England
1917-11-08
Colin Blythe, the slow left-arm spinner who had taken 100 Test wickets for England and been the heart of Kent's championship sides, was killed by a German shell while laying railway track behind the lines near Ypres on 8 November 1917. He was 38.
England, South Africa
1907-07-30
On a rain-affected pitch at Headingley, the Kent left-arm spinner Colin Blythe took 8 for 59 and 7 for 40 — match figures of 15 for 99 — to bowl England to a 53-run win over South Africa in the second Test of 1907. It was Blythe's only Test five-wicket haul in a Test won by England, and the high point of his Test career.
Australia, England
1902-09-01
Jack Saunders, the left-arm spin bowler from Victoria, took 123 first-class wickets at 16.95 on the 1902 tour of England — bowling alongside Hugh Trumble in the side that won the Ashes 2-1. Saunders bowled the last ball of Fred Tate's Test at Old Trafford and was Australia's leading wicket-taker on the tour after Trumble.
South Africa v England
1889-03-25
On 25-26 March 1889 at Newlands, Lancashire's Johnny Briggs took 7 for 17 and 8 for 11 against South Africa — match figures of 15 for 28, of which 14 were bowled and one lbw. It set a new Test record for match wickets that lasted until SF Barnes in 1913, and remains one of the most economical 15-wicket hauls in any form of cricket.
Yorkshire / England
1888-08-31
Bobby Peel of Yorkshire was the second great left-arm spinner of his county after Edmund Peate, and quickly the better of the two. He made his first-class debut in 1882, became Yorkshire's first-choice slow left-armer when Peate was sacked for drunkenness in 1887, took 100 wickets a season for the next decade and was named one of the first six Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1889. By 1888 he was already England's frontline spinner, sharing 27-wicket days with Lohmann at Lord's against Australia.
Lancashire / England
1888-08-31
Johnny Briggs of Lancashire was the most engaging all-round cricketer of the 1880s — a popular fielder, a left-arm slow bowler who could turn the ball sharply, and a hard-hitting middle-order batsman with one Test century to his name (121 at Melbourne in 1885). He became the first bowler in Test cricket to take 100 wickets, in February 1895, and finished his career with 118 wickets at 17.75. He suffered an epileptic seizure during the Headingley Test of 1899, returned to play one further season, and died in Cheadle Royal Asylum in January 1902 aged 39.