Warwick Armstrong

Warwick Windridge Armstrong (born May 22, 1879 in Kyneton, Victoria, died July 13 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales) was an Australian cricketer. He captained the Australian cricket team in 1920/21 with good results, and was considered by many to be the best Australian all-round player through the first twenty years of the 20th Century.

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Armstrong played two seasons of Australian Rules Football for South Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League in 1899 and 1900 before taking cricket seriously.

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His early cricket career included being a ground bowler for Melbourne Cricket Club members practicing in the nets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

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He was a large man (21 stone), who used his size and strength to great effect in intimidating opposition bowlers who described the cricket ball coming back at them after being struck by Armstrong as being "like a cannonball". He was known as the "Big Ship".

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Armstrong was the only person to ever bowl two consecutive overs in a Test match. This occurred at Old Trafford in Manchester in 1921 at the end of the day when the English team started to leave the ground, believing that stumps had been called. Armstrong, who had bowled the last over and was captain of the Australian team, appealed that another over was available and convinced the umpires to continue playing. On recommencement of play shortly after, he bowled an over without anyone apparently noticing that he'd also bowled the previous one.

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"The Big Ship" had a first-class career that spanned twenty-four years, scoring over 16,000 runs and taking 832 wickets. After retiring, he became a cricket journalist. He was entered into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000, fifty-three years after his death.

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1879: 1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar)....

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