Bosanquet’s ‘conjuring trick’ turned out to be match winner

A.C. De Silva

CRICKET: Today, Sri Lanka’s champion spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is regarded as the champion spin bowler. He is on top of the world with 770 wickets from 127 Test matches.

However, in the good old days before the game of cricket came alive in these parts of the world, there was a champion spinner by the name of Bernard James Thindal Bosanquet - a descendant of a famous Huguenot family who first made his mark in 1896 first as a batsman and then developed into a top class all-rounder.

As a batsman he made 120 runs in the 1896 Eton-Harrow match at Lord’s. At Oxford, he developed as a fast-medium bowler. After developing into the University’s best all-rounder. However, he became famous as the wizard of spin and developed the great conjuring trick in the history of the game - the off-break spun with a leg-break action, generally known as the Googly and in Australia as the “Bobsie”.

It was this man who put “the twist” into cricket. Tall, powerfully-built Bosanquet `foxed’ many great batsmen of his day in some of the most sensational matches ever played. But the delivery that shook the world of cricket at the beginning of the century was originally intended as no more that a joke, a “party piece” to amuse his fellow players.

Bosanquet first revealed it during breaks in matches when he joined in games that suddenly came up in the club. It was named “Twisty-Grab” and it involved bouncing a tennis ball on a table so that it eluded the player grabbing at it from the opposite end.

To baffle batsmen

Playing in the pavilion, he devised his own special spinner - the “Wrong-un”. Later he developed it in the nets to try on unsuspecting batsmen. After delivering a few ordinary leg breaks he would slip in his googly and baffle the batsmen completely to set his friends roaring with laughter.

Bosanquet left Oxford in 1900 and played as an amateur for Middlesex, scoring two centuries in one match. But his special spinner remained a big joke when he took his first wicket with it at Lord’s. The ball bounced four times on the way to the stumps. All the time, however, Bosanquet was practising his spinners and gaining more and more accuracy.

He was still experimenting with his “secret weapon” in 1902 when he selected to join Lord Hawke’s team on a tour of Australasia. At the last moment Lord Hawke was prevented from making the trip because his mother’s illness and the leadership was taken over by P.F. “Plum” Warner. Under his leadership, the tourists were destined to play 18 matches in New Zealand and won them all.

‘Googly’ - a major weapon

Here, the word “Googly” was first applied in print to Bisanquet’s weird off-break. People laughed at first - but Charles Bannerman, Australia’s great batsman, took it very seriously. After umpiring some matches in New Zealand he declared that the Googly would one day be a major weapon in Test cricket.

His prophetic words soon won support. But first came an ugly incident in the match against Canterbury at Lancaster park. Bosanquet had only one success in the first innings when Arthur Sims (later Sir Arthur) gently played the first two balls, leg-breaks, the third, seemingly delivered with the same action, whipped back the other way and took his leg stump.

Canterbury made 224 in reply to the tourists’ 352 and Warner declared his side’s second innings closed at 159 for seven. Then came trouble in New Zealanders’ second innings when W. Pearce took tremendous swing at a Bosanquet spinner. The square-leg umpire ducked automatically and the mighty sweep missed its target.

The bails were off and Pearce began to walk to the pavilion But Sims told him to come back and wait for the umpire’s decision.

Bosanqut and wicket-keeper A.D. Whatman made a loud appeal. But Bannerman, umpiring from the bowler’s end, refused to make a decision because the batsman’s body had obstructed his view of the ball. And the square-leg umpire, so busy ducking, didn’t see what happened either.

Players argued, but Pearce stayed in. Bosanquet called Sims a “cheat”; then, as Sims squared up for the next over, Whatman called him a “bloody cheat” and made derisive remarks while the New Zealander was playing his shots.

Bosanquet had the last word. He bowled the unfortunate Sims for the second time in the match and Canterbury were finally all out for 154 - beaten by 133 runs. For days argument raged over this incident and Sims was so disgusted with the tourists’ behaviour that he refused to play in the two Tests against them.

It was the beginning of the “Googly era”. After apologising for the incident, Bosanquet moved on to Australia and took a wicket in the very first delivery in that country. It was a Googly and it clean bowled the great Victor Tramper.

Bosanquet ended that drawn match against New South Wales with figures of 8 for 96. He also scored 54 and 114.

Back home, the Old Etonian batsman became a recognised slow bowler. He helped Middlesex win the county championship and earned selection for the tour of Australia (1903-4). Still, he was regarded by many as a freak bowler and his selection was strongly criticised.

Gamble paid

The gamble paid off in the fourth Test at Sydney when England were leading the series 2-1. During the second innings the Aussies had to make 329 runs to win on an excellent batting wicket. They only mustered 171.

This was “Bosie’s Match”, as he cunningly deceived one experienced batsman after another. The Aussies were thrown into confusion by his bowling. If they played back they were bowled or declared lbw, if they stepped forward they were stumped. Three men chose to jump out at him and, apologising profusely, stumper “Dick” Lilley whipped off the bails. Two Aussies hit out hopefully and were caught; one stayed his ground and was leg before.

At one stage Bosanquet had five wickets for 12 and he finished with 6 for 51 in 15 overs. England were beaten by 157 runs. And the “Ashes” were won.

No one laughed at Bosanquet now! In 1904 he was recognised as the best all-rounder in the land with 130 wickets and 1,400 runs. He scored 145 runs and took 8 for 157 for the Gentlemen against the players. Some people asked if his googly might not be illegal. “No”, he replied, “Only immoral”.

Sensational performance

Bosabquet’s last sensational performance came in the First Test against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1905. In the second innings, he took five wickets in just over half an hour and finally claimed 8 for 107. England won by 213 runs. Yet he didn’t bowl in the Second Test and took only one wicket in the Third.

It was the end of his Test career. In all he had played in only seven Tests and yet he had greater impact on the game than the vast majority of Test players.

B.J.T. Bosanquet did not invent the googly. There had been such experiments before. But he first mastered its theory and practice and within a few years it became fashionable for every Test team to include a bowler of this type. Others learned to produce it more accurately; others used it with greater success.

But to Bosanquet, who died in 1936 on the eve of his 59th birthday, goes the honour of having established it in the face of ridicule to leave a permanent memorial to his name.