Wilfred Rhodes

Wilfred Rhodes (born October 29, 1877, North Moor, Kirkheaton, near Huddersfield, Yorkshire; died July 8, 1973, Branksome Park, Bournemouth) was one of the greatest cricketers of the twentieth century. Whilst his career evolved through a great many distinct stages, his record for Yorkshire and England is sufficient to place him as one of the very greatest all-round cricketers of all time. Unusually, he batted right-handed but bowled left arm. Some remarkable achievements of his career include:

Irrepressible in county cricket - hopeless in Australia

With Yorkshire in desperate need of bowling in 1919 after the tragic deaths of Major Booth and Alonzo Drake, Rhodes moved down the batting order (with Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes forming an amazing partnership as openers) to concentrate once more on bowling. He was so successful in county cricket that he averaged under 13 for the next five years and his average in 1923 was the lowest for any bowler between 1895 and 1957. At the same time, Rhodes maintained his batting so well that by the end of 1924 he had completed a thousand runs for eighteen consecutive years. With George Macaulay, Abe Waddington and Roy Kilner, Yorkshire had a bowling combination that, even on good wickets, tied opposing batsmen down so well that most failed completely, whilst on wickets at all helpful, it was invariably unplayable. In his forties, Rhodes (like J.T. Hearne) had the most marvellous accuracy, but it was always thought he had lost a lot of the spin of the period from 1898 to 1902.

Related Topics:
Major Booth - Alonzo Drake - Herbert Sutcliffe - Percy Holmes - George Macaulay - Abe Waddington - Roy Kilner - J.T. Hearne

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Yet, in Australia in 1920/1921 Rhodes' bowling was remarkably innocuous. He took only four wickets for 61 each in the Tests! This ineffectiveness characterised many county bowlers of the time, and shows how Rhodes' average reflects the fact that so many county sides were first-class only in name during the period - largely because they had not the money to attract the professionals the top counties could, and top amateurs were almost never able to play. His batting showed severe faults against fast bowling during 1921, so that, despite his remarkable county record, he was left out of the Tests after the first.

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