Lobsters in Cricket, Part 12: Arthur Ridley

Arthur William Ridley, born September 11, 1852, was a major all-rounder of his times who was unlucky not to have played in the early Test matches. However, he remains virtually unknown even among serious scholars of the game’s history. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the life and career of the man who rekindled the spark in the dying art of lob bowling in the 1870s.

Varsity Drama

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The previous year, 1874, the Varsity match had seen Oxford triumph by an innings. Arthur Ridley had opened the bowling and taken 4 first-innings wickets and 3 more in the second innings.

He had not scored too many runs in the encounter, 11 from No 3. But, he did have plenty of batting ability. A week after vanquishing Cambridge, Ridley had played his second Gentlemen-Players match at Lord’s and scored 57 from No 3, adding 48 for the second wicket with WG Grace and 101 for the third with AN ‘Monkey’ Hornby.

Now, a year later, in his final year in Oxford, Ridley was the captain. It was a new sporting accomplishment for the man who had been in the Eton XI and had won the double and single rackets in 1871.

Now Oxford were playing Cambridge again, at Lord’s, and the match was proving to be an epic tussle.

The 7 Ridley wickets in the Varsity match of the previous year notwithstanding, lobs were on their way out. Ridley did achieve some success with them, but very few lob bowlers of real ability remained in the land. Bowlers bowled round-arm, and also over-arm. Those loopy slow underhand deliveries were almost archaic.

Strangely, despite his far less remarkable figures in this match, Ridley did something in 1875 final that rekindled the possibilities of lobs. And it was done in thrilling circumstances.

Oxford University had batted first and propelled by an opening stand of 85 between Alexander Webbe and Thomas Lang, they had totalled exactly 200. Following this, the Scottish all-rounder Lang had scalped five Cambridge men with his round-arm pace. After the initial exchanges, Oxford had led by 37.

But Charlie Sharpe had struck back for Cambridge with his slows and the Oxford men had stumbled to 137 in the second knock. The Cambridge quest for the 175 run target had been a tale of ebbs and flows. They had seemed to struggle at 26 for 2, saunter at 67 for 2, stutter at 76 for 5, stagger at 114 for 7 and then stabilise to 161 for 7.

Bert Sims and William Patterson had put their heads down and put on 47 runs and just 14 remained to be scored. At this juncture, the Surrey and Oxford man William Game approached his captain and persuaded him to bowl his lobs.

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Ridley, who had bowled a couple of fruitless overs earlier, confessed that he went on against his judgement. His first ball was on the leg stump, straight and low. It did not turn an inch; there was no twist from the leg that was so common for lobsters. Patterson drove outside the line and was bowled.

George Macan came in now, a reasonably good bat batting too low given that he did not bowl a single ball in the 18 First-Class matches of his career. He struck the first ball he faced for a single, and Sims hit the next ball over the bowler’s head for four. ‘A mighty smack which sent the ball like a cannon shot to the ropes,’ Hon. RH Lyttelton recalled.

9 remained to be scored and with a few steady blocks and a couple of nudges, it was soon down to 7.

And now Ridley started a fresh over. Sims, riding on his mighty hit a few minutes ago, charged down the wicket and clouted him again. The ball soared in the air and William Pullman at long on ran around to complete a superb catch.

The last man, Arthur Smith, walked out now. Strange was his career. In that match, he batted at 9 and 11 and did not bowl. In all his First-Class matches, he batted at No. 6 only once and seldom above 8, and his final batting average read 9. He bowled 40 balls in all his cricketing life without taking a wicket. Yet, Smith played for Middlesex, MCC, the Gentlemen of England and Cambridge.

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Perhaps he had potential that was never fulfilled. Perhaps he had connections. Perhaps he was there to make up the numbers for Cambridge, Middlesex, MCC and the Gentlemen of England. Whatever be it, on that day he managed to keep two deliveries from Ridley out in a doubtful sort of way. And then there was another straight, low ball.

The air was chilly, the ground wet, the sun invisible and Smith played for the twist from the leg. The wetness of the wicket supposedly prevented the ball from turning. It went straight and hit the middle stump. Oxford triumphed by 6 runs.

