Through 1922 and 1923, on the advice of his Sussex captain Arthur Gilligan, the 28-year-old off-spinner Maurice Tate switched to fast-medium swing bowling. The change produced 219 wickets in 1923, his Test debut against South Africa at Edgbaston in 1924, and the bowling career that became the model for the English fast-medium swing tradition.
Tate's father, Fred Tate, had played one Test for England in 1902 and was famously held responsible for the loss of the Ashes that year (a missed catch and a duck). The son's Test career — and his transformation in 1922-23 — was widely understood as a redemption of the family name.
Maurice Tate had been a steady county off-spinner for Sussex since 1912, taking 50-80 wickets a season with no Test prospects. In 1922 his county captain Arthur Gilligan, watching him in the nets, suggested that his strong action and natural late swing would suit fast-medium bowling. Tate experimented through the second half of the 1922 county season, took 118 wickets, and began the 1923 season committed to the new style.
The 1923 season produced 219 wickets at 13.97 — the highest seasonal aggregate by an English bowler since Tom Richardson in the 1890s. Tate's late inswing, his ability to bowl long spells, and his accuracy made him the first true fast-medium swing bowler in English cricket. He was selected for England's home Test against South Africa at Edgbaston in June 1924, where with Gilligan he bowled the visitors out for 30 — Tate 4 for 12, Gilligan 6 for 7.
Tate played 39 Tests between 1924 and 1935, taking 155 wickets at 26.16, including 38 in the 1924-25 Ashes alone (a record at the time). His career haul was 2,784 first-class wickets at 18.16. The fast-medium swing style he pioneered became the model for Bedser, Trueman, Statham, Snow, Botham, Hoggard and Anderson — the entire post-1945 English bowling lineage.
1922: Gilligan suggests the change to fast-medium
1922 second half: Tate experiments; takes 118 wickets
1923 season: 219 wickets at 13.97 — highest English aggregate since Richardson
Jun 1924: Test debut at Edgbaston; SA bowled out for 30
1924-25 Ashes: 38 wickets in 5 Tests
1922
Tate begins switch to fast-medium
1923
219 wickets at 13.97 in county season
1924
Test debut; SA bowled out for 30 at Edgbaston
1924-25
38 wickets in Australian Ashes
“Maurice was an off-spinner who had a fast-medium bowler hidden inside him. I just told him to let the other man out.”
Tate became England's senior bowler from 1924 to 1930. His 38 wickets in the 1924-25 Ashes was the most by any bowler in an Ashes series until Jim Laker in 1956. He played his last Test in 1935 and finished with 155 Test wickets.
Tate's 1923 transformation from off-spinner to fast-medium bowler was the founding act of the English fast-medium swing tradition and the moment when Sussex's quiet professional became the leading bowler in his country.
Tate's fast-medium swing technique is the founding influence on every English fast-medium bowler since. The phrase 'Tate-style' is still used in English coaching to describe the wrist-cocked late-swing delivery that he made a national speciality.
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.