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Frank Woolley
Frank Edward Woolley (27 May 1887 – 18 October 1978) was an English professional cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club between 1906 and 1938 and for the England cricket team. A genuine all-rounder, Woolley was a left-handed batsman and a left-arm bowler. He was an outstanding fielder close to the wicket and is the only non wicket-keeper to have held over 1,000 catches in a first-class career, whilst his total number of runs scored is the second highest of all time and his total number of wickets taken the 27th highest.
Woolley played for England in 64 Test matches from 1909 to 1934 and is generally regarded as one of cricket's greatest all-rounders. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1911 edition of the almanack and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.
Woolley was born at Tonbridge in Kent in 1887, the youngest of four brothers. His father, Charles Woolley, owned a bicycle workshop in the town's High Street and Woolley was born above the business. Charles combined his workshop with a dyeing business he had inherited from his father, but had trained as an engineer at a railway works in Ashford; it was here that he had met and married his wife, Louise Lewis, the daughter of the owner of the railway works.
The family business was close to the Angel Ground, home of Tonbridge Cricket Club and a ground used for a festival week annually by Kent County Cricket Club. In 1899 the ground became the base for the Tonbridge Nursery, a training centre established to train Kent's young professional cricketers. The cricketers who passed through the Nursery formed the basis of Kent's four County Championship winning sides during Woolley's early cricket career. Woolley was interested in cricket from an early age and he would play with his brothers behind his father's workshop; the brothers also watched matches on the Angel Ground from a tree which overlooked the ground. He was also a keen association footballer, good enough to play for Tonbridge and to sign for Tunbridge Wells Rangers F.C. in 1906.
His father's business, which eventually developed into a motor vehicle garage, was doing well by the time Woolley was a teenager, and Frank had the opportunity to attend the fee-paying Tonbridge School. His natural cricketing ability had, however, attracted attention. He helped out by fielding during practice matches at the Angel Ground, before being asked to join in a match to make up the numbers by Tom Pawley, Kent's manager. Woolley did not consider himself a scholar and did not take up the chance of a place at Tonbridge, instead opting to leave school aged 14. He was officially taken on as a young professional by Kent in 1903, training full-time under William McCanlis at the Nursery during the cricket season. His brother Claud was taken on at the Nursery around the same time.
Woolley impressed McCanlis and the other Nursery coaches and in 1905 he made his Kent Second XI debut against Surrey Second XI at The Oval. Nursery professionals were made available for club sides which were able to request their service, and throughout the season Woolley scored 960 runs and took 115 wickets playing for a variety of sides. He was coached and mentored by Colin Blythe, a Kent professional who lived in Tonbridge and who bowled slow left-arm spin, the same bowling style as Woolley. Blythe had been Woolley's childhood hero and he appears to have modelled his bowling action on the older man, holding his bowling arm behind his back as he approached the wicket—Woolley's biographer Ian Peebles suggested that the main difference was that Woolley's left-arm came from his hip pocket rather than from his right armpit as Blythe's had done.
After a single Second XI match in May 1906, a match in which he played alongside his brother Claud, Woolley was drafted into Kent's First XI for the County Championship match against Lancashire at Old Trafford as a replacement for Blythe who had injured his hand fielding. His first-class cricket debut was marked by a third-ball duck, dropping Johnny Tyldesley, who scored 295 not out, three times and taking just one wicket in Lancashire's first innings. In Kent's second innings however, he scored 64 runs and he retained his place in the side for most of the remainder of the season, only dropping out of the First XI during Canterbury Cricket Week, a significant social occasion when amateur batsmen were more likely to make themselves available to play.
He took his first five-wicket haul in his second match against Somerset at Gravesend, before a fine all-round performance against Surrey at The Oval in his third match–eight wickets, including five wickets for 80 runs (5/80) in Surrey's second innings, and scores of 72 and 26 not out won the match for Kent and established Woolley's reputation as a young player of significant promise. A first century followed in his next match, played at the Angel Ground, and by the end of the season he had been awarded his county cap as Kent won their first County Championship title.
