The death of Frederick Spofforth in 1926 gave Wisden the chance to ask key figures from cricket’s pioneering years to assess his place in history.
Lord Harris
I was talking to Mr Noble early in the season at the Oval, and he told me that Fred Spofforth was seriously ill, and then put to me the astonishing question, ‘Was he a great bowler?’ It was about equivalent to asking if W.G. was a great bat. ‘About the best I ever played, was my reply; but did you never see him?’ It was another shock to find that Noble, with whom I had never played, had never seen him bowl.
Later on, I went down to see Spofforth, and we had a chat about old times; he was keenly interested in past as well as present times, but as I left the room he said, ‘The doctors say I shall see the First Test match; but I made my reputation in May; you knocked me out in May; and I shall go out in May.’ He actually passed away in the first days of June.
Now what he described as my knocking him out, was a very curious coincident. If anyone cares to look at the Cricket Records of 1885 and 1887, he will find in Australians v Gentlemen of England, at Lord’s, in 1884: F.R. Spofforth absent 0, and absent 0, and in 1886, F.R. Spofforth retired hurt 0, and that he did not bowl at all in the second innings.
In the Seventies and Eighties I knew Spofforth well and played a lot of cricket with him. He was a first-rate judge of the game and certainly the best bowler of the dodgy class I ever saw, as he varied his run up to the wicket and you could never tell what paced ball was coming along. Still he never stuck me up as much as did Ferris and Giffen. To get Spofforth and E.M. Grace on a side was to ensure a pleasant day’s cricket if not necessarily a successful one. Spofforth was at his happiest at country matches where his stories – always told with an air of sincerity – used to amuse people immensely. One special one that never failed to please used to be given in the following circumstances. I would say to him at lunch, ‘How did you learn to be such a fine short-slip, Spoff?’ And he would reply, ‘When I was quite young I made a boy, when out for a walk, throw stones into a hedge, and as the sparrows flew out, I caught ’em.’
