With Harold Larwood, Bill Voce was one half of one of the great fast-bowling partnerships – but he almost became a spinner. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1933.
When Wisden wrote that Voce was “now in Australia”, there was no hint that he was at the heart of England’s Bodyline assault. He took 98 Test wickets in 27 matches at 27.88.
William Voce, the Notts left-handed bowler, was born at Annesley Woodhouse on August 8, 1909, so that like F.R. Brown, of Surrey, he is one of the youngest cricketers of the MCC team now in Australia.
His early cricket was what might be called rather primitive, for he played with a lot of other young lads for the Annesley Colliery team. At that time he bowled medium pace.
His abilities and promise were brought to the notice of the authorities at Trent Bridge, to which ground he went in 1926 for a trial. It was quickly seen that a bowler of distinct possibilities had been discovered and he obtained a position on the staff and came under the direct control of James Iremonger, from whom he received much valuable advice on the game.
He gained his place in the Notts eleven in 1927, taking part in 19 matches for the county and obtaining 36 wickets. At that time he had moderated his pace and was definitely a spin bowler, and everybody who saw him thought at once that here was a young cricketer likely to take front rank and possibly to follow in the footsteps of Wilfred Rhodes and Colin Blythe in even more important cricket.
In this way, the Australians effected their purpose. At any rate our selection committee, no doubt influenced in their minds by his ineffectiveness on this occasion, did not consider him for any of the remaining Test matches that season.
In the winter of 1930/31, he was one of the MCC team to visit South Africa and in the Test matches took 23 wickets for 24 runs apiece. On the matting wickets, he was very good indeed.