The Erratic Syd Emery by Pat Rodgers
Pat Rodgers | July 09, 2025
Chapter 1 “One of the few unplayable balls I have seen”.
LORDS 1912
Syd had been warned about the chance of rain interrupting play during a so-called English summer. The dampness in the air on the first morning of the Lord’s Test on 24 June 1912 seemed to confirm this. He and his teammates had entered the field with black mourning bands on their left upper arms in memory of their friend Ernest Hume who had been a long time mainstay at Syd’s Sydney club Redfern as well as a State selector and team manager. Ernie had been having the time of his life on the tour with the Australians as a supporter, sometime advisor, sometime confidant, when he was suddenly taken ill in London and could not recover from a bout of double pneumonia two days before the Test.
No sooner had the English innings begun that morning than a thunderstorm forced the players from the field. Still, Syd had been enjoying himself on and off the field with his fellow Australians and had caused a stir by capturing a remarkable 30 wickets in his first three matches on English soil.
His “puzzling” bowling had been extensively analysed by members of the local press who were struggling to uncover the secrets of his success. Now he found himself in the middle of the home of cricket with none other than Jack Hobbs and England’s captain, CB Fry, in partnership.
Hobbs had mastered the tricky conditions of the uncovered pitch left wet after the storm to reach a magnificent century. Years later he would remain proud of being just the fourth Englishman to record a Test century at Lord’s.
Syd had not been called on to bowl his mixture of brisk leg spinners and googlies until the score had reached 2-162 as the ball was hard to grip on such a damp day. Captain Syd Gregory was also known to allow matches to meander without overt interference. But here he was now he was at the other end of the pitch about to bowl to the world’s premier opening batsman who was on 107. Syd approached the crease quickly from an unusually long and indirect run up. Fry at the non-striker’s end later described the delivery
as one of the few unplayable balls I have seen, it was a perfect length on the leg stump, came fast off the pitch and hit the off stump.
This foreshadowed a certain “ball of the century” over 80 years later delivered by another Australian leg spinner with a colourful personality. And it wasn’t the first time Hobbs had fallen to Syd Emery that summer of 1912. Fry and ‘Plum’ Warner had also been victims of Emery in the Australians’ match against MCC in May.
To top it off, just before the end of the truncated day’s play, Warner, in his final Test match innings, was also deceived by a ball from Emery. In his his attempt to pull it, he managed only to edge it on to his stumps. Warner later said of the spinner
His bowling for about half an hour at Lord’s was as good as anything I have ever seen- leg breaks at the pace of Richardson, and such good and fast yorkers and googlies.
High praise for a 26-year-old playing in just his second Test match. Especially given that he had emerged from a rough and tumble inner city Sydney suburb characterised by its very colourful history. A suburb which now no longer existed.
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