Sammy Woods

Sammy Woods

Samuel Moses James "Sammy" Woods (13 April 1867 – 30 April 1931) was an Australian sportsman who represented both Australia and England at Test cricket, and appeared thirteen times for England at rugby union, including five times as captain. He also played at county level in England at both soccer and hockey. At cricket—his primary sport—he played over four hundred first-class matches in a twenty-four-year career. The majority of these matches were for his county side, Somerset, whom he captained from 1894 to 1906. A.A. Thomson described him thus: "Sammy ... radiated such elemental force in hard hitting, fast bowling and electrical fielding that he might have been the forerunner of Sir Learie Constantine."

Having moved to England at the age of sixteen to complete his education, Woods became entrenched in English sport. Having already played cricket and rugby growing up in Australia, at Brighton College he began playing soccer, and while still at the college, represented Sussex at the sport. Woods was also part of a strong cricket team at the college; in the 23 matches he played for them, only two were lost. He made his first-class cricket debut shortly after leaving Brighton College, in August 1886, playing for GN Wyatt's XI against the touring Australians. Later in the same month he made his first appearance for Somerset, a second-class match against Warwickshire. At Cambridge University he achieved blues in both cricket and rugby.

Woods played the first three of his six Test cricket matches during his first year at Cambridge, called up to the Australian squad to face England in 1888 after Sammy Jones contracted smallpox. During this early part of his career, Woods was considered among the finest bowlers in England, and was named as one of the 'Six Great Bowlers of the Year' (later to form the inaugural Wisden Cricketers of the Year) in 1889. He twice claimed in excess of a hundred first-class wickets in an English season, and averaged under twenty in five consecutive seasons from 1888. In a 1890 match for Cambridge University, Woods claimed all ten of the opposition's wickets in the second-innings. However, by the time he was selected as part of the England Test squad to tour South Africa in 1895–96, his bowling was beginning to lose its potency. Additionally curtailed by injuries, Woods claimed five wickets on the tour, thirty less than the leading wicket-taker George Lohmann.

While his bowling worsened, his batting improved; in 133 first-class matches up to the end of 1894, Woods scored one century, while in his next 129 matches he passed a hundred on fourteen occasions. Primarily an aggressive batsman, Woods had fast footwork and was capable of powerful strokes all around the ground, though he favoured the square cut. His twelve-year Somerset captaincy is the longest at the county. He was an attacking captain, once observing: "Draws? They're only for bathing in." He also served the club as secretary from 1920 to 1922.