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Wilfred Rhodes – Part 2 – with Patrick Ferriday
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Part 2 of our discussion on the life and career of cricket colossus Wilfred Rhodes (1877–1973). This episode dissects his transition from bowler to batsman (and then back to bowler), his domestic life, his famous return to the Test side for the final match of the 1926 Ashes series, and his retirement years.
ABOUT PATRICK FERRIDAY:
Born in London, he lived for many years in West Berlin but returned to England to work as a racing commentator in the early nineties. Since 2011 he’s written four books and published a number of others, via his own publishing group – Von Krumm Publishing. He now lives in Brighton where, in 2021, he wrote and published the long-awaited biography – Wilfred Rhodes: The Triumphal Arch.
CREDITS:
Presenter & Producer: Tom Ford
All music used in the podcast comes from the University of California Santa Barbara’s remarkable collection of wax cylinder’s from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which are free to download and use. You can donate to the upkeep of these recordings via their website.
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Transcript
Introduction to Patrick Faraday
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to part two of the podcast on Wilfred Rhodes with his biographer Patrick Faraday. My name is Tom Ford. Be sure to listen to part one focusing on Wilfred's early life in Yorkshire, his bowling technique and relationship with the cricket hierarchy.
1902 Test Match: Myth or Reality?
00:00:27
Speaker
One of the most famous episodes involving Wilfred was the Test match against Australia in 1902 at the Oval, a match which is known today as Jessup's match because of Gilbert Jessup's blistering century in 76 holes in the final innings. With one wicket remaining and 15 runs to win, England batsman George Hurst and Wilfred Rhodes successfully chased down the target.
00:00:53
Speaker
Hurst has long been credited with saying to Rhodes, we'll get him in singles, Wilfred. Once and for all, Patrick, did this exchange actually happen? Once and for all, it didn't. Whatever I say, it'll carry on being said that that's what was
00:01:14
Speaker
I've got it from George Herr said it was never said. In fact, I'm opening the page on the book. Wilfred, I think, said,
00:01:24
Speaker
Well, of course you didn't say that it would have been daft because if you can hit the ball for four, then you go into. Makes sense. Also, the little thing is they didn't get them in singles. The scoring record will show that they didn't get them in singles. There was a four in their partnership and a couple of twos. I think Wilfred said it was some press man's invention.
00:01:50
Speaker
Um, and I did, I did find a poem from the period. Cause I, I'm, I'm now looking at the book and I'm going to quote from it. So I, I've, I've, I put the question, where did this myth originate? You'll see, I'm already calling it a myth. Um, there was a written, a poem written at the time, which says 15 to win as road strode to the wicket said George Hearst, come do as their bid. Let's get him in singles safe cricket and get them. They certainly did.
00:02:20
Speaker
Well, yeah. Okay. I mean, that may be where it comes from. It didn't happen.
00:02:32
Speaker
But I'm going to quote something else because this is one of my favorites in the whole book, really. It was a chap called AC Denham asked the pair of them about what had happened on that famous day.
00:02:54
Speaker
AC Denham reports that, well, I'll quote him, I asked George if he was nervous at the Oval. Nervous? No, I can't say that I was nervous. But now you come to mention it. I remember I was a bit afraid, lest the occasion might be too big for Wilfred. And then Denham posed the same question to Wilfred.
00:03:15
Speaker
Wilfry replied, nervous. No, I wasn't nervous. Not exactly what you might call nervous. But I must say, I did feel anxious, lest George get out. Yeah, it's a complete myth. And I've no doubt that that myth will will continue forever more. But but it is a myth and it and it's not true.
00:03:37
Speaker
It's probably why cricket reporting today doesn't take the form of poetry. Yeah. For good reason. Yeah.
Wilfred Rhodes: Bowler to Batsman
00:03:46
Speaker
What's remarkable, I mean there are many remarkable things about Wilfred's career, but possibly the most remarkable thing is that at some point he transitioned from an internationally successful spin bowler into a record-breaking test opening batsman.
00:04:05
Speaker
How does a regular number 11, such as Wilfred, suddenly emerge as a successful opening batsman? He was always pretty good with a bat. Even in his first season, he would get 20s and 30s batting at 11. As you probably know, on his first tour of Australia, he was still batting at 11. But he and Ari Foster
00:04:32
Speaker
set the record 10th wicket partnership for England. I think Wilfred got 40 or 50 not out supporting Foster. He was pretty handy with a bat. He really enjoyed batting. And when he said that himself, he kind of preferred batting to bowling. I think by 1905, 1906, he was he was up to sort of number six in the Yorkshire order, but he was still their premier bowler.
00:05:01
Speaker
But within a couple of years, because of various retirements and so forth, Yorkshire didn't have an opening batsman, but they still did have a good bowling attack. And Wilfred basically put himself forward and said, I can be an opening bat and I can still bowl if you need me.
