deliveries columns catches/stumpings year tenfor bowling country fivefor batting image name lasttestyear column international testdebutdate source date runs testdebutyear wickets lasttestdate s/s matches article_title
45,296 1 158/0 1900 27 right-arm off-break english 95 right-handed batsman 1193384 razor smith.jpg razor smith 1914 first-class true april 16 http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/archive/players/32/32896/f_bowling_by_season.html cricketarchive april 16 3,453 1900 1,077 august 29 1/4 245 razor smith

razor smith

razor smith -lrb- william charles smith ; october 4 , 1877 , oxford , oxfordshire -- july 15 , 1946 , bermondsey , london -rrb- was a surrey slow bowler .
nicknamed `` razor '' because of his extreme thinness , smith was prone to serious injury and could rarely get through a full season 's cricket , but when sound , could command the sharpest off-break among bowlers of his day .
he was also able to bowl a somewhat faster ball with a very high flight that turned a little from leg and , with any help from the pitch , would get up almost straight .
this combination meant that when wickets were treacherous smith generally proved deadly , but in less favourable conditions he was rarely effective and his slight build meant he was unsuited to large amounts of work as a `` stock '' bowler even though he had the extreme accuracy required .
consequently , he never came into consideration for test selection , though he showed great ability on many occasions against the very best batting sides .
smith was discovered by the great w.g. grace in the late 1890s and recommended immediately to surrey , where he had already taken up residence .
he took 5 for 50 against a weak derbyshire side on his county championship debut in 1900 , but played little first-class cricket until 1904 .
he proved unplayable on wet wickets early in the season , but did nothing when the weather turned dry and was quickly dropped until the last two games .
still , smith was third in the first-class averages in his first full season .
in 1905 , he first came to the public eye with a surprising performance against the australians on a dry pitch at the oval , in which his fine off-break made him for a time irresistible , and an amazing 7 for 11 against northamptonshire on a really sticky pitch .
between 1906 and 1908 , smith was in and out of the surrey team , but he still headed the averages in 1908 with 58 wickets for just over 14 each .
however , it was in 1909 that `` razor '' became one of the leading bowlers of the day - despite injuries again keeping him out of many games .
he took 95 wickets for under 13 runs each in a wet summer , and his dismissal of yorkshire for 26 caused a sensation .
it was in 1910 that `` razor '' reached the zenith of his fame : his 247 wickets was 72 ahead of his nearest rival and cost only fractionally more than in 1909 .
with many soft wickets , smith was frequently unplayable , and the amount of work he got through seemed to shatter thoughts his body was fragile .
his success was due in part to a new delivery , a fast kicking leg break in addition to his usual sharp off spinner .
many of his wickets came courtesy of the brave close fielding of bill hitch at short leg .
smith took 14 for 29 at the oval against northamptonshire , doing the hat-trick in the second innings and being denied one in the first by a dropped catch .
in 1911 , despite most pitches being totally unhelpful in an exceptionally dry summer , smith seized his few chances so well that he was second highest wicket-taker in the country with 160 .
1912 was a wet summer that suited smith 's bowling , yet prior to the last three games he had been so out of form - bowling when clearly unfit - that he had the poor record of 69 wickets at 21.43 each .
deadly bowling in the last three games improved his record , yet he was a complete failure -lrb- aside from his only first-class century at no. 11 -rrb- on an mcc tour of the west indies .
1913 was basically a repeat of 1912 -- `` razor '' came into form only at the tail end of the season -- and in 1914 smith could rarely play due to injuries continuing to recur .
after world war i , it was clear `` razor ''' s body would not allow him to play more cricket , and he spent the rest of his life working for the bat firm `` surridge 's '' .
smith worked there right up until his death from heart failure in 1946 .
