#wicketkeeper

8 incidents tagged

Don Tallon Behind the Stumps — Bradman's Best, 1948

Australia v England

1948-08-18

Donald Tallon, the silent Queenslander, kept wicket throughout the 1948 Invincibles tour of England with a precision Don Bradman called 'the finest I have seen'. His most celebrated moment came at The Oval in August 1948, when he dived left-handed down the leg side to glove a Hutton glance off Lindwall and end England's 52 all out — Wisden's 'great finish to Australia's splendid performance'. Tallon was named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1949.

#don-tallon#wicketkeeper#australia

⭐Mild

Tibby Smith — England's Inter-War Wicketkeeper

Warwickshire and England

1922-09-15

Ernest 'Tibby' or 'Tiger' Smith of Warwickshire kept wicket for England in 11 Tests between 1911 and 1914 and remained one of the most respected glove technicians in county cricket through the 1920s — keeping in 21 first-class seasons before becoming a coach to Don Bradman in his 1948 tour.

#tibby-smith#tiger-smith#warwickshire

⭐Mild

Billy Murdoch — From NSW Wicketkeeper to Australia's Captain, 1878

Australia in England

1878-05-01

Billy Murdoch, a 23-year-old NSW solicitor and wicketkeeper, sailed with the first Australian touring side to England in 1878 as the team's first-choice gloveman. By the end of the season he had ceded the gloves to Jack Blackham and turned his attention exclusively to batting — a switch that would lead him to the Australian captaincy in 1880 and to many of the great Test batting innings of the next decade.

#billy-murdoch#1878#australia

😂Serious

Ted Pooley in a Christchurch Jail — England's Wicketkeeper Misses the First Test, 1877

England in New Zealand

1877-02-13

Ted Pooley, the Surrey wicketkeeper and acknowledged best gloveman in England, missed the first Test in March 1877 because he was sitting in a Christchurch jail. He had been arrested after a betting dispute at the Carlton Hotel turned into an assault charge. By the time he was acquitted, the tour had sailed for Sydney and the first Test had been lost.

#ted-pooley#christchurch#1877

⭐Mild

Tom Lockyer — Surrey's Premier Wicketkeeper and the Greatest of the Roundarm Era

Surrey and All-England elevens

1859-07-01

Tom Lockyer of Croydon kept wicket for Surrey from 1849 to 1866 and was, in the unanimous opinion of his contemporaries, the greatest wicketkeeper of the roundarm era. He took 301 catches and made 123 stumpings in 223 first-class matches, was a member of every important touring side of his time — the 1859 North America tour, the 1861-62 and 1863-64 Australian tours — and bowled useful right-arm medium-fast roundarm in his later seasons.

#tom-lockyer#wicketkeeper#surrey

⭐Mild

Tom Box of Sussex — The Wicketkeeper of the Pre-Pad Era, 1840s

Sussex / All-England Eleven

1845-07-15

Tom Box of Sussex was the leading wicketkeeper in England through the 1840s — keeping wicket without the pads, gloves or specialised gear of later eras and standing up to the fast bowling of Mynn, Redgate and the young John Wisden. He played first-class cricket for 25 years and dropped only one stumping chance in his entire career, according to the Lillywhites' near-contemporary count.

#tom-box#sussex#wicketkeeper

⭐Mild

Edward 'Ned' Wenman — Kent's Wicketkeeper-Captain

Kent, England

1837-07-01

Edward 'Ned' Wenman of Benenden in Kent was the wicketkeeper around whom the great Kent side of the late 1830s and 1840s was built. With Pilch and Mynn ahead of him in the order he was a useful lower-order batsman; behind the stumps he was reckoned the best wicketkeeper in England, taking Mynn's fast roundarm bowling without complaint and effecting more stumpings than any contemporary.

#ned-wenman#edward-wenman#kent

😂Mild

Squire Osbaldeston's Fast Underarm — Wicketkeepers Stuff Their Shirts With Straw, 1810s

MCC and various private elevens

1816-07-01

Through the 1810s the Yorkshire squire George Osbaldeston was bowling underarm so fast that wicketkeepers reportedly stuffed straw down their shirts as makeshift body padding before facing him. There were no protective gloves, no helmets, no chest guards in 1815 cricket; the underarm ball, skidding low off Lord's pitches at speeds estimated to be the equivalent of a modern medium-pacer, could break ribs and crack collarbones. Osbaldeston's bowling produced more bruised wicketkeepers than any other in his era and gave Regency cricket one of its most enduring slapstick images.

#george-osbaldeston#fast-underarm#wicketkeeper