00:05:21
Speaker
and he went to the top of the order for Yorkshire, became their own batsman. He wasn't Stanley Jackson or Fry or he was a
00:05:33
Speaker
He could score fast runs when he needed to, but he was very, very effective. I don't think he was one of the prettiest batsmen ever to play the game. But he was very, very effective. And he was so effective that England came calling. They didn't have a partner for Jack Hobbs. And as soon as Rhodes started opening the batting for England, which I think the first time he did it was on a tour of South Africa in
00:06:01
Speaker
1909, 1089, around that anyway. And he was put together with Jack Hobbs and they put on 202 successive matches, I think it was. And also what the two of them had was a remarkable understanding of running between the wickets.
00:06:23
Speaker
a real complete trust in one another's judgment. And it drove the certainly in that series drove these South Africans absolutely mad. And yeah, drove them to distraction this kind of running without calling, just quick singles left, right and center, which were based on the
00:06:47
Speaker
pair of them being obviously quick between the wickets, but complete trust of one another.
The Rhodes-Hobbs Partnership
00:06:53
Speaker
If one went, the other went. No questions asked. And once that partnership had been established, well,
00:07:02
Speaker
Apart from Wilfred being very successful himself, anybody who was going to support Jack Hobbs and was going to be Jack Hobbs' favoured partner, you would be very inclined to do what Jack Hobbs wanted because he was so much, at that stage, the best batsman in the world. I think Victor Trump was slightly in decline by then, so Hobbs was certainly the best batsman in the world. And Rhodes was the perfect foil for him.
00:07:32
Speaker
I think going back to what I was referring to earlier about his career, about his financial security, I think he saw that it was more likely that even if he lost his spinning finger or his ability to spin or whatever, then he could make a decent living as a batsman.
00:07:55
Speaker
Plus, he did like being on the field. He did like being involved in everything. I think possibly being an opening batsman taught him stuff about what other bowlers do. And he would have learnt from that. I just think Wilfred learnt from everything.
00:08:13
Speaker
absolutely everything. But he did enjoy it as well. But certainly he was doing to some degree what the county needed. He became that batsman because the county needed an opening bat. And then you could go on to after the First World War when the county had good batting and their bowling was weak and he went back to his bowling.
00:08:38
Speaker
Now, you mentioned Jack Hobbs in that answer. History largely associates Jack Hobbs with his great partner Herbert Sutcliffe. But prior to the First World War, as you just touched on, I think for about six seasons, his test opening partner was Wilfred Rhodes. And I think you make the point very
00:09:02
Speaker
excellent point in your book that statistically the Rhodes partnership was just as good if not better than the Sutcliffe partnership. Why do you think history has largely forgotten this? Well I think the whole Sutcliffe partnership has
00:09:22
Speaker
does have more redolence in the sense that it was more equal. I think you could certainly say that ridiculously enough that Hobbes, well, Hobbes said it himself, so it's not ridiculous. He wasn't the batsman after the First World War that he was before the First World War. Having said that, he did score about 45,000 runs after the First World War.
00:09:46
Speaker
and was opening England's batting for 10 years. So God knows what he was like before the First World War, but he was a much more attacking batsman before the First War. He wasn't Trump, but he wasn't far off. And after the First War, he became more sedate, let's say. And he and Sutcliffe really were almost equals, I would say, during the 20s. The greatest innings, I think,
00:10:15
Speaker
of the of the 20s were came from Sutcliffe rather than Hobbes. Hobbes was probably the better bat world was the better batsman, but Sutcliffe was brilliant in his own way. Hobbes Rhodes would never have claimed to any brilliance. So I think he was, he was the supporter, he was the foil for Hobbes. But he could get centuries and big centuries too. As he did in that South African series I mentioned, then
00:10:45
Speaker
later the Australian series of 1911-12 where Hobson Rhodes broke the record for the first Wiki partnership, then in the triangular series in England in 1912. I don't know. Yeah, Hobson, Sutcliffe, they are just names that go together somehow as the
00:11:09
Speaker
the greatest opening partnership maybe that England have ever had. Sutcliffe did average, what, 55 in tests or something like that. I mean, he was a great batsman in his own right. And if you're talking about opening pairs, you like both of them to be good. And Wilfred was good, but he certainly wasn't in anything like the class of hops. And he knew it, and he said it.
00:11:36
Speaker
England, in crime shall be his name. In letters bold of bright and strong, all the nations' crown of fame.
00:11:57
Speaker
Patrick, there's a line in your book which is seemingly a throwaway line, but in all my years of reading cricket literature, it really made me sit up and think, and that is about cricketers of the Golden Age, and we're talking about Wilfred's first tour to Australia in 1903-04, didn't wear sunglasses. It's an innocuous statement, but it's actually quite profound.
