South Africa's first major tour of England, in 1907, featured four wrist-spin bowlers — Reggie Schwarz, Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White — all bowling the googly that Schwarz had learned from Bernard Bosanquet. Faulkner's 6 for 17 in 11 overs at Headingley reduced England to 76, and the tour established the googly as a global Test weapon.
The South African tour was one of the country's first since the Anglo-Boer War. Sherwell, the wicketkeeper-captain, was widely respected. The team had toured Australia in 1902-03 (briefly) but was effectively unknown in England. The selection of four wrist-spinners reflected the influence of the matting wickets at home, where wrist-spin had developed differently from England's slow left-armers.
Schwarz had studied at Cambridge, where he played rugby for England, and had then joined Middlesex where he overlapped with Bosanquet. He brought the technique south, but in matting conditions it became more virulent: Vogler in particular bowled it at near-medium pace.
England were strong on paper — Jackson had retired but Tom Hayward, Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst were available, with Reggie Foster captain in his only home series in charge. South Africa were unfancied. The Lord's Test, drawn after a wet first day, gave the first hint that the visiting bowlers were not ordinary club leg-spinners.
South Africa had played Tests at home since 1888-89 but had never sent a team to England considered first-class until 1907. Captained by Percy Sherwell, the side included an extraordinary quartet of wrist-spinners. Reggie Schwarz, born in London but living in Johannesburg, had played for Middlesex with Bernard Bosanquet and learned the googly directly from him. He brought it back to South Africa, where Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White all picked it up.
The three-Test series was played at Lord's, Headingley and The Oval. England won the second Test at Headingley despite being reduced to 76 in the first innings — Faulkner taking 6 for 17 in 11 overs after lunch, including a spell of 6 for 8 in 41 balls. The third Test at The Oval was drawn. The series was won 1-0 by England, but the impact of the South African bowling was the talking point of the summer.
Schwarz topped the tour bowling averages with 137 wickets at 11.79; Vogler took 119 at 14.69; Faulkner 64 at 15.82; White 47 at 22. Schwarz and Vogler were both named Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1908. Their bowling was the first sustained demonstration of the googly's possibilities in Test conditions and changed the tactical assumptions of every spin attack thereafter.
Lord's Test: drawn; Schwarz takes 6 wickets in the match.
Headingley Test, Day 1: England 76 all out, Faulkner 6/17.
Faulkner's spell: 6 for 8 in 41 balls.
England recover to win at Headingley by 53 runs (Hirst 5/30, Blythe 8/59).
The Oval Test drawn; series won 1-0 by England.
Schwarz tops tour averages: 137 wickets at 11.79.
Vogler and Schwarz named Wisden Cricketers of the Year 1908.
May 1907
South Africa tour of England begins.
1-3 July 1907
1st Test, Lord's — drawn.
29-31 July 1907
2nd Test, Headingley — England win by 53; Faulkner 6/17.
19-21 Aug 1907
3rd Test, The Oval — drawn.
End of tour
Schwarz 137 wickets at 11.79 — top of averages.
1908
Schwarz and Vogler named Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
1909
Imperial Cricket Conference founded with SA as a member.
“The South Africans' bowling left an indelible mark on English cricket.”
“Their googly bowling was a revelation.”
The South African board, encouraged by the tour, pushed at MCC for membership of an Imperial body. Two years later, in 1909, the Imperial Cricket Conference was founded with England, Australia and South Africa as members.
The four bowlers themselves had varying fates. Schwarz served in the First World War and died of influenza in 1918, days after armistice. Vogler's career fizzled after personal troubles. White was killed in action at Cambrai in 1918. Only Faulkner had a long post-war career, becoming a teacher in London and dying tragically by suicide in 1930.
A tour of historic importance: South Africa announced themselves as a serious Test nation, and the googly — Bosanquet's invention four years earlier — became overnight a recognised cricketing weapon. The 1907 visit set up South Africa's place in the 1909 Imperial Cricket Conference and the 1912 Triangular Tournament.
The 1907 tour reframed wrist-spin in international cricket. Within a generation, every Test side had a googly bowler; by the 1920s the wrong'un was a basic part of bowling vocabulary. The Faulkner spell at Headingley — 6 for 8 in 41 balls — remained for many years the great example of what googly bowling could do in a Test innings.
Wisden's editor Sydney Pardon wrote in the 1908 almanack that the South Africans 'left an indelible mark on English cricket', a verdict that has held up.
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.