South Africa's 1907 tour of England was their fourth visit but the first to include Test matches. England won the three-Test series 1-0 (with two draws), but the South African googly quartet — Reggie Schwarz, Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White — astonished English cricket. Across the whole tour South Africa won 21 of 31 matches.
South Africa had played seven Tests, all at home, between 1889 and 1906. They had won one (Johannesburg 1906) and lost six. The 1907 trip was funded principally by Bailey, the South African mining magnate, who had also financed the 1905-06 England tour to South Africa.
English cricket in 1907 was at full strength: Jessop, Tyldesley, Hayward, Fry, Hirst, Rhodes, Blythe and the aged-but-still-effective Trumble were available. Conditions in a wet summer favoured medium-pace; the matting-conditioned South Africans had to adapt fast.
South Africa's pre-Test results included victories against Sussex, Worcestershire, Hampshire and a strong London County, signalling the tourists' competitiveness. Wisden made it clear before the Tests that this was no warm-up exercise.
South African cricket had been admitted to Test status in 1888-89, but the early years were one-sided contests in South Africa with weak English touring sides. The 1907 tour, by contrast, was a fully-credentialled Test series in England, marking South Africa's arrival as a competitive third nation.
The touring party was led by Percy Sherwell and built around the most innovative bowling attack the world had then seen. Reggie Schwarz had learnt the googly from Bosanquet while playing for Middlesex; he had then taught it to compatriots Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White on returning to South Africa. The four men — each capable of bowling the googly with different action and pace — gave the team an unprecedented variety on the matting wickets at home and now, in 1907, on English turf.
The first Test at Lord's (1-3 July) was drawn — South Africa, set 129 to win, finished on 24 for 6 in steady rain. The second at Headingley (29-31 July) saw England win by 53 runs after Vogler took 7 for 128 in the match and Colin Blythe's 15 wickets — including 8 for 59 in the first innings — settled it for the home side. The third Test at The Oval (19-21 August) was again drawn, England 130 for 6 with five minutes left.
The tour figures were remarkable: of 31 first-class matches, South Africa won 21, lost 4 and drew 6. Vogler took 119 wickets at 18.66, Schwarz 137 at 11.79, Faulkner 64 at 16.83. The Test series scoreline (1-0) flattered England.
1-3 July 1907: 1st Test, Lord's — drawn; SA 24/6 chasing 129 in rain.
29-31 July 1907: 2nd Test, Headingley — England win by 53 runs; Blythe 15-99 in match.
19-21 August 1907: 3rd Test, Oval — drawn; England 130/6 chasing 138.
Schwarz, Vogler, Faulkner, White: 320+ tour wickets between them.
Tour record: P31 W21 L4 D6.
May 1907
South Africa arrive in England.
1-3 July 1907
1st Test, Lord's — drawn.
29-31 July 1907
2nd Test, Headingley — England win by 53.
19-21 August 1907
3rd Test, Oval — drawn.
Sept 1907
Bailey proposes triangular tournament; MCC counters with conference.
15 June 1909
Imperial Cricket Conference founded at Lord's.
“It was the bowling that made the South Africans formidable.”
Bailey wrote to MCC at the end of the tour proposing a triangular tournament between England, Australia and South Africa. The MCC rejected the immediate proposal but agreed to a conference at Lord's, which became the founding meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference (now ICC) on 15 June 1909.
Back in South Africa, the googly attack continued to develop. Their next series — at home v England in 1909-10 — would be South Africa's first home series win.
A landmark tour. South Africa proved themselves a Test-class side and introduced English cricket to a wholly new model of spin bowling. The 1907 series was the seed of South Africa's golden 1909-13 era and a direct prompt for Abe Bailey's Imperial Cricket Conference proposal in 1909.
1907 is the founding tour of South African Test cricket as a fully recognised arm of the Imperial game. Headingley's role as the venue of the only result Test prefigured the ground's subsequent place in South African cricket history (Pollock 1965, etc.).
The googly attack itself, copied from Bosanquet, would in turn be copied by Australians and English in the 1910s and 1920s; Schwarz, Faulkner et al. were the conduit through which the new delivery became globalised.
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.