00:12:24
Speaker
For a cricket such as Wilfred coming from an overcast part of England, it must have been quite a shock to the system to be spending hour after hour under the blistering Australian sun. Do you think this may have affected Wilfred's blindness?
Personal Life and Health Concerns
00:12:43
Speaker
We know he spent the last few decades of his life blind. Do you think this may have affected it?
00:12:49
Speaker
I think that's a theory that's been posited before. I'm not an expert on glaucoma, and it was untreated glaucoma that did cause his blindness.
00:13:02
Speaker
I wouldn't have thought so. There were lots of other cricketers went over to Australia. I mean, Wilfred did go four times. But I mean, if that's the case, then wouldn't that have applied to Australian players who played there all the time and didn't wear sunglasses? Or maybe they grew up
00:13:23
Speaker
more accustomed to it, so possibly it wouldn't have affected them as badly. I know Wilfred did talk about the glare and the heaviness of the air, which, going back to when we were talking about his bowling, he did change his bowling
00:13:41
Speaker
for the Australian series of 0304. He just said, I realized I needed to bowl a bit quicker. And he never really was able, he said he was never really able to get back to his English style after that Australian tour. He found that that somehow became implanted in him and he did bowl a bit quicker. And he thought that took away from his his skill as a spin bowler very slightly.
00:14:10
Speaker
I can't say in terms of his eye condition that that wasn't a factor. Personally, I think it's unlikely, but I'm not an eye doctor. Tell us about Wilfred's domestic life. In his various correspondence and interviews, does he mention his wife, Sarah, or give any insight into his world outside of cricket? No.
00:14:40
Speaker
It's the short answers of that. No, he was very, very private. Barely mentions his wife. I think she comes into it once or twice. They had one daughter, Margaret Garden's mother, who was a wonder, he absolutely doted on his daughter, and she was a profound inflow.
00:15:09
Speaker
She and her mother Wilfred's wife were profound influences on his career. But he didn't talk about them. He did consent to have his photograph taken with them a couple of times. I think on their wedding, their 25th wedding anniversary, there are a couple of photos together. And then on his 50th birthday, there is a family group. But by and large, no, no, he wasn't really interested in the press. He wasn't
00:15:39
Speaker
He recognized that interviews were necessary. And these were the days where he would come back from, I don't know, for example, I've got one where he comes back from a tour of Australia arrives home at three in the morning, having got the night train from London. And there's a couple of Yorkshire Post journalists knocking on his door at nine o'clock in the morning asking how things went. And
00:16:05
Speaker
And I think he was pretty polite. He was pretty polite as long as they knew their stuff. What he struggled with, I think, were people asking him about cricket who didn't really know about cricket. He could get a bit gruff and bad tempered with them.
00:16:21
Speaker
But yeah, his domestic life, I mean, his wife Sarah was a huge support to him. If you think about just the travails of an English cricket season where he was probably out on the road quite often from Monday to Saturday.
00:16:39
Speaker
come home on Saturday night, maybe dump a load of dirty washing, have a nice roast, have a decent kit, and then off again on Monday morning. And that would go on from end of April to middle of September. And then possibly, as was the case in many winters, then he'd be off again in mid November to Australia, South Africa, and then latterly, India.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, a really tough life for his wife. He would have to sort out, for example, finances that if he went on a tour to
00:17:18
Speaker
Australia or South Africa, he had to make sure that she had enough money for the winter because he wouldn't be paid till the end of the tour. That's interesting. So, you know, just just little things like that. I think once they got to the 1920s, I think her life was a lot easier. He was earning more money and her daughter was at home as well. So she wasn't so on her own.
00:17:45
Speaker
But in going back to your original question, he talked very, very little about it. I think he quite simply thought this is nobody's business but mine.
00:17:55
Speaker
While this podcast is of course concentrated on cricketers from the Golden Age, that is those prior to the First World War, Wilfred's career continued for 13 more seasons after the war ended. In short, how did Wilfred's cricket change after the war, and how significant were his contributions on the international stage?
Post-WWI Comeback
00:18:18
Speaker
Well, once cricket restart, I think we mentioned this earlier, there was a certainly a lack of a lack of talent in English cricket. I mean, they'd had a four year hiatus. Some cricketers didn't come back at all. A lot of cricketers were not the same as they had been before the first war. Any number of it, George Hearst, for example,
00:18:48
Speaker
was not the player in 1919 that he had been in 1914. Not surprisingly, he was he was older than Wilfred. And Wilfred basically, as I said earlier, he he went back to bowling because Yorkshire needed bowlers, not batsmen. And he picked up his spin bowling again and proceeded to think he took the averages, I think, in
00:19:15
Speaker
1920, 21, 22, 23, and 24. I think five years in a row he topped the English averages. So, you know, for a man who was now in his early 40s, he was the best spin bowler in the country by that measure, I think by any measure, actually.
