page_title: Harold Larwood
section_title: Australian tour, 1928–29
hierarchical_section_title: Harold Larwood / Cricket career / Australian tour, 1928–29
caption_attribution_description: English: English cricket team at the test match held in Brisbane, 1928. Cropped version of this Commons image.
context_page_description: Harold Larwood was a professional cricketer for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team between 1924 and 1938. A right-arm fast bowler who combined unusual speed with great accuracy, he was considered by many commentators to be the finest bowler of his generation. He was the main exponent of the bowling style known as "bodyline", the use of which during the Marylebone Cricket Club tour of Australia in 1932–33 caused a furore that brought about a premature and acrimonious end to his international career.
  A coal miner's son who began working in the mines at the age of 14, Larwood was recommended to Nottinghamshire on the basis of his performances in club cricket, and rapidly acquired a place among the country's leading bowlers. He made his Test debut in 1926, in only his second season in first-class cricket, and was a member of the 1928–29 touring side that retained the Ashes in Australia. The advent of the Australian batsman Don Bradman ended a period of English cricket supremacy; Larwood and other bowlers were completely dominated by Bradman during Australia's victorious tour of 1930.
context_section_description: On the basis of his form, Larwood was an obvious choice for the MCC touring side that Chapman took to Australia in the English winter of 1928–29. In an early game against Victoria he took 7 for 51 in the state's first innings and scored 79 when MCC batted. One of his victims in the match was Bill Ponsford, the Australian Test opening batsman, who let slip his opinion that Larwood was "not really fast". According to the journalist and future Australian Test player Jack Fingleton, Ponsford was then targeted by Larwood. A month later at Brisbane, in the first Test of the series, Larwood dismissed him cheaply, twice; in the second Test, at Sydney, Ponsford scored 5 before a rapid delivery from Larwood broke a bone in his hand; Ponsford did not play again that summer.
  England won the Brisbane Test by a record margin of 675 runs. Larwood took 6 for 32 in the Australian first innings, bowling at a speed that Wisden's S.J. Southerton described as "faster than I have ever seen him". According to Jardine's biographer Christopher Douglas, this bowling, which included a spell of 3 wickets in 5 overs for 9 runs, delivered a lasting blow to Australian morale and was a major factor in England's ultimate series victory. The match saw a low-key Test debut by Don Bradman, who scored 18 and 1 and was dropped for the second Test, before being rapidly reinstated for the third. England maintained their ascendancy during the second, third and fourth Tests, though with decreasing victory margins; Australia finally achieved success in the last match, giving England a 4–1 series victory. A combination of hard pitches, stifling heat, and long matches reduced Larwood's effectiveness as the tour progressed. He finished the Test series with 18 wickets at 40.22, behind George Geary (19 at 25.11) and Jack White (25 at 30.80). In all first-class matches on the tour, Larwood took 40 wickets at 31.35; as a batsman he scored 367 runs, averaging 26.21. Larwood's occasional tactic of bowling leg theory, that is, in the direction of the batsman's legs to a concentration of leg side fielders, had been noted by the Australian former bowler Arthur Mailey. In his report on the fourth Test, Mailey wrote, Larwood resorted to his "famous leg theory" after receiving severe punishment from the Australian batsman Archie Jackson, but the change brought no success: "All theories and all bowlers were alike to [Jackson]".
  Southerton's tour report refers to the crowds' reactions to the England team, and in particular to the "barracking" of Larwood. This, he says, only once reached unacceptable proportions—during the game against Victoria that took place between the fourth and fifth Tests. This disturbance was apparently sparked by Chapman's decision to put Larwood on to bowl against Victoria's weakest batsman, Bert Ironmonger. In general, Southerton felt that crowd noise was no worse than that accorded to previous touring teams and that, "objectionable though it may appear to be to us in England, it has grown up with Australian cricket and is recognised by the public out there as part of their day's enjoyment". Larwood's view was that "it was a bit too thick at times ... I got called every name you can imagine, and every four-letter word you can think of was used against me". The Surrey amateur batsman Douglas Jardine, was likewise a target of the crowds, and as a result formed a cordial dislike for Australians—which was fully reciprocated.
caption: Chapman (centre) leads the England team on to the field during the Brisbane Test
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