Published: Feb 16, 2017, 07:54 PM (IST)
Edited: Feb 16, 2017, 07:58 PM (IST)
Tom Armitage, born November 24, 1841, is listed as the first ever Test cricketer. He has also gone down as the first man to bowl lobs in a Test match. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the cricketer who combined round-arms and lobs with plenty of success.
The first ever Test match
The cricketers did not know it then and would not be aware of it for several more years. Eventually it would go down in history as the first day of Test cricket.
At that time, however, it was an exhausted All-England side led by James Lillywhite taking on a combined New South Wales-Victoria Eleven in a match billed as The Great Combination Match.
Lillywhite’s men had played a few hectic matches in Australia, gone over to play a few more in New Zealand, and then returned to Melbourne. In New Zealand they had lost the services of their wicketkeeper, Ted Pooley, jailed on charges of assault after a fall out over cricket-linked gambling dues.
By this time, there were eleven core members who had to play every game in order to field a team. And barely 24 hours after crossing back across the Tasman Sea, they had to take on the combination of Victorian and New South Wales cricketers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The professional cricketers of England were dead tired. They had played and travelled for months without a break. Besides, quite a few them were suffering from sea-legs, unable to stand without reeling when asked to report for the first day’s play.
Yet, having lost the toss, they had to take the field as Charles Bannerman and Nat Thomson walked out to bat. Alfred Shaw geared up to bowl the first over. Tom Selby, deputising for Pooley, stood behind the stumps. He was not the first-choice reserve stumper, but Harry Jupp had an eye infection and stood gingerly at mid-off. Hence, Selby had to don the big gloves.
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Lillywhite set the field. James Southerton, the 49-year-old who would be registered as the oldest ever Test debutant, stood at short slip. Allen Hill was at cover point. Tom Emmett lurked next to him at point. Lillywhite took his place at short leg. Henry Charlwood was back at deep square leg. The great George Ulyett stood far away at long-on. Andrew Greenwood was behind the bowler, three quarter of the way to the boundary, a position called ‘over the bowler’s head’ in those days. And at mid-on stood Thomas Armitage.
Through the rules of lexicographic ordering Armitage, the versatile Yorkshire all-rounder, would go down as the first ever Test cricketer. He headed the team list, ahead of Charlwood for England and Bannerman for Australia.
Armitage would go on to notch up a formidable list of firsts in the match, not many of them memorable.
When Bannerman was still in single digits, he struck Shaw uppishly towards mid-on. Armitage, a bemused expression on his face, reacted late. Some say that he did not react at all. The ball thudded against his stomach and fell to his feet.
Thus, this worthy cricketer, according to Scores and Biographies ‘an excellent field anywhere’, had become the first man to drop a catch in Test cricket. Bannerman went on to score 165 before a ball from Ulyett broke his finger and forced him to retire. Hence, Armitage had an indirect hand, or the lack of it, in the first ever century in Test cricket.
But Armitage’s curious moment of fame, or infamy, arrived later in the day. The score read 100 for 3. Bannerman had been joined at the wicket by the Kent and Middlesex veteran Bransby Cooper at 41, and the two had already added 59. Hill, Ulyett and Southerton had not been able to dislodge the partnership. Shaw had just been hit for two boundaries in an over. And thus, Lillywhite called on Armitage to bowl his lobs. The historical moment when this curious mode of bowling made its debut in Test cricket.
Armitage was more than a decent bowler. He combined his lobs with occasional round arm medium pace, and had enjoyed a great season in 1876.
At Sheffield, he had destroyed Surrey with 6 for 20 and 7 for 26, while scoring 47 in between. His 45 wickets that summer had come at 14.82 apiece.
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But now, the first ball he bowled, soared in the air and floated right over Bannerman’s head … ‘to be reached only by a clothes’ prop’ according to a contemporary report. As if to compensate for it, the next few deliveries were grubbers, rolled all along the ground.
Nothing like this had been seen in the colonies and the crowd was shaking with uncontrolled laughter. Two wides were added to the mix, again, the first ever bowled in Test cricket.
But Bannerman liked the bowling. He scored from almost every ball. Those were 4-ball overs and Lillywhite persisted with Armitage for 3. These 12 balls cost 15 runs and then the Yorkshireman was taken off. He never got another bowl in that match, or the subsequent Test that was played a couple of weeks later.
The peculiar performance has been attributed to the exhaustion from the rigours of the tour. Whatever be it, the debut of lobs at the highest form of the game was not a particularly happy one, although it was full of comic element.