00:19:33
Speaker
In terms of international, oh, incidentally, Yorkshire won four championships in a row, which had a lot to do with his bowling. In terms of international cricket, he went to Australia for the first tour after the first war, 1920-21. He didn't do well.
00:19:55
Speaker
They didn't really, I don't think Johnny Douglas, the captain, quite knew what to do with him. He wasn't an opening batsman anymore.
00:20:07
Speaker
He didn't spin the ball enough. He certainly lost some of his bowling ability. And I think what Rhodes said is basically, I could knock people over in English cricket. I had the conditions that suited me. But also, there were a lot of batsmen around. When he got to Australia, the conditions weren't right. And there were a lot of good batsmen around.
00:20:32
Speaker
And, um, the tour was a bit of a desire. Well, it was a disaster for the whole team. I mean, as you know, Australia completely thumped, um, England five nil. Um, and Wilfred didn't do particularly well, but nor did anybody else except I seem to remember Jack Hobbs did do pretty well, but nobody else did. Um,
00:20:51
Speaker
And then there was a, which feeds into what came later, there was an incident when they were coming back that the manager of the team was a man called Frederick Toon, who was also the big week in Yorkshire cricket. He said Wilfred's finished. He said this to another Yorkshire player, which was a
00:21:15
Speaker
little bit inappropriate and quite stupid. And it was reported back to Wilfred. And I think probably Wilfred would have thought, I'll show him. But in terms of international cricket, yeah, that was perceived to be the end. And he wasn't considered for selection. And as far as I remember, he pretty much said, I'm carrying on for Yorkshire now. Yorkshire's where I'm going to play cricket.
00:21:44
Speaker
Five day tests or test cricket is not for the likes of me. It's a young man's game, or a young man and Jack Hobson's game.
00:21:55
Speaker
He did come back to test cricket. You've referred to going on the West Indies tour, but he did come back another time for the last, you know this, but maybe some of your listeners don't. He came back for one test in the 1926 Ashes series. It was quite a big test because after four tests, the score was nil-nil. So this was the deciding test.
00:22:22
Speaker
It was going to be played to a finish because it was a deciding test. That was the MCC rules that if they were level pegging after four tests, they would play to a finish.
00:22:36
Speaker
England had tried a number of spinners over the summer, Roy Kilner, particularly. They summoned Wilfred. Wilfred was a selector. He was one of two professional players who'd been co-opted onto the selection committee, he and Jack Holz. And Wilfred went down to the selection meeting. Interestingly enough, it was during the general strike. So he had to drive down to London. He drove from his Yorkshire home, he stopped in Leicester, where his
00:23:06
Speaker
daughter lived and his wife was in Leicester as well. And they both spoke to him as he stopped overnight and said, you know, they are going to ask you to play. And Wilfred said, yeah, I've got a feeling they are. I mean, obviously, I'm I'm paraphrasing here, but I don't really want to because I'm worried I'll let everybody else down. I'm 46 now or something. My feelings not very good.
00:23:35
Speaker
But he got down to the selector meeting and of course they did ask him to play. He said, you know, you're still the best spinner in the country. And he acquiesced and agreed to play.
00:23:49
Speaker
And play did, play did. And England were lucky with the weather. Things worked out pretty well for them. And the crucial element, really, of the game, I suppose, was an amazing opening partnership of Hobson Sutcliffe, who we referred to earlier, putting on 200 on a wet wicket, which was quite a remarkable achievement. But Wilfred.
00:24:18
Speaker
did bowl. And didn't he just bowl? He got now I'm gonna have to go back to what his figures were. And I'm going to insist on reading it reading a quote. He took two for 35 of 25 overs in the first innings. And the two batsmen he got out were Woodfull and Richardson, which is not a bad pair. And then in the second innings, he took four for 44. And he got out Bartley, Ponsford, Collins and Richardson. So he got some decent players out
00:24:48
Speaker
Yeah. And England went on for this famous, I suppose any Ash's triumph is famous. But this one particularly was because it was the first one after the First World War. It had huge redolence over the country. I mean, I would, I would certainly say there was probably no test match that had ever been weighted with such anticipation throughout the country. It was in the, you know, coming in the summer of a general strike.
00:25:18
Speaker
It was an escapism and there was this feeling of England cricket is finally getting back on its feet and not being bashed around by the dirty Aussies and all this kind of business. And they did it and they did it and the hops and Sutcliffe particularly, but also Larrwood and the great Wilfred. I call him the great Wilfred, I can't help myself, sorry.
00:25:45
Speaker
But I will, there's just one quote I would like to read. And this was from, it's a quote from Harold Larwood. And he was interviewed by a wonderful journalist called Frank Keating. And Keating asked Larwood about this final test match. And this is what Larwood had to say.
