Harold Larwood - Style and Influence

Style and Influence

One could tell his art by his run to the wickets. It was a poem of athletic grace, as each muscle gave over to the other with perfect balance and the utmost power. He began his long run slowly ... his legs and arms pistoned up his speed, and as he neared the wickets he was in very truth like the Flying Scotsman thundering through an east coast station.

Larwood has been widely acknowledged as the greatest fast bowler of his generation and, according to his Wisden obituary, was "one of the rare fast bowlers in the game's long history to spread terror in opposition ranks by the mere mention of his name". Timing technology was primitive in his day, but various tests indicated speeds of between 90 and 100 mph (140 to 160 km/ph). Fingleton commented that Larwood was "about twice as fast as anyone out there", indicating a match in progress at Trent Bridge. However, one Australian from an earlier cricketing generation, Ernie Jones, dismissed Larwood: "He wouldn't knock a dint in a pound of butter on a hot day".

At around 5 feet 7 inches, Larwood was short for a fast bowler, although he had long arms in relation to his height. His lower bowling trajectory helped the ball to retain speed. His side-on bowling action, following a smooth and almost soundless approach, was described by the Manchester Guardian's cricket correspondent Neville Cardus as "absolutely classical, left side showing down the wicket before the arm swung over with a thrilling vehement rhythm". Facing Larwood at his fastest was, according to Hamilton, "akin to a public stoning". Hobbs, who batted against him many times in county matches, thought him not just the fastest but the most accurate bowler he had ever seen. Among later fast bowlers influenced by Larwood's style was Ray Lindwall, Australia's bowling star of the 1940s and 1950s, who watched the bodyline series as a schoolboy and modelled his own action on Larwood's.

Larwood claimed that he did not intend to hit batsmen, though "I didn't shed any crocodile tears if a batsman was hit in the thigh". In a press interview in 1990 he further admitted that he "might sometimes have bowled at a batsman's ribs, but never at his head". He did from time to time inflict serious injuries on his opponents: Reg Sinfield of Gloucestershire, Patsy Hendren of Middlesex, and H.B. Cameron of South Africa were all carried unconscious from the field after being hit by high-speed deliveries. Many others suffered discomfort in the form of bruises and minor fractures. In Australia, in the wake of the bodyline series, a music hall song summed up many apprehensive batsmen's feelings:

With a prayer and a curse they prepare for the hearse,
Undertakers look on with broad grins.
Oh, they'd be a lot calmer in Ned Kelly's armour
When Larwood the wrecker begins.