Published: Feb 09, 2017, 06:35 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 09, 2017, 08:59 PM (IST)
Robert Crispin Tinley, born October 25, 1830, was a lob bowler who made the ball talk. Nicknamed ‘Cris’ and ‘Spider’, Tinley was considered by Alfred Shaw to be the greatest lobster he had seen. Arunabha Sengupta recounts the life and career of this Nottinghamshire professional who was a long-standing member of the All England Elevens.
The Spider
There were all sorts who combined to form the odds teams of XVIII or XXII to play the travelling All-England Elevens. There were local players of potential, young hopefuls and some more to add to the numbers.
In one of the matches there turned up a veteran of the famous cavalry charge of Balaclava during the Crimean War. The famed manoeuvre that has been immortalised as the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’. Not a bad cricketer too, for in 1859, this Captain Handley did travel as a part of the All England Eleven squad led by George Parr.
But on that particular day, playing for the odds team, the brave Balaclava veteran was reduced to a defenceless state of stuttering impotence by the holy terror of the treacherous web woven by the lobbed spin of Robert Crispin Tinley. The poor Captain had no wherewithal to wonder why or make reply while playing Tinley. Just the sight of Tinley approaching gave him cold feet.
Parr, who famously bestowed nicknames on his teammates, aptly called Tinley ‘The Spider’. Many an unsuspecting odds batsman became enmeshed in the web of deception of this fascinating lobster.
Never was this more apparent than the day the England XI played the XVIII of Hallam at Hyde Park, Sheffield in 1860. Tinley opened the bowling with the fearsome pace of John Jackson bowling from the other end. ‘A corkscrew at one end and a thunderbolt at the other,’ was how they were described.
That day Tinley picked up 10 in the first innings, bowling unchanged with Jackson. And then in the second, he captured all 17 wickets for 58.
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When he toured Australia with the second ever English team to go there, along with George Parr’s men in 1863-64, he started with 11 for 53 and 8 for 63 against Victoria, took 13 in the first innings and 14 in the second against Bendigo, 13 and 10 against Ballarat, 14 and 12 against Ararat, 11 in each innings versus Maryborough, 14 and 13 against the Combined Canterbury and Otago, 13 and 12 against Canterbury, 8 and 11 against Otago, 9 and 12 against Castlemine before relaxing a bit with a mere 7 for 76 against G Anderson’s XI. In all, he scalped 250 wickets in 33 matches on the tour.
Neither did the First-Class cricketers master him.
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When in a special meeting of the great Elevens of England, a match was held at Manchester in 1859 between The England Eleven to North America and Another England Eleven, Tinley represented the latter. As can be expected, the England Eleven to North America was full of stars. George Parr led a side consisting of William Caffyn, Robert Carpenter, Tom Hayward, Jemmy Grundy, Tom Lockyer, Julius Caesar, HH Stephenson, John Jackson, Alfred Diver and John Lillywhite. A more formidable unit can scarcely be contemplated.
Yet, the Richard Daft-led Another Eleven triumphed by 3 wickets. And the major architect was Tinley with 6 for 33 and 8 for 28.
Daft later recalled that Tinley could make the ball talk, and was like Ulysses ‘full of wiles’.
Tinley also bowled All-England XI to a famous 66-run victory over United England XI in 1865. He demolished the batting with 6 for 58 in the second innings.
His deeds were not restricted to the Elevens. He played 54 matches for Nottinghamshire and captured 138 wickets for the county at 14.99 apiece. In all his 309 First-Class wickets were scalped at an incredible 14.46 each.
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Yet, formidable as the numbers are, they do not take into account his tremendous wicket taking feats against the odds teams. In all he captured 3,151 wickets, and due to the shortcomings of scorekeeping in the side matches we can never know his average when all these figures are taken into consideration. It can be estimated to be something approaching single digit and incredible.
Alfred Shaw, the great Nottinghamshire bowler, wrote in 1902 that Tinley was, in his opinion, far in front of VE Walker, Roger Iddison and F Townsend as a lob bowler, and also ahead of men like EM Grace, AW Ridley and Walter Humphreys.
Battles with young Grace
It was also in one of the odds matches that Tinley came across what can be, in retrospect, considered a remarkable triumph in his career.
In 1863, the wandering All-England Eleven took on the XXII of the Lansdown Club at Sydenham. In the end the Eleven made heavy weather of a small target and scraped through by 3 wickets, chasing down 88 in the final innings.