Ridley’s action of putting himself on at that critical juncture was regarded as one ‘of quite remarkable courage’. It was reported that at the end he was the only person at Lord’s whose calmness was entirely undisturbed by the dramatic finish.

His final analysis read 4.3-0-16-2. Not really remarkable. But, it suddenly showed the cricketing world that lobs were still a force to reckon with, especially when the opposition was under duress.

1876 and all that

Less than a month after this match Ridley joined Hampshire. In his first outing for the county, against Sussex at Hove, Ridley went in at No. 5 and scored 54 and followed that with 6 for 35 and 6 for 38. Lob bowling was back in the fray with numerous possibilities. And Ridley was proving to be a champion all-rounder.

Incidentally, one of the batsmen Ridley dismissed in that match was Walter Humphreys. This Sussex professional would take his time to take up bowling. It would be 1880 when he would meet his first bowling success. But, he would go on to become one of the most renowned and successful lob bowlers ever. We will cover his life and career later in this series.

The following season, 1876, was by far the most successful enjoyed by Ridley.

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He started with 105 for the Gentlemen of England against Cambridge University. This was followed by a bag of 12 wickets against Kent. And then came the superb innings in the Gentlemen vs Players encounter at Lord’s.

When he walked in at No. 5, WG Grace, in one of his best seasons ever, had already pulverised the Players with a knock of 169. Even as Grace was dismissed, Ridley struck the ball sweetly and scored an impeccable 103 against an attack of Alfred Shaw, Tom Emmett, Allen Hill and Fred Morley. It remained the best innings he ever played.

A few days later he scalped 11 wickets against Derbyshire.

The brilliance of Ridley’s season was encapsulated in the match between Hampshire and Kent at Faversham in August. He came in with his side struggling at 24 for 3 and hit a serene 104. This was followed by 5 for 52 and 5 for 61 as Hampshire won by an innings.

That season he scored 585 runs at 36.56 with 3 hundreds and captured 53 wickets at 13.30 in the 11 matches. His underarm lobs were becoming a threat, bowled at a speed that could be categorised as medium pace. The bounce was disconcerting, and the turn puzzled the best, varying between the pronounced and the non-existent.

Unfortunately for Ridley, the 1876-77 tour of Australia was undertaken by the professional cricketers. Based on his performances, he was good enough to be part of the lot who played the first Test matches. In The Slow Men, David Frith agrees that he was unlucky to miss out on the first few Tests.

And even more, unfortunately, Ridley’s form of the great summer of 1876 was not sustained. The following season he did take a bagful of wickets, but his batting average plummeted. And curiously, for all practical purposes, his bowling days were over with 1877.

The subsequent years saw Ridley struggling to regain his touch. It necessitated a move to Middlesex, whom he represented from 1882 to 1885 primarily as a batsman. In 1883 he did produce vintage batting form, scoring 362 runs in 6 matches at 45.25 with a career-best 136 against Surrey at Lord’s. However, his bowling remained occasional.

Ridley finished with 3,150 runs at 20.19 and 224 wickets at 15.06 from 96 matches. There were 4 hundreds, 19 five-wicket hauls and 5 ten-fors. A magnificent fielder, who like most lob bowlers excelled in fielding off his own bowling, he often followed the ball down the wicket after delivery. He was good enough to stand in as wicketkeeper when the regular stumper took a break, and also effected 2 stumpings in his career.

Ridley’s brother Alfred Bailey played a couple of matches for Hampshire. However, he was a fast round-arm bowler. Later, Ridley’s son-in-law Philip Pearson-Gregory represented Nottinghamshire in 3 matches, leading them in 2. He finished his short career with an excellent average of 59.50. He scored 48 and 71 in his only two innings, against Yorkshire, and was dismissed in both by the Arthur Dolphin-Wilfred Rhodes combination.

Ridley was part of the MCC committee from 1875 to 1882, from 1884 to 1888 and then again from 1889-93. He later served as Director of the Cannon Brewery Co., London.

Ridley lived in Eaton Place, Belgrave Square, London. He passed away in 1916.