00:26:13
Speaker
He just said, Rhodes was pure genius. I got wood full for a duck. And after a bit, Rhodes came on. Now, when he came on, this is me interjected, when he came on, Bill Ponsford was batting. Now, for anybody who doesn't know about Bill Ponsford, he's very much known as the obdurate run machine, less so than Bradman.
00:26:35
Speaker
But he was also, his most famous vicious shot was his square cut. So this is going back to Laward. That Ponsford was a vicious cutter of the ball, vicious. I was at point, but Rhodes keeps signaling me closer to the bat, still fetching me up till I'm almost standing on Ponsford's crease.
00:26:59
Speaker
Sure, I'm a bit scared. Rhodes comes up, just two paces from behind the umpire, but he stops dead and stares at me. I'd involuntarily taken a pace back from Ponsford's crease. He fetches me in again. First ball nips through and smacks into Strudwick's gloves. Second ball breaks back and Ponsford, surprised, pops it up and I jump across and catch it left-handed.
00:27:26
Speaker
Rhodes walks down the pitch to me and says softly, you can go back a bit now, Sonny, we got him. Brilliant. I mean, I just love the idea of how all are being told to stand a yard and a half from Ponsford's bat. And Wilfred knew exactly what he was doing. Yeah. And then you can go back now, Sonny, we got him. I love it.
00:27:51
Speaker
Great story. Um, gorgeous, gorgeous. Anyway, I digress. Yes. Then, um, the, he went to the West Indies in 1930. Um, a lot of, for the first, first break players were resting for the following ashes, following summer's ashes. So it was a bit of a kind of mix and match team.
00:28:13
Speaker
very much an MCC, where we can roll over the West Indies anyway, even with only a few first-teamers and then some old crocs. And, yeah, Wilfred, he took a fair few wickets. He got George Headley out, which isn't a bad
00:28:33
Speaker
a bad notch, and he bowled more than anybody else, even though he was 52 by this time. He bowled more over than anybody else on the tour. I think the bit I loved most about it, the West Indies were selecting a team
00:28:53
Speaker
to tour Australia the following Australian summer. And they asked for Wilfred's advice on all the players he'd seen, who they should take to Australia, which I think says something about what they thought about him, an educated cricketer in the world. And he played against all the West Indians on that tour. And they wanted to know what he thought.
00:29:27
Speaker
that he is an Englishman.
00:29:37
Speaker
Now Patrick, cricket history is a beautiful mix of storytelling and statistics or numbers so let's have a look at Wilfred's statistics through his career and of course I mean we've touched on them already but there's quite a few numbers to go through so as we've mentioned he started his test career in 1899 which was the first Ashes test at Nottingham which turned out to be no one knew at the time but turned out to be
00:30:05
Speaker
WG Grace's final test and there's a there's a beautiful team photo uh during that match with of course Grace front and center or in the middle and Young Wilford sitting at his feet um and he plays right through until 1930 he plays his final test against the West Indies in Kingston uh first class career ends with that match it began in 1898
00:30:32
Speaker
When we look at his batting, and this is where the numbers get really interesting. So we'll look at his batting numbers first. He played 58 tests, batted 98 times, scored 2,325 runs. His highest score was 179, which was part of that huge partnership with Jack Hobbs in Melbourne in 1912.
00:31:02
Speaker
has a batting average of 30.19, two centuries to his name, and 1150s. His first class batting record, so there's that famous number 1110 matches. You mentioned at the top of the podcast that
00:31:21
Speaker
He fronted up 1,534 times, which I think is a record. And he scored 39,969 runs. So just short of 40,000. Higher score of 267, not out. His batting average is remarkably similar in test and first class. So his first class batting average is 30.81. And he scored 58
00:31:50
Speaker
first class centuries, certainly nothing to sneeze at, and 197.50s. Obviously, with Wilfred, we have to talk about the bowling as well. And this is where the numbers are quite staggering. So 4,204 wickets. He bowled 185,742 deliveries.
00:32:13
Speaker
and gave away 70,322 runs. Best first class bowling figures, 9 for 24. That myself is remarkable. In test cricket, best bowling figures were 8 for 68 and for a match 15.
00:32:32
Speaker
For a hundred and twenty four in let's see in first class cricket he took five wickets two hundred and eighty seven times and they're just numbers we don't see today and ten wickets matches and sixty eight occasions.
00:32:52
Speaker
I've written down just some of the more remarkable feats so we've mentioned the big numbers of course but 23 times he took a hundred wickets in a first-class season which is a record 16 times
00:33:09
Speaker
You mentioned this earlier, he did the double, which is 100 wickets or more in a season and a thousand runs as a batsman in a single season. He did that 16 times. George Hurst is next with 14. These numbers are just so, I think to a modern listener, just incomprehensible. As much as these figures are now what we think are concrete, they're not
00:33:37
Speaker
always the same. Is that right Patrick? There's some conjecture relating to the number of first class matches and wickets that he took.
