On a cloudy Edgbaston morning in June 1924, the new Sussex pair of Arthur Gilligan and Maurice Tate skittled South Africa for 30 — the lowest Test innings total ever made by a side that had won the toss. Tate took 4 for 12 and Gilligan 6 for 7, and the partnership with the new ball that would carry England through the mid-1920s was christened.
South Africa had been rebuilt around Taylor and the all-rounder Aubrey Faulkner; the touring party arrived under-prepared after a wet Atlantic crossing and immediately ran into a Sussex new-ball pair already in mid-season form. Gilligan was the captain; Tate, formerly an off-spinner, had reinvented himself.
Herbie Taylor's South Africans had toured England with reasonable expectations after their competitive 1922-23 series at home. They won the toss at Edgbaston on a green-tinged early-summer pitch and chose to bat. Within 75 minutes they were all out for 30 — Gilligan's outswing and Tate's late-swinging fast-medium proved utterly unplayable. Gilligan finished with 6 for 7 in 6.3 overs; Tate took 4 for 12 in 6.
England replied with 438, Sutcliffe 64, Hobbs 76 and Hendren 74; their only century-maker was Frank Woolley with 134 not out at number five. South Africa fought back in their second innings, Bob Catterall making 120 and Jock Cameron 51, but the deficit was too great. England won by an innings and 18 runs.
Tate's emergence as a Test bowler was the more important narrative of the summer. He had moved from gentle off-spin to brisk fast-medium in 1922 on the advice of his Sussex captain Gilligan; by 1924 he was the most accurate swing bowler in England. The series gave him 27 wickets in five Tests at 15.7. Across the next four years he would be the principal English Test bowler, finishing the 1924-25 Ashes with 38 wickets.
South Africa win toss, choose to bat at Edgbaston
Gilligan and Tate share all 10 wickets; SA all out 30 in 75 minutes
England reply with 438; Woolley 134*
Second innings: Catterall 120 for SA, but England win by an innings and 18
Tate finishes summer with 27 wickets at 15.7
14 Jun 1924
South Africa bowled out for 30 at Edgbaston
16 Jun 1924
England complete innings win
Aug 1924
Series ends 3-0 to England; Tate 27 wickets
“I cannot recall the ball moving more in my time at the wicket than it did from Tate at Edgbaston.”
England won the series 3-0 with two drawn. Tate's reputation was made and he was the first name in the squad for the 1924-25 Ashes. Gilligan injured a chest muscle later in the summer and was never the same bowler — he captained the 1924-25 Ashes side but did not bowl as he had at Edgbaston.
Edgbaston 1924 produced the lowest first-innings Test total of the post-war era and the formal arrival of Maurice Tate as a Test bowler — events that recalibrated English Test cricket from a batting-only enterprise back into one with a serious new-ball threat.
South Africa's 30 all out remained their lowest Test total until 1949 (and was the lowest at Edgbaston until Australia's 36 a few weeks later). Tate's 1923-1928 Test career — 38 wickets in the 1924-25 Ashes alone — established the template of the English fast-medium swing bowler that runs through to Botham, Pringle, Hoggard and Anderson.
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.