VE Walker, born April 20, 1837, was the greatest lob bowler of his day, a fine batsman and a fantastic fielder. He was also a path-breaking captain. Arunabha Sengupta looks at the life and career of the man who carried the torch of lob bowling rekindled by William Clarke.
Carrying the rekindled torch
During an age of excitement around the newly discovered round-arm bowling, William Clarke had revived lobs and had emerged as the greatest bowler of his times.
By the time Clarke had passed away, from the field and from this world, in 1856, there were men experimenting with over-arm. Bowling was about to be given a shot in the arm that would finally make it resemble the way we see it today. Legalisation of over-arm was around the corner, and took place in 1864.
Yet, Clarke’s incredible success did usher in a lot of emulators. Bowlers, good and not so good, tried their hands at lobs, with varied degrees of success. Even George Parr, known for his batting greatness and for taking over the mantle of leadership of All England XI from Clarke, did take up lob bowling late in his career.
But the man who truly carried on the torch Clarke had rekindled was Vyell Edward Walker, commonly known as ‘VE’.
A champion all-rounder heralding from a family of seven cricketing brothers, he made his way into Lord’s, playing for MCC as a stripling 19-year-old, the same year as Clarke’s death. He would become a fixture of Middlesex from 1859, turning into a major institution of the Middlesex County Cricket Club when it was formed in 1864. He would play for them till 1877 and remain captain till 1872.
He would also be acknowledged as the leading lob bowler of his time, a fine batsman, a superb fielder and an astute captain.
Strangely for a man who has gone down as one of the greatest lob bowlers of his time, Walker, as we shall see, had started his cricket as a round-arm medium pace bowler. And curiously enough he would play a supporting role in legalising over-arm as well.
Three times and almost a fourth
The brilliance of Walker would be visible frequently on the cricket fields for more than two decades, but perhaps it never flashed with such resplendence as at The Oval in July, 1859.
Walking out at No. 9 in the first innings for England against Surrey, the young man managed an unbeaten 20 against the supreme bowling attack of William Caffyn, HH Stephenson and George Griffith as his side were all out for 172. And then he took hold of the ball.
There was the formidable John Jackson operating from the other end. But one by one the Surrey men surrendered their wickets to Walker. The star studded batting line up, including Caffyn, Stephenson and Lockyer, all fell to the youthful lobster. Frederick Burbidge, Caffyn and Stephenson were dismissed off the first, third and fourth balls of the same over.
At 126 for 9, William Martingell came out to join Julius Caesar. And almost immediately, Caesar was missed off Walker. According to the bowler, “I thought at that time I was going to miss the ten wickets feat.” But soon John Wisden had caught Martingell off his bowling and Walker returned with figures of 43-17-74-10 (four ball overs). He was modest when he recounted the story of the feat to ‘Old Ebor’: “My success struck me as singular because the bowler at the other end was far greater than I, namely John Jackson.”
But, it was less than half his deeds in the match. Leading by 41, England piled up 390 in the second innings. Walker, coming in at No. 6, compiled a chanceless 108. It remained his only century, and he regarded it as his best knock ever.
Set an incredible 432 to win, Surrey collapsed for a mere 39 in their second innings. Jackson made up for the lost scalps of the first innings with 6 for 21. But Walker had impressive figures of 15.3-5-17-4.
And apart from his batting and bowling, he fielded brilliantly throughout. “One of the most wonderful cricketing feats ever achieved”, wrote Arthur Haygarth in Scores and Biographies.
It was the first time someone had achieved the all 10 wickets and century feat. Later both WG and EM Grace would emulate him. However, WG did it against Oxford University and EM against the Gentlemen of Kent; when we go by the quality of opposition, Walker’s feat ranks way above the other two.
But, that was not the only all-10 haul of his career.
He did it again, for Gentlemen of Middlesex against Gentlemen of Kent at Maidstone in 1864 and for Middlesex versus Lancashire at Manchester in 1865. As he modestly put it, “Against the Gentlemen of Kent the 10 wickets cost 37 runs, but the 10 Lancastrians cost me 104. I must admit that the batsmen got their own back sometimes. I had to put up with as much ‘snuff’ as any bowler of my time.”
For all his modesty, it could well have been four times. When Middlesex played Sussex at Islington in 1864, for a moment it seemed that Walker had taken 10 for 62. He was roundly congratulated for his feat before it was discovered that Charles Payne had got a touch before the ball had rebounded off the pads of the wicketkeeper onto the stumps. The original verdict of ‘stumped’ was changed to ‘run out’ according to the Laws of the game that prevailed at that time, and a scalp was deducted from Walker’s tally
The methods
Strangely, for one who ended up with 334 wickets at 15.92 with his lobs, Walker had first started as a round-arm medium pacer. “Lob bowling was to me an acquired art,” as he told ‘Old Ebor’ in an interview.