00:33:48
Speaker
I think those numbers you quoted are now set in stone, but that does lead me into, I always grew up, which makes me rather a sad child at the age of nine, being very well aware of Wilfrid Rose taking 4,187 wickets in first-class cricket.
00:34:11
Speaker
like lots of kids, this kind of number was imprinted on my brain, same as 365 is imprinted on my brain, you'll know if you grew up in the, you didn't, but I did, if you grew up in the 70s, 365 had a certain redolence.
00:34:28
Speaker
99 point whatever it was for Bradman, but Wilfries was 4,187 for the wickets. Now somewhere in the 1990s there were various discussions about a couple of games that he played in India. He went to India four times in various winters as
00:34:49
Speaker
a paid employee of the Maharaja of Patiala as a coach and player and a couple of games in India had been credited to his record but a couple hadn't and various luminaries of statistics looked into these games and in fact two of the games that hadn't been credited to him
00:35:10
Speaker
were actually first-class games and so 17 wickets were added to his already staggering totals. So he went up from 4,187 to 4,204 and
00:35:27
Speaker
I mean, I have to say, it just made me laugh because I just thought, good old Wilfred, he's taking with us even after he's died. I mean, that's good going. Absolutely. His best bowling figures, as I mentioned, 15 for 124 for the match and eight for 68 for an innings actually occurred in the same match as you would expect.
00:35:52
Speaker
the second test match of the 1903-04 tour at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. What can you tell us about this match? Oh, you're really leading me on here. I could tell you more than you want to know about that match, but thank you anyway for leading me into... I think if you...
00:36:16
Speaker
If you're interested in Wilfred, but you want a kind of very, very digested account of his career, very digested, that you can boil down to two matches. I think you could look at the first two tests of that tour, the 1903-04 tour, and I hope I'm getting them the right way round. The one you've referred to there where he got the, was it 15 wickets, I think you said. That was played on a very wet wicket.
00:36:46
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, obviously he got, you can tell by the figures, he skittled Australia twice, pretty much single-handedly, but it was a perfect wicket for him. Wilfred himself thought he didn't bowl particularly well, but actually he did point out, and it's been backed up by a number of other accounts. There were an astonishing amount of drop catchers in that game.
00:37:15
Speaker
I think somebody counted it as 12 easy catches were dropped, let alone difficult ones, of which eight were off his bowling. So goodness only knows what his figures would have been. I think Pelham Warner
00:37:31
Speaker
tried to figure out why everybody was dropping catches and he couldn't he talked about the tree line around the ground or maybe something so his figures would have been considerably better if everybody caught their catches but his yeah his figures were pretty good and he totally rolled over Australia twice under perfect conditions but if you go back to the match before
00:38:01
Speaker
which was played on a perfect wicket. The first test match of the series, which was also Wilfred's first test match in Australia, following all the dire predictions about how much he'd struggle. The second test match, the one I'd refer to there, where he got the 15 wickets, that was at Melbourne. The first test was at Sydney. Now, the Sydney test was played on an absolutely perfect wicket.
00:38:32
Speaker
Wilfred's figures in the second innings were five for 94 and an Australian total of 485. Now, Wilfred considered that to be his best bowling performance, probably of his whole career. He said it was the most, absolutely the most perfect pitch. The fact that Australia scored 485 and Wilfred got five for 94,
00:38:57
Speaker
is a fair indication. He bought 40 overs, 48 ball overs, they would have been. And then there's the famous story, which I think is actually true. I think I've put it from two or three sources that Victor Trump, who scored 185 on this on this wicket, Victor Trump actually just called out to the pitch. Can't you just give me a moment's peace, Wilfred? Sorry, I can't do the accent.
00:39:27
Speaker
Trump was just belting every other bowl around the ground. And he just couldn't belt Wilfred. And Wilfred felt all the time that he could get Trump around. He didn't in the end. But he kept him quiet and he got five for 94. And England went on to win the game by five wickets. Pretty much again, his contribution to that victory was pretty much as
00:39:54
Speaker
as important as his contribution to the other one, where he got 15 wickets, because Vienna got the 15, probably Rond or whoever else would have would have done it anyway. England were very lucky with them when the rain fell in that game. I think it's the first game, really, his first test on Australian pitch, where he proved to be the most economical and the most threatening bowler.
00:40:20
Speaker
he was a left arm spinner and even Victor Trumper in absolutely prime form couldn't hit him around. I think that's probably all you need to say. Now after stepping down from test cricket in 1930 at the grand age of 52, how did Wilfred spend his retirement?
00:40:42
Speaker
Well, the short answer to that is he didn't retire first. He was offered a position at Harrow School, which has a curious kind of symmetry to it because George Hurst was the coach at Eaton. So he went to Harrow School as coach. I think it's safe to say if there's anything that didn't work in Wilfred's life, it was his seven years at Harrow.
