Arthur Mold - Bowling Technique

Bowling Technique

A fast bowler who operated from a very short run-up, Mold bowled extremely quickly, releasing the ball with his arm very high in his early years, although later in his career, his arm was lower in delivery. Unusually for a bowler of his pace, he could make the ball deviate from straight, either through seam movement or cutting his fingers over it before release, but most of his wickets were taken through sheer speed. His obituary in the Manchester Guardian stated that he was among the fastest bowlers of all time and his bowling action was "beautiful" and possessed "fine grace". If the pitch was uneven or otherwise difficult for batting, he was extremely difficult to bat against: in 1892, Wisden noted: "On anything like a rough or bumpy wicket he is, beyond all question, the most difficult and dangerous bowler of the day, the ball getting up from the pitch so high and so fast as to intimidate all but the very pluckiest of batsmen." The Times later noted that he was very successful for Lancashire and a difficult bowler to face. In combination with Briggs, he bowled a very high proportion of Lancashire's overs. At times, he struggled with a knee injury but continued to bowl with little opportunity to rest.

Opinion was divided over the legality of Mold's bowling action. After no-balling Mold for the second time, Phillips wrote that he had long suspected Mold of throwing. Even though he believed Mold was trying to bowl with a straight arm in the Somerset match, Phillips considered many more deliveries to be throws than merely those he called. In his own defence, Mold queried why Phillips never acted on his prior suspicions, and suggested that the umpire did not make it clear which part of Mold's bowling action was unfair. The Manchester Guardian, reporting on the Somerset match in 1901, noted that many umpires had apparently viewed Mold's action as fair earlier in the season, even after the instruction from the MCC to pay careful attention to him. It stated that "the general opinion was that if one ball was to be called a throw then every ball he sent down was of the same order." However, some critics noted that when bowling an occasional faster ball, Mold's action changed slightly; this was the delivery to which Phillips objected. His obituary in the Manchester Guardian stated that the lack of action by umpires other than Phillips in 1901, and throughout Mold's career, meant that the "charge against Mold, then, can hardly be said to have been 'proven'".

Mold continued to have his supporters. MacLaren later wrote that he believed Mold never intentionally threw; A. N. Hornby consistently defended Mold, partly because, as Mold's captain during the 1890s, it would have been a slur against his sportsmanship to admit that an unfair bowler had been in his team. Most Lancashire supporters never doubted that Mold's action was fair. Cricket historian Don Ambrose suggests that Mold probably did throw his faster delivery, which may have accounted for the high proportion of his wickets which were bowled. It also explained his ability to produce a delivery that surprised the batsman; W. G. Grace once observed that it was particularly painful to be struck by a delivery from Mold. The lack of action by Phillips' fellow umpires was possibly, according to Ambrose, due to their unwillingness to cause problems for a fellow professional cricketer. However, Ambrose also suggests that in the Somerset match, Phillips was determined to end Mold's career and that not every delivery that he called was actually a throw.

Mold was popular with other cricketers. The Times said: "Apart from the burning question of throwing, not a word could be said against him. He was liked by all his brother professionals, and popular wherever he played." However, his achievements were always qualified by suspicion over the legality of his bowling action, even before he was no-balled by Phillips. A batsman who played against him when he first appeared for Northamptonshire said: "If he is fair he is the best bowler in England, but I think he is a worse thrower than ever Crossland was." Mold's Times obituary stated: "He was a deadly fast bowler, but, all through his career, even his best feats in the cricket field were spoken of with something of apology".