by Abhishek Mukherjee
Harold Larwood was born November 14, 1904. Since November 14 is also celebrated as Children's Day in India, let me share a fitting anecdote.
About a year before Larwood made his Test debut, in 1926, he had met Lois Bird.
While Lois did not understand cricket, she would – by Larwood's admission – remain the fulcrum around which his life would revolve throughout years of highs and lows.
They got married in September 1927 in a ceremony that involved only three people outside the candidates, the registrar, and the immediate family. They honeymooned at a boarding house in Blackpool, accompanied by, for reasons unknown, Larwood's parents.
About nine months after the wedding, Hampshire were playing Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Larwood was not having a particularly good day as Hampshire put up 148/3.
Then a telegram arrived at the ground. Larwood was fielding in the deep, so it was delivered straight to him.
Now Larwood was not one to lose focus during a match. So when captain Arthur Carr saw him immersed in the telegram, he obviously ran towards him from the slips: "What’s that? You’re supposed to be concentrating on the match, not reading messages."
But Larwood was in no mood to be controlled. "I've got a baby girl," he exclaimed, punching the air.
Carr, that shrewdest of captains, knew exactly what to do. Larwood, summoned immediately, bowled at a pace that was quick even by his standards.
He had Alexander Hosie caught behind, and Lewis Harfield and Percy Lawrie bowled, all in the space of four balls. He eventually finished with 6/66. Hampshire would not have reached 253 had Phil Mead – a man who would not have looked out of place in an all-time England XI – not got a masterly unbeaten 89.
Mead got to know of the baby girl only when he returned to the pavilion at the end of the innings. His response was typically Mead-like:
"Thank God it wasn't twins."
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Harold and Lois named their daughter June, after the month. When he returned from Australia in 1933, after the Bodyline series, there was a gift for the four-year-old. The toy koala was named Billie Bluegum.
Remember, this was the same tour on which a little Australian girl spotted him at a theatre and exclaimed: "Why, mummy, he doesn't look like a murderer!"
The couple had four more daughters, but no twin: Enid (born 1935), Mary (1938), Freda (1943), and Sylvia (1947).
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The photograph accompanying this article from Nottinghamshire Post. June is back row, centre. Harold and Lois are obviously the two at the extreme right in the front row.