00:41:12
Speaker
Why didn't it work? Wilfred, I think it's safe to say, was a wonderful coach as long as you really wanted to learn and you were serious about your cricket. He was an enormous help to any number of Yorkshire players. The obvious ones are Roy Kildner and Headley Verity.
00:41:32
Speaker
but also every player he came in touch with really said, Wilfred pointed this out, pointed that out, help me with this, help me with that, whether they were batsmen, fast bowlers, spin bowlers, whatever. But at Harrow, he found himself teaching children or young adults of 16, 17, who really just wanted to batter the ball around, I think a lot of them,
00:41:58
Speaker
didn't really understand what he was saying because he had this gruff Yorkshire accent they weren't really interested in going
Coaching at Harrow School
00:42:05
Speaker
through drills and and being being they just wanted to jump down the wicked and hit balls for six and I think Wilfred found it all a bit tiresome but he got paid pretty well for it for doing two and a half three months work every summer term and
00:42:24
Speaker
If they didn't learn anything from him, his attitude was, well, so what? I'm still getting paid. Um, you know, that they'll go on and be successful lawyers or whatever. They're not going to be County cricketers. Um, and I'm being.
00:42:39
Speaker
well paid for this and this is sorting me out for the whole year in three months and eventually, I mean he was there for six, seven years and eventually there was a parting of ways. I think he made his feelings known.
00:42:58
Speaker
to various members of the staff. George Hurst's at Eaton was very different because George was joyful, fun, the kids loved him. It's an indication of their different characters. And then once he'd finished at Harrow in 37, that was his retirement. And by then, eye problems had emerged and
00:43:28
Speaker
his eyesight did deteriorate over the next decade and a half. You spoke earlier about Wilfred's bowling and batting exploits, both of which existed independently of one another. Was Wilfred an all-rounder, or was he a bowler, then a batsman, and then a bowler again?
00:43:52
Speaker
That's a good one. I would say, for the first three or four years of his career, he was a bowler who could bat a bit. He then became a bowling all-rounder for a few years. Then he became a batting all-rounder.
00:44:13
Speaker
And then he became just a batsman pretty much before the first war for two or three years, just a batsman who could just bowl a bit. And then when he came back, he was really
00:44:28
Speaker
maybe for a few years he was a bowling all-rounder and then he became a bowler who could bat a bit. So in answer to that, yeah, I don't think really the statistics might show it's slightly different. I think maybe there was a couple of years around about 1905, 1906, seven, you could say he was a genuine all-rounder.
00:44:53
Speaker
You just said he was a slightly better bowler, but not by a huge degree. And I think I think that's true possibly of quite a lot of players who one perceives as all rounders. But then when you look at their records, you realize that actually their careers don't quite bear that out. Now, I'm not including obviously Gary Savers or
00:45:19
Speaker
I remember looking at Mike Proctor's record in England, and it was very noticeable. The seasons where he got a lot of wickets, he didn't get many runs, and the season where he got a lot of runs, he didn't get many wickets. But Mike Proctor is always perceived as an all-rounder, and in many senses was, in terms of his career.
00:45:41
Speaker
I think it's pretty tough to pull off both at the same level in the same season or in the same test series. Wilford will always be remembered mostly for his bowling though. So I suppose over his entire career, you'd say he was a bowling all-rounder.
00:46:03
Speaker
He lived to the grand old age of 95, dying in 1973, his blindness crippling his ability to watch his beloved cricket in the last few decades of his life.
Enduring Love for Cricket
00:46:15
Speaker
But he loved the game until the end, didn't he? He did indeed. He went to cricket right up to, I think his last game was a one day game involving Hampshire, which he watched with David Frith.
00:46:33
Speaker
He was nearly all the test matches in the 60s. As far as his eyesight was concerned, he basically lost all sight in the early, I'll try and get this right, Frank Worrell, in the early 60s. His eyesight completely went.
00:46:58
Speaker
But certainly once his eyesight was gone that didn't stop him going to cricket because he loved to go to grounds. People would say hello. He would sit there with George Hurst. I mean I've said they weren't great mates but they spent a fair bit of time together.
00:47:14
Speaker
and he loved the atmosphere of it. He tended to enjoy going most with either his daughter or his granddaughter who would describe passage as a play to him and he could ask questions about
00:47:30
Speaker
about what was going on, but he could follow a fair bit just by, I think possibly it's been slightly romanticized about how much he could follow of the game going on just by the sound of the bat on the ball or fielders running. I think that's been slightly overdone, but it is a wonderful story, but there is
00:47:54
Speaker
There is one which is true, which I got from, I can't remember who I got it from. He was watching a West Indies test and Frank Worrell had been batting all day, I think, on the first day and scored 150, 160, not out or something. And on the second day, Worrell resumed his innings and he was out after about 15 minutes.
