Arthur Mold
Arthur Webb Mold was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Lancashire as a fast bowler between 1889 and 1901. A Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1892, he was selected for England in three Test matches in 1893. Mold was one of the most effective bowlers in England during the 1890s but his career was overshadowed by controversy over his bowling action. Although he took 1,673 wickets in first-class matches, many commentators viewed his achievements as tainted.
Mold began his professional cricket career playing for Banbury and Northamptonshire in the mid-1880s, but by 1889 had qualified to play for Lancashire at county level. Immediately successful, he quickly established a good bowling partnership with Johnny Briggs and became one of the leading bowlers in the country. However, he only achieved selection for England in one series in 1893. Many critics thought he threw rather than bowled the ball, and he was among several bowlers at the time about whom there were similar suspicions. Controversy erupted in 1900 when Mold was no-balled for throwing by Jim Phillips, an umpire who had targeted several prominent bowlers with dubious bowling actions. After Mold avoided several games in which Phillips was umpire, the affair came to a head in 1901. On the opening morning of a match, Phillips repeatedly no-balled Mold. Several of Mold's teammates and most Lancashire supporters continued to believe that Mold bowled legally, but his reputation was ruined and, after three more appearances in 1901, he retired at the end of the season. After his departure from the game, throwing ceased to be a concern in English cricket for 50 years.
Early life and career
Mold was born on 27 May 1863 in the village of Middleton Cheney in Northamptonshire. His family had links with the thatching trade, but Mold pursued a career in professional cricket. He began to play for the village team, making good progress as a bowler; in 1882, Middleton Cheney were unbeaten and Mold had the best bowling average in the team. In 1885 and 1886, he was employed as a professional at Banbury Cricket Club. In his second year, a successful match against the Free Foresters, an amateur team, impressed two Lancashire cricketers who played against him. Subsequently, in 1887, Mold was employed by Manchester Cricket Club, and played a few non-competitive cricket matches for Lancashire. In the same season, Northamptonshire, which at the time had not been awarded first-class status, asked Mold to play for them. Playing as a professional, Mold was immediately successful, taking ten wickets in a match against a team from Surrey and seven wickets for 22 runs in an innings against Staffordshire. He continued to represent Northamptonshire in the following season but hoped to play for Lancashire. At the time, cricketers who wished to play competitive first-class matches for a county in which they were not born had to live there for two years to qualify.By 1889, Mold was qualified for Lancashire and was expected by critics to make an impact. At the time, Lancashire had no fast bowler in their team, making Mold potentially an important player. He made his first-class debut for the county in a three-day match against Marylebone Cricket Club starting on 9 May 1889, taking one wicket in a drawn game. Throughout the rest of the season, Mold impressed critics. After a slow start in unhelpful conditions and unsuitable playing surfaces for his type of bowling, he took a total of 33 wickets in four consecutive games and established a reputation as the fastest bowler in England. His best performance statistically was seven for 35 against Yorkshire County Cricket Club, in a match during which he took 13 wickets, but he was successful in other high-profile matches. In all games against county opposition, Mold took 80 wickets at an average of 11.69; in all first-class matches he took 102 wickets at an average of 11.81. This placed him third in the national bowling averages. Although less successful in 1890, he took 118 wickets in first-class games at 14.72, which was 11th in the averages. His best figures, nine for 41, once more came against Yorkshire, and he helped Lancashire to second place in the first official County Championship. Mold came close to playing for England when he was included in the squad to play in the third Test match against Australia, but the match was abandoned owing to rain and no play took place.