At Harrow, he came under the cricketing tutelage of Robert Grimston and Lord Bessborough. These two coaches convinced him to take up lob bowling for the benefit of the balance of the school side. And that changed the career path of Walker.
Walker had a habit of running well up the pitch after the delivery. This was perhaps the effect of bowling fast with a high delivery. He bowled with a fair amount of spin from the leg, and varied his pace within very wide limits.
His action was peculiar, a sort of half-cock movement. His hand was higher than his hip when the ball left, and was at some distance from the body. Almost always he bowled round the wicket, the ball coming at the batsman at a considerable angle. Also, the round the wicket mode enabled him to escape scraping his knuckles against the stumps.
Apart from the controlled spin, Walker occasionally indulged in an absolute high ball of parabolic flight. Canon McCormick commented, “VE’s difficulty mainly lay in his deceptive variation of pace. He was a splendid judge of a batsman’s ability and very quickly found out his weak spots.”
“He was a most formidable customer as a bowler, and the most athletic fellow I ever saw on a cricket field,” remembered his contemporary Edward Rutter.
Indeed, what made him dangerous was his exceptional ability to field off his own bowling. This was a skill most important for lob bowlers, and in this one department he was miles ahead of William Clarke.
“It did not matter to him how hard the ball was driven back to him; if it was within his reach he made a catch of it with either hand,” recalled Rutter. “I have seen him catch a man behind the batsman’s wicket near short-leg, which shows what a lot of ground he covered.”
He was one of the best fielders at point as well. Apart from that he was, as already mentioned, a fine batsman with a splendid drive. Apart from his 334 wickets, he scored 3384 runs at 17.26, very decent for the era, with a hundred and 12 fifties, and also snapped 188 catches.
Walker the captain
The brilliant all-round cricketer that he was, Walker also influenced the course of the game as captain.
It was in August 1862 that England played Surrey at The Oval, the same fixture that had seen Walker score a hundred and pick up all ten wickets three year earlier. In this match he was the captain and led his team out on the field after having had the satisfaction of seeing his batsmen pile up 503 in the first innings. He opened the bowling with the left-arm fast bowler, Edgar Willsher, the Lion of Kent.
Surrey opener Thomas Humphrey was sent back off one of Walker’s lobs by virtue of a magnificent catch by Jemmy Grundy, and Burbidge joined William Mortlock at the wicket. Willsher began his third over, and was no-balled by umpire John Lillywhite. His arm was raised above the shoulder at the time of delivery.
This was repeated five times after which the bowler flung the ball down. Walker and Charles Lyttelton, the only amateurs in the England team, remained on the ground. The rest of the eleven, nine professionals, walked out. Play was not resumed that evening.
Frantic discussions took place during the night, and it was decided with the consent of Walker that local umpire Street would replace Lillywhite.
Willsher went on to take 6 for 49. In another couple of seasons, the Laws were changed to allow over-arm bowling.
Four years down the line there was another England versus Surrey match at The Oval. Once again Walker was the captain, and once again history was made. But this time, as in 1859, it was a much happier tale.
In the England side was a strapping 18-year-old youth with abundant facial hair that would grow longer and longer with time into the most famous beard of history. Yes, a young WG Grace was playing for England, and he stroked his way to 224 not out as England batted. Walker himself scored 54 in the England innings of 521 and added 118 with the man who would change the face of cricket forever.
On the second morning, as England fielded, Walker generously gave WG permission to leave the field. The strapping youth made his way to the Crystal Palace and won the quarter-mile hurdle race at the National Olympian Association Meeting.
Walker also captained Middlesex and the Gentlemen with plenty of insight and aplomb.
The great all-rounder played his final First Class game in 1877.
The Walkers of Southgate were one of the most prominent cricketing families in the history of the game, with older brothers John, Alfred, Frederick, Arthur Walker, and younger ones Russel and Isaac, all playing First-Class cricket.
Of these, Isaac Donnithorne Walker, popularly known as ‘ID’, was the most successful after VE and almost as popular. It was ID who took over the captaincy of Middlesex after VE gave it up in 1872.
Walker later served as the President of MCC in 1891 and 1892 and subsequently became the President of Middlesex from 1899 till his death in 1906. He passed away at Amos Grove aged 68.
In Giants of the Game the Hon. RH Lyttelton wrote, “Added to [his batting, bowling and fielding abilities] he was, by universal consent, a splendid judge of the game and as good, possibly the best, captain of a side as ever filled that difficult post. Indeed, I have heard it said that he was worth playing in Gentlemen and Players after he had passed his prime for the sake of his great powers as captain of the side. In addition to this, I can speak from personal knowledge, no cricketer was more kind to all, especially young cricketers; and it was always a pleasure to play under him.”