00:48:22
Speaker
And Wilfred just turned to his neighbor. I can't remember who it was and said, I'm not surprised. I could, I could tell he wasn't timing it properly. And that I do believe.
00:48:34
Speaker
And so that is an idea when I say it's been slightly over romanticized that he knew everything that was going on with it without his eyesight. But that one about Frank Worrell, I thought was yeah, and it is true. It's not apocryphal. And that's an indication of what he could and couldn't follow. And he he always wanted to know about fielding positions. And
00:48:57
Speaker
And he would have his own, why's he got a man on the boundary, the point boundary? Why has that spinner got a man on the point boundary? I mean, does he know he's going to bowl short? Well, if he knows he's going to bowl short, he shouldn't be bowling. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:17
Speaker
And he got his, when he was in his very later years, he was living with his daughter and son-in-law in south of England, Bournemouth. And he'd have his Yorkshire Post delivered a day late. And all the cricket reports, they would read the cricket reports to him. He would listen to the commentaries on the radio, and commentaries of test matches on the radio.
00:49:42
Speaker
And also, I mean, I'm putting in things that Margaret, his granddaughter told me at the time, he still busied himself around the house. There were certain jobs he could do that didn't require his eyesight. Vacuuming the stairs was one of them. Rolling newspaper up into tight, tight little balls for lighting the fire.
00:50:11
Speaker
He would like doing that. He did the washing up. I don't know how well he did the washing up if he was blind, but he would insist on doing it. And he would be out in the garden doing certain things. He was, yeah, he was an active man. He wanted to be helpful. He didn't ruminate enormously on the past.
00:50:37
Speaker
He was always interested in what was going on in terms of now, not just in terms of cricket by any means. Margaret said to me that her only real regret about those last years was that she and her brother didn't ask Wilfred Moore about the past and didn't
00:50:58
Speaker
you had to prod him to get him to talk about himself or the past. He was more keen on talking about the present. He was a real technophile. He loved new inventions. He insisted on getting one of the first tumble dryers and he
00:51:21
Speaker
He was right up to date with any new invention and he wanted to know all about them and if he could afford it, get one for the family. And I think those little snippets that Margaret gave me were absolutely crucial in understanding what kind of man he was and what drove him and what, you know, in modern parlour, what pushed his buttons.
00:51:51
Speaker
And I'm hugely grateful to Margaret for all the time and help she gave me and has given me. That was the icing on the cake, really. I pretty much finished the book when I first managed to get in contact with her. And that was the icing on the cake. I thought, no, now I really have written
00:52:17
Speaker
the definitive biography with her and with David Frith. Those two made me feel that, yeah, that's the job completed. And finally, Patrick, this is a question I ask all my guests of their subject. What do you think Wilfred would have thought about the modern game? Well, what aspects of the modern game?
00:52:46
Speaker
goodness me, how much am I throwing my own perceptions onto it? I don't think he'd have thought a great deal about T20. But I do think that he would have rubbed his hands and thought, goodness me, look at all that money.
00:53:04
Speaker
Um, I think, I think he'd have been pretty good at it. Um, not because of the kind of player he was, but because of his adaptability. Um, and he would have, I'm going to say it again. He would have puzzled it out and made himself a good T20 player or a good ODI player. And he would have certainly approved of, um, of cricket is earning, um, handsome wages. Um,
00:53:34
Speaker
Of course, I think in terms of English cricket, he would have been very sad about the county championship and the way it's been culled to the degree it has. It's a really hard one, isn't it? But I think he would have coped with it a lot better than a lot of cricketers of that age because
00:53:57
Speaker
He was adaptable because he was forward-looking and... Yeah, for those two reasons, really.
Conclusion and Recommendations
00:54:07
Speaker
It's hard to say, and I'm sure all your other guests would say much the same, but that's my answer to that one.
00:54:14
Speaker
Well, Patrick, thank you for joining me to discuss the life and times of Wilfrid Rhodes. Your biography from 2021, Wilfrid Rhodes, The Triumphal Arch, is highly recommended. I really enjoyed it. I know you've written on other matters relating to the golden age of cricket, so perhaps we could have a chat again sometime soon?
00:54:37
Speaker
Absolutely. This has been an enormous pleasure. It's probably gone on loads more than you thought it would, but I did tell you I like an atta.
00:54:47
Speaker
And Wilfred is one of my favorite subjects. I should just say that all through the book, I've called him Rhodes because I decided at the start, if I call him Wilfred, there's the danger of it just turning into a kind of praying at the altar of the great Wilfred. And I've really, really tried not to do that. I have tried to look at him
00:55:14
Speaker
warts in all kind of way um i didn't find many warts i must say no you've done an excellent job like i said i can't recommend it highly enough um that's all for today's episode thanks for listening remember to favorite or subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an episode my name is tom ford until next time it's bye for now