When Armitage walked out to bat, he was full of determination to redeem himself for his extraordinarily lousy bowling performance and the dropped catch that had proved so expensive. As a self-motivating manoeuvre, he bet Lillywhite £7 to £1 that he would make a fifty. Walking out to bat on the third morning, he soon snicked Billy Midwinter to Jack Blackham for 9. He trudged back sadder and poorer. He scored 3 in the second innings as the Australians triumphed by 45 runs.
He did score 21 good runs in the second big match that has gone down as the second Test match. But in all, his Test career reads 33 runs at 11 and no wicket for 15 with an economy rate of 7.50. Not too impressive that.
The story does have a sequel.
In 1878, the touring Australians had just achieved their epochal victory over MCC at Lord’s when they went up to Huddersfield to take on the Yorkshiremen. And Fred Spofforth and Harry Boyle dismissed the home side for 72. Following this, Bannerman had just got into the act of dominating the bowling when Armitage was put on. And in a minor act of redemption, the Yorkshire professional bowled that pioneering Australian master. However, we must add that this was achieved with round-armed medium pace. The sudden change from lobbed long hops and donkey drops could have totally foxed Bannerman.
The brief career
In the 1870s, it was rare for professional bowlers to indulge in lob bowling, and in that sense Armitage was a curious exception. Of course, he bowled his medium pace round-arm, but with time he banked more and more on his lobs.
It was at Trent Bridge in 1875 that he first caught the attention of the cricket world. It was an exceptionally low scoring match, with Yorkshire scoring 49 and Nottinghamshire replying with 87. Armitage, playing as an opening batsman, scored 16 in the second innings as the entire batting line up put their heads down and totalled 183. That left 146 to win, and it was always going to be difficult.
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A burst by Hill left the hosts reeling at 25 for 5, but there was some gutsy resistance down the order. At 47 for 5, Yorkshire captain Joseph Rowbotham threw the ball to Armitage. As Lillywhite recorded: “The Yorkshire captain Rowbotham thought of Armitage’s lobs. It was a happy notion, for Notts rushed out madly to meet the slows and Pinder stumped four of the remaining batsmen.”
Nottinghamshire were all out for 58, with Armitage’s figures reading 5 for 8 from 17 balls. Lobs had won the match, and also proved that it always made for entertaining cricket.
In the very next match, Armitage played for the United North of England and destroyed Derbyshire with 7 for 27 and 5 for 34.
The next season saw him lording it over Surrey with his all-round show, scoring 47 with the bat and picking up 13 for 46 in the match. The Surrey batsmen obviously played him poorly, which is evident from the Lillywhite remark that Armitage’s lobs “could scarcely have been played worse by infants.”But, the figures remain the best ever achieved by a lob bowler in a First-Class match. Southerton thought it was as good example of lob bowling as he had ever seen.
The same season saw him score 95 against Middlesex, his career best. He followed up his innings with 6 wickets in the first Middlesex innings and 3 in the second. However, some of these wickets were obtained with round-arm medium pace.
On his return from Australia, Armitage produced a few more significant bowling performances in the 1877 season. He routed Surrey at Sheffield in the first match of the season with 31.2-12-58-7.In the Roses match against Lancashire he obtained 6 for 32, and against Middlesex he had figures of 30-19-29-5.
When Yorkshire met Surrey again at The Oval, the home team collapsed from 206 for no loss to 300. Armitage took 6 for 43, which included a spell of 10-7-8-5. However, some of his wickets were round-arm slows.
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There was another 10-wicket haul in Bramall Lane against Nottinghamshire, helping him to a haul of 42 wickets in the season at 11.66.
This was, however, his final bowling triumph.
Armitage enjoyed a brief career of 57 First-Class matches and captured 121 wickets at 14.23. Majority of them were through lobs. He also scored 1180 runs at 13.88 with 4 half-centuries. As mentioned, in spite of dropping Bannerman in the inaugural Test, he was a superb fielder.
After calling it a day, Armitage migrated to United States. It was here that he made one final First-Class appearance several years later. He played for the Players of United States against the Gentlemen of Philadelphia at the Germantown Cricket Club Ground in 1886. He stroked his way to a fluent 58 and took 2 for 25 with his lobs.
Tom Armitage, the first ever Test cricketer and the first lobster in Test cricket, died in Pullman, Chicago, at the age of 74.