Leading bowler
Mold established himself as one of the leading bowlers in England during 1891. According to Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, "The season of 1891 brought him a great increase of reputation, and all through the summer he was uniformly successful." In all first-class matches, he took 138 wickets at 12.49 to finish second in the national bowling averages. As a result of his good performances in the season, he was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Lancashire finished as runners-up once again in the County Championship.In 1892, Mold's aggregate of wickets fell to 120 at an average of 13.63, but he returned the best bowling figures of his career when he took nine for 29 against Kent. He was chosen in a representative match for the first time, playing for the North against the South. During the 1893 season, Mold took 166 wickets at 16.96; at the end of the season, The Times described him as a great bowler and noted that he and Johnny Briggs were Lancashire's only two effective bowlers. Between them, the pair took 225 wickets; the other bowlers in combination took 46. Once more representing the North during 1893, this time in a match against the touring Australian team, Mold also made his debut in the prestigious Gentlemen v Players match, playing for the professional "Players" and taking nine wickets in the game. His performances brought about his international debut; he played for England in all three Test matches against Australia, the only such appearances of his career. In the first game, he took three for 44 in Australia's only innings, his best figures of the series, and took four wickets in the other two matches to finish with seven wickets at an average of 33.42. It is likely that doubts about the legality of his bowling action prevented him from playing further Test matches, or touring Australia with a representative side. However, other factors may have played a part in his subsequent omission, including the emergence of Tom Richardson as a successful fast bowler, and the opinion that Mold's bowling was flattered by the difficult, uneven pitches on which Lancashire played their home games.
Mold's annual total of wickets continued to increase in the following seasons. In 1894, he again represented the North and the Players, taking 207 wickets in total at an average of 12.30. But as Lancashire increased the number of games they played, Mold and Briggs had an increased bowling workload and once more had little assistance from other bowlers. Between them, they took 324 wickets while the next most successful bowler took 13. The following year, Mold reached his highest seasonal tally with 213 wickets at 15.96, and made his final appearance for the Players. The Times commented on the effectiveness of Mold: "Mold preserves all his pace and break in bowling, and his success on the hard wickets was phenomenal."
Although Mold appeared for the North against the Australians, who toured again in 1896, he did not play any Tests or other representative cricket that year and his wicket total fell to 150 at 18.12; after this season, his bowling began to decline in effectiveness. Suffering frequently from injury in 1897, Mold failed to reach 100 wickets in the season for the first time. His 90 wickets in 1898 were taken at an average over 20, the only time his bowling average was so high, and he missed three weeks of the season owing to injury. After improving his record to 115 wickets at 18.68 during 1899, he was awarded a benefit match by Lancashire during 1900 which raised £2,050, a record total at the time and worth around £173,000 in 2010.
Throwing controversy
Background
For many years in England, there had been controversy over bowling actions; several bowlers were believed to throw rather than bowl the ball, which was contrary to the Laws of Cricket. Lancashire had a particularly poor reputation among other county teams for using bowlers who threw: by the early 1880s, up to four of Lancashire's main bowlers were judged to be unfair, including John Crossland who bowled very quickly. By the mid-1880s, several teams refused to play Lancashire on account of their bowling attack. Mainly through the actions of Lord Harris, many of the suspect bowlers were forced out of cricket, and bowling actions became more legitimate. However, some players continued to bowl with questionable actions, including members of the Lancashire team. The issue intensified in 1896 when two of the Australian touring team, Ernie Jones and Tom McKibbin, seemed to throw the ball regularly; Sydney Pardon, the editor of Wisden, wrote: "The mortifying fact was that the illegal bowling was due entirely to our own weakness in not having the laws of the game carried out. The Australians only did against us what we had over and over again done against them."Following the 1896 tour, the English authorities realised action had to be taken. Jim Phillips, an Australian-born umpire who journeyed each year between his native country and England, travelled to Australia with an English touring team in 1897–98. During two of the matches he umpired, Phillips no-balled Ernie Jones for throwing. Upon returning to England for the 1898 season, Phillips also called C. B. Fry, a prominent amateur cricketer and all-round sportsman, for throwing. This was the second of three occasions in 1898 that Fry was no-balled. Other umpires, following Phillips' lead, no-balled Fry and Frank Hopkins. Two further bowlers, albeit not famous cricketers, were called for throwing in 1899.