Harold Larwood (14 November 1904 – 22 July 1995) was a cricketer for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team between 1924 and 1938. A right-arm fast bowler who combined extreme speeds with great accuracy, he was considered by many players and commentators to be the finest and the fastest fast bowler of his generation and one of the fastest bowlers of all time. He was the main exponent of the bowling style known as "bodyline", the use of which during the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 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. Thereafter, under the guidance of England's combative captain Douglas Jardine, the fast leg theory or bodyline bowling attack was developed. With Larwood as its spearhead the tactic was used with considerable success in the 1932–33 Test series in Australia. The Australians' description of the method as "unsportsmanlike" soured cricketing and political relations between the two countries; during subsequent efforts to heal the breach, Larwood refused to apologise for his bowling, since he was carrying out his captain's instructions. He never played for England after the 1932–33 tour, but continued his county career with considerable success for several more seasons.
In 1949, after years out of the limelight, Larwood was elected to honorary membership of the MCC. The following year he and his family were encouraged by former opponent Jack Fingleton to emigrate and settle in Australia, where he was warmly welcomed, in contrast to the reception accorded him in his cricketing days. He worked for a soft drinks firm, and as an occasional reporter and commentator on Tests against visiting England sides. He paid several visits to England, and was honoured at his old county ground, Trent Bridge, where a stand was named after him. In 1993, at the age of 88, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in belated recognition of his services to cricket. He died two years later.
Harold Larwood was born on 14 November 1904 in the Nottinghamshire village of Nuncargate, near the coal mining town of Kirkby-in-Ashfield. He was the fourth of five sons born to Robert Larwood, a miner, and his wife Mary, née Sharman. Robert was a man of rigid principles, a disciplinarian teetotaller who was treasurer of the local Methodist chapel. His chief pastime was playing cricket for the village team, which he captained. Harold Larwood's biographer Duncan Hamilton writes that for Robert, cricket represented, "along with his dedication to God ... the core of his life".
From the age of five, Harold attended Kirkby Woodhouse school. Over the years this small village school produced, besides Larwood, four other international cricketers who became his contemporaries in the Nottinghamshire county side: William "Dodger" Whysall, Sam Staples, Bill Voce and Joe Hardstaff junior. On leaving the school in 1917, when he was 13, Harold was employed at the local miners' cooperative store, before beginning work the following year at Annesley Colliery in charge of a team of pit ponies. He had shown an early talent for cricket, and began to play for Nuncargate's second team in 1918. Playing against experienced adults, in his first season he took 76 wickets at an average of 4.9. By 1920 he was in the first team, alongside his father, playing in plimsolls because the family could not afford to buy him proper cricket boots.
Despite his short stature (at 18 he was only 5 feet 4 inches tall), Larwood had acquired considerable stamina and upper body strength from his long shifts at the mine and could bowl at a disconcertingly fast speed. Among those who watched his rising prowess as a fast bowler was Joe Hardstaff senior, the Nottinghamshire and England cricketer who lived in Nuncargate. Hardstaff, who had worked with Robert Larwood at the mine, suggested to the youthful bowler that he should attend a trial at the county ground. In April 1923 father and son made the journey to Trent Bridge.
In the practice nets, the county players towered over Larwood; the veteran Test batsman George Gunn thought he looked more like a jockey than a cricketer. At first he bowled badly, and his efforts were unimpressive. As his confidence increased his bowling improved, and committee members began to revise their initial dismissive judgement; when the session ended, Larwood was offered a playing contract. He accepted instantly; the terms were 32 shillings (£1.60) per week—the same as his mining wages—and he was expected, when not playing, to carry out ground staff duties. Robert Larwood was angry that his son had not asked for more generous terms, but according to Hamilton, Harold would have agreed to anything to escape from the mine, even for a single summer.
In the 1923 season, under the eye of the county's coach, James Iremonger, Larwood concentrated on building his physique and on learning bowling skills. He grew a few inches in height, although he remained short for a fast bowler, and under Iremonger's regime of diet and exercise he gained weight. Besides his physical development, he learned by incessant practice various bowling arts, among them accuracy in line and length, variation of pace and grip, and deviating the ball in the air to produce swing. That year he played intermittently for the county's Second XI, and in a match against Lancashire Seconds took 8 wickets for 44 runs.
Larwood was first called for full county duty on 20 August 1924, against Northamptonshire, at Trent Bridge. He bowled 26 overs in all, conceded 71 runs and took the wicket of Vallance Jupp, an experienced Test all-rounder. His assessment of his performance was negative: "I wasn't ready". Iremonger was much more positive, assuring Larwood that his bowling required only fine tuning. Larwood had also gained the support of the county captain, Arthur Carr, a powerful personality who decided that the new recruit had the makings of a future Test match bowler. "The best way to deal with him", Carr said later, "was as if he was my own son". Carr played a major part in encouraging and developing the young bowler's talents, and acted as Larwood's guiding spirit throughout the latter's career.
Larwood had to wait until June 1925 for his next county match, which was against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane in Sheffield. Although Nottinghamshire lost the game, Larwood took three wickets, including that of Yorkshire's leading batsman Herbert Sutcliffe. From that point he became a regular member of the county side; he finished the season with 73 wickets at an average of 18.01, with best match figures of 11 for 41 against Worcestershire. From time to time he showed good form as a batsman, his best score being 70 against Northamptonshire.
Larwood began the 1926 county season in good form; during a drawn match against Surrey, he twice took the wicket of Jack Hobbs, England's premier batsman and an influential voice with the national selectors. The Australians were in England, to defend the Ashes in a five-match Test series, and Carr had been appointed to captain England. Hobbs was convinced that Larwood was good enough to play for his country; this recommendation may have prompted the young bowler's inclusion in a "Test Trial" match at Lord's, early in June. Larwood took five wickets in the match, but was not selected for the first Test, which in any event was ruined by rain after barely an hour's play. For the second Test, due to begin at Lord's on 26 June, the selectors took a gamble and selected the youthful Larwood. His reaction when told by Carr was to protest that he was not good enough; Carr assured him that he was.