
In August 1932 the MCC selectors confirmed Douglas Jardine as England's captain for the 1932-33 tour of Australia, a decision contested at the highest levels of English cricket and one that — combined with Plum Warner's appointment as tour manager — would set the conditions for the Bodyline series.
England
1934-03-21
On 21 March 1934 Douglas Jardine wrote to The Cricketer that he had 'neither the desire nor the intention' of playing in the upcoming home Ashes series. The announcement, taken as a quiet resignation, removed the architect of Bodyline from the field before Australia returned to England — a precondition Australia's Board had implicitly demanded.
England / Gloucestershire
1937-11-15
In November 1937 Wally Hammond — the leading professional batsman of his era — was accepted by MCC as an amateur, opening the door to the England captaincy he received six months later for the 1938 Ashes. The change crystallised inter-war debates about the amateur-professional divide and the unwritten rule that England's captain be amateur.