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:

Opening the batting for England

After a moderate season in 1908, Rhodes enjoyed perhaps his greatest ever year in 1909. Not only did he bowl as well as ever, he was only twenty runs shy of being the leading run-getter of the season - an amazing advance for someone who once went in last or second last! His aggregate of 2094 runs was a remarkably display of skill and tenacity on a succession of rain-affected pitches. With England's batting in a crisis, Rhodes went in first wicket down in the last Test and made 66 and 54, and opened with Jack Hobbs on the winter's tour of South Africa, where he was only modestly successful against the "googly" bowlers. Despite one wonderful all-round performance against Surrey - in which he mastered the otherwise irrepressible Razor Smith on an exceptionally bad pitch - 1910 was disappointing, but in 1911 Rhodes batted so well he reached his highest aggregate and was chosen for the tour of Australia as a regular opening batsman. Though his bowling failed so much that he did not take a wicket in the Tests, his partnerships with Hobbs were invariably superb both in this series and the 1912 Triangular Tournament. At the MCG, Rhodes batted seven hours for a wonderfully careful 179, whilst at Lord's and The Oval the following year the pair's skill on wet pitches helped established England's clear superiority over Australia. Rhodes maintained his form until the war halted county cricket, even howing some traces of his old form as a bowler in 1914 with 118 wickets for 18 each.

Related Topics:
Jack Hobbs - South Africa - Razor Smith - MCG - Lord's - The Oval - The war

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