Reginald Herbert Spooner made his Test debut for England v Australia at Old Trafford on 24 July 1905, having been one of the most-talked-about batsmen of the unbeaten Lancashire side of 1903-04. A stylist in the Trumper mould, he played 10 Tests, made 247 v Notts in 1903 (a Lancashire record), and shared a 368-run opening stand with Archie MacLaren the same year.
The Lancashire side of 1903-05 was almost a mirror image of Yorkshire's contemporary champions. Where Yorkshire had Hirst, Rhodes and Haigh, Lancashire had MacLaren, Tyldesley and Spooner; where Yorkshire's strength was bowling, Lancashire's was batting. The 45-match unbeaten run of 1903-05 was a record at the time.
By July 1905 the selectors could no longer ignore Spooner's domestic record — six centuries in 1904 and a strong start to 1905. His call-up for Old Trafford was widely welcomed in the Manchester press.
Spooner was born at Litherland, Lancashire in October 1880 and educated at Marlborough College, where he was a brilliant schoolboy cricketer. He played his first first-class match for Lancashire in 1899 aged 18, but then disappeared to military service with the Manchester Regiment in the Second Boer War, returning to first-class cricket only in 1903.
The return was sensational. In July 1903 he made 247 v Nottinghamshire at Aigburth, Liverpool — at that time the highest individual score made against Nottinghamshire in any first-class match. In the same season he and Archie MacLaren added 368 for the first wicket against Gloucestershire, a Lancashire opening-stand record that still stands. Between August 1903 and July 1905 Lancashire played 45 successive County Championship matches without defeat, with Spooner, MacLaren and Johnny Tyldesley as the batting backbone.
Wisden made him Cricketer of the Year in 1905 — the same summer England's selectors at last picked him for the fourth Test against Joe Darling's Australians at Old Trafford. He scored 0 and 4 on debut, was retained for the fifth Test at The Oval, and made his maiden Test fifty in subsequent series. In 10 Tests between 1905 and 1912 he made 481 runs at 32.06 with one century — 119 v South Africa at Lord's in the 1912 Triangular Tournament.
First-class career: 13,681 runs at 36.28 with 31 hundreds. Wisden's later assessment: 'one of the most stylish batsmen of the Golden Age.'
1899: Lancashire debut aged 18.
1900-1902: Boer War service interrupts career.
1903: 247 v Notts, 368 opening stand with MacLaren.
1903-05: Lancashire 45 matches unbeaten.
24-26 July 1905: Test debut, Old Trafford — 0 and 4.
1912: 119 v South Africa at Lord's, his only Test century.
21 October 1880
Spooner born in Litherland, Lancashire.
1899
First-class debut for Lancashire.
1900-1902
Military service, Boer War.
July 1903
247 v Nottinghamshire; 368 opening stand with MacLaren.
24 July 1905
Test debut at Old Trafford v Australia.
1905
Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
1912
119 v South Africa at Lord's — only Test century.
1921
Declines England captaincy.
2 October 1961
Dies in Lincolnshire, aged 80.
“The loveliest batsman of his time.”
Spooner was offered the England captaincy for the 1921 Ashes but declined on health grounds; A. C. MacLaren and Lionel Tennyson led instead. He served in the Manchester Regiment in both World Wars, reaching the rank of Major. He died in Lincolnshire in October 1961, aged 80.
Spooner's classical, off-side-strong technique made him a connoisseur's favourite; injury, military service and rugby commitments — he also won an England rugby cap — kept his Test record modest. He remains a touchstone for the so-called Golden Age of batting.
His name became a byword in inter-war cricket writing for orthodoxy and grace. Neville Cardus, who watched him at Old Trafford as a boy, wrote of Spooner as 'a beautiful spectacle' and 'the loveliest batsman of his time'. The Lancashire opening-record 368 with MacLaren still stands.
A gold-leaf framed portrait of Spooner hangs in Lancashire's Old Trafford Long Room.
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.