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Frank Woolley
Frank Edward Woolley (27 May 1887 – 18 October 1978) was an English professional cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club between 1906 and 1938 and for the England cricket team. A genuine all-rounder, Woolley was a left-handed batsman and a left-arm bowler. He was an outstanding fielder close to the wicket and is the only non wicket-keeper to have held over 1,000 catches in a first-class career, whilst his total number of runs scored is the second highest of all time and his total number of wickets taken the 27th highest.
Woolley played for England in 64 Test matches from 1909 to 1934 and is generally regarded as one of cricket's greatest all-rounders. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1911 edition of the almanack and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.
Woolley was born at Tonbridge in Kent in 1887, the youngest of four brothers. His father, Charles Woolley, owned a bicycle workshop in the town's High Street and Woolley was born above the business. Charles combined his workshop with a dyeing business he had inherited from his father, but had trained as an engineer at a railway works in Ashford; it was here that he had met and married his wife, Louise Lewis, the daughter of the owner of the railway works.
The family business was close to the Angel Ground, home of Tonbridge Cricket Club and a ground used for a festival week annually by Kent County Cricket Club. In 1899 the ground became the base for the Tonbridge Nursery, a training centre established to train Kent's young professional cricketers. The cricketers who passed through the Nursery formed the basis of Kent's four County Championship winning sides during Woolley's early cricket career. Woolley was interested in cricket from an early age and he would play with his brothers behind his father's workshop; the brothers also watched matches on the Angel Ground from a tree which overlooked the ground. He was also a keen association footballer, good enough to play for Tonbridge and to sign for Tunbridge Wells Rangers F.C. in 1906.
His father's business, which eventually developed into a motor vehicle garage, was doing well by the time Woolley was a teenager, and Frank had the opportunity to attend the fee-paying Tonbridge School. His natural cricketing ability had, however, attracted attention. He helped out by fielding during practice matches at the Angel Ground, before being asked to join in a match to make up the numbers by Tom Pawley, Kent's manager. Woolley did not consider himself a scholar and did not take up the chance of a place at Tonbridge, instead opting to leave school aged 14. He was officially taken on as a young professional by Kent in 1903, training full-time under William McCanlis at the Nursery during the cricket season. His brother Claud was taken on at the Nursery around the same time.
Woolley impressed McCanlis and the other Nursery coaches and in 1905 he made his Kent Second XI debut against Surrey Second XI at The Oval. Nursery professionals were made available for club sides which were able to request their service, and throughout the season Woolley scored 960 runs and took 115 wickets playing for a variety of sides. He was coached and mentored by Colin Blythe, a Kent professional who lived in Tonbridge and who bowled slow left-arm spin, the same bowling style as Woolley. Blythe had been Woolley's childhood hero and he appears to have modelled his bowling action on the older man, holding his bowling arm behind his back as he approached the wicket—Woolley's biographer Ian Peebles suggested that the main difference was that Woolley's left-arm came from his hip pocket rather than from his right armpit as Blythe's had done.
After a single Second XI match in May 1906, a match in which he played alongside his brother Claud, Woolley was drafted into Kent's First XI for the County Championship match against Lancashire at Old Trafford as a replacement for Blythe who had injured his hand fielding. His first-class cricket debut was marked by a third-ball duck, dropping Johnny Tyldesley, who scored 295 not out, three times and taking just one wicket in Lancashire's first innings. In Kent's second innings however, he scored 64 runs and he retained his place in the side for most of the remainder of the season, only dropping out of the First XI during Canterbury Cricket Week, a significant social occasion when amateur batsmen were more likely to make themselves available to play.
He took his first five-wicket haul in his second match against Somerset at Gravesend, before a fine all-round performance against Surrey at The Oval in his third match–eight wickets, including five wickets for 80 runs (5/80) in Surrey's second innings, and scores of 72 and 26 not out won the match for Kent and established Woolley's reputation as a young player of significant promise. A first century followed in his next match, played at the Angel Ground, and by the end of the season he had been awarded his county cap as Kent won their first County Championship title.