Fred Spofforth's nickname 'The Demon' was coined on the afternoon of 27 May 1878. After clean-bowling W.G. Grace for 4 at Lord's, Spofforth — according to teammate Tom Horan — leapt two feet in the air at the wicket and in the dressing-room afterwards repeated the phrase 'Ain't I a demon?' A Vanity Fair cartoon by 'Spy' fixed the name in print within months.
Cricket nicknames in the 19th century were usually descriptive ('Lumpy', 'Silver Billy') or family ('W.G.'). 'The Demon' was the first to be coined as a deliberate stage-name and to spread on the back of a single performance.
Spofforth had been bowled out for a duck himself and was already in a fierce mood. When MCC followed on with Grace at the crease, he opened the second innings to him.
Spofforth was 24 and on his first tour of England. He was tall, lean, and bowled with a long stride and a high arm. Before the Lord's match he had been merely the Australians' fastest bowler. After bowling Grace — the most famous batsman in the world — first ball, he became the man with a nickname. Tom Horan, his teammate and later cricket writer, recorded the dressing-room scene exactly. Within weeks the name had spread in the English press; in the autumn, the satirical magazine Vanity Fair commissioned a 'Spy' (Leslie Ward) caricature captioned 'The Demon Bowler'. The image — Spofforth in his famous follow-through, glaring under heavy brows — became one of cricket's most reproduced cartoons. There is also a sober explanation: Spofforth's bowling action was unusually intimidating, with long arms whirling from a great height and a stride that crashed down at the crease. Either way, no other bowler of the 19th century carried so striking a name.
Spofforth clean-bowls Grace for 4
Leaps two feet in the air at the wicket — Horan's account
In the dressing room: 'Ain't I a demon? Ain't I a demon?'
Press picks up the phrase within days
Vanity Fair 'Spy' cartoon captioned 'The Demon Bowler' that autumn
Afternoon, 27 May 1878
Spofforth bowls Grace at Lord's; coins his own nickname
Late May 1878
Phrase reported in English press
Autumn 1878
Vanity Fair 'Spy' cartoon: 'The Demon Bowler'
Lifetime
Spofforth signs himself 'The Demon' in correspondence
“He jumped about two feet in the air, and in the dressing-room he said 'Ain't I a demon? Ain't I a demon?' gesticulating the while in his well-known demoniac style.”
Spofforth used the nickname himself in correspondence; he signed letters 'The Demon' for the rest of his life. The phrase entered cricket vocabulary as a generic term — 'a demon bowler' came to mean any unusually quick or hostile fast bowler.
The first cricket nickname known by date and origin. 'The Demon' came from a single dressing-room moment on 27 May 1878.
Sporting nicknames are often un-datable. 'The Demon' is precisely dated to the afternoon of 27 May 1878 and is the first cricket nickname known to have been coined by its bearer. The Vanity Fair cartoon hangs in the MCG museum and the Lord's pavilion.
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.