However, playing for the Lansdown Club was a 14-year-old youngster of explosive talent, at that time known by his middle name Gilbert. His first name happened to be William and the last name Grace.
Young WG could not decipher Tinley’s artful lobs. He was caught off him in both the innings and bagged a pair. The great man perhaps remained embarrassed with these failures, because neither in Cricket nor in Reminiscences, his two memoirs, does he mention Tinley’s triumph over him.
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Three months later, WG played Tinley again when he represented the Bristol XXII against All England XI. He did hit the fearsome Jackson out of the attack. With Tinley bowling his lobs from the other end, the young lad hit him hard towards the scoring tent. Tinley sent down the next ball with the same inviting loop and WG tried to repeat the stroke. He missed and was bowled for 32.
The two men met again three years later, with WG captaining the Nottinghamshire and Sheffield Colts XVIII. This time Tinley was not needed to bowl, but caught the youngster off James Shaw for 9.
The last time they met, Grace played for Bishop’s Stortford XVI against the All England XI in 1868. Tinley got the 19-year-old leg before for 29. But WG took 6 wickets with his fastish round-arm bowling and had Tinley stumped in the first innings.
Harry Altham called Tinley one of the best lob bowlers in cricket history.
When the great Alfred Mynn passed away, William Jeffrey Powse wrote what went on to become one of the most famous pieces of cricket poetry ever. Although glorifying the departed all-rounder, Tinley was important enough to find a mention:
“Jackson’s pace is very fearful; Willsherr’s hand is very high;
William Caffyn has good judgment, and an admirable eye;
Jemmy Grundy’s cool and clever, almost always on the spot;
Tinley’s slows are often telling, though they sometimes catch it hot;
But however good their trundling — pitch or pace, or break, or spin —
Still the monarch of all bowlers, to my mind, was Alfred Mynn!”
The methods
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Strangely, when Tinley played his maiden First-Class game, he made an immediate impression as a round-arm fast bowler. England were playing Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 1857, and the young 16-year-old sprinted in like a tearaway and took 3 wickets in each innings as the hosts triumphed by 10 wickets. His victims included the sublime Fuller Pilch in the first innings.
But by the late 1850s, he became a crafty lobster and was almost immediately rated immediately next to VE Walker as William Clarke’s successor. It was said that the way he managed to learn the art of underhand lobs in such a short period of time was a testimony to his great natural talent.
Apart from his bowling skills, Tinley was a cross batted slogger who connected more often than one expected him to. He did get three First-Class half centuries in his career, a constant surprise for men who saw him bat because he had one of the most crooked defensive techniques.
But, more importantly, he was a fantastic fielder. At point, he was said to be as good as EM Grace and Bob Carpenter. He was agile enough to deputise as wicketkeeper in the absence of the regular stumper. However, it was off his own bowling that he excelled as a fielder.
“As quick and as active as a kitten to field his own bowling,” recalled Daft.
As a bowler he could be devastating on a helpful wicket. Delivering the ball-hip high at a fair pace, he was able to produce ‘considerable bias’. And the high action generated pace and bounce, making it impossible for batsmen to charge down the wicket. Shaw attributed Tinley’s supremacy among lob bowlers to his not giving the batsman time to step out to his lobs and treat them as he pleased.
Writing in 1902, two years after Tinley’s death, Shaw observed, “There is no one, in my opinion, at the present day who can in the least be compared with my poor old friend, RC Tinley, as an underhand bowler. I have never seen his equal. He had a remarkably true pitch, and he stood straight up and delivered the ball as high as he hip, unlike modern lob bowlers who generally crouch at the delivery and that in an ungainly fashion. Tinley too had what I supposed must be considered the rare gift of being able to vary his pace without lobbing the ball high in the air, while some of his deliveries would come off the ground as smartly as those of a good medium-pace bowler.”
Among the many skills Tinley developed, there was a ball delivered from a yard behind the crease, confusing the batsman with a different arc and loop.
Tinley was the youngest of three brothers to excel at the game. In 1852, Vincent Tinley played for Devonshire against the England XI and bowled lobs a la Clarke, with a good twist. He managed to play three First-Class matches.
More durable and successful was Francis Eastward Tinley, 11-years older than Robert Crispin. A round-arm medium-pace bowler, he played 19 First-Class matches, and even appeared for All-England Eleven in a solitary game.
Robert Crispin Tinley passed away in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, in December 1900.
