1. George Aubrey Faulkner was a South African cricketer who played 25 Test matches for South Africa and fought in both the Second Boer War and World War I In cricket, he was an all-rounder who was among the best batsmen in the world at his peak and was one of the first leg spin bowlers to use the googly.
Aubrey Faulkner was the best all-rounder in the world during his career.
Aubrey Faulkner likely suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder, and he committed suicide in September 1930.
Aubrey Faulkner was born in Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony on 17 December 1881.
Aubrey Faulkner's father was a wealthy man and Faulkner was able to attend the prestigious Wynberg Boys' High School, but he endured violence in his childhood as his father was an alcoholic and a wife-beater.
Aubrey Faulkner left home at the age of nineteen and moved to Johannesburg to join the Imperial Light Horse and fight in the Anglo-Boer War.
Aubrey Faulkner was first coached as a cricketer by Walter Richards, a former cricketer-turned-umpire.
Aubrey Faulkner batted at nine in both games and only bowled for five wicketless overs.
Aubrey Faulkner wasn't seen as anything more than an average cricketer at the time, and he didn't play a match in the following season.
Aubrey Faulkner was promptly selected for his Test debut in the first Test of the series against England at Johannesburg, where he was part of a four-man googly attack along with Schwarz, Bert Vogler and Gordon White.
Aubrey Faulkner was selected for the South African tour of the United Kingdom in 1907.
Aubrey Faulkner came on to bowl after lunch, and in the span of eleven overs, took six wickets for just 17 runs.
Aubrey Faulkner alone scored 1,288 runs and took 73 wickets on tour.
Still, Aubrey Faulkner scored his maiden Test century with 123 runs out of 216 of the runs scored over two hours and fifty minutes.
England was chasing 244 runs for victory and still had two wickets in hand with 46 runs to go before Aubrey Faulkner took the match's final two wickets to give South Africa a 19-run win.
Aubrey Faulkner was chaired off of the ground by his teammates for his efforts.
South Africa went on to win the series, and Aubrey Faulkner would be their top run-scorer in 5 of the 10 innings.
Aubrey Faulkner scored 545 runs at 60.55 and took 29 wickets at 21.89, the highest run-scorer from either team and the second-highest wicket-taker.
Aubrey Faulkner passed 150, the first South African to do so in 25 years of playing Test cricket, then scored the first-ever South African double-century, batting well into the match's third day.
Aubrey Faulkner's innings lasted more than five hours, and he hit twenty-six fours.
Aubrey Faulkner played so strongly off of the back foot that when his bat hit the ball, it sounded like a pistol shot.
Aubrey Faulkner went overly defensive in the second innings and was dismissed for 8 runs, and South Africa was bowled out for 80 to lose the match by 89 runs.
Since Aubrey Faulkner was the only batsman able to stand up to the Australian bowlers, he effectively became the team's batting coach for the rest of the series.
Aubrey Faulkner was still a major contributor with a four-hour-long century.
Aubrey Faulkner moved to England in 1912 intending to play county cricket for either Surrey or Middlesex, but businessman Julien Cahn offered him more money to play club cricket in Nottingham.
South Africa toured England again in 1912 for the triangular series with England and Australia, and Aubrey Faulkner made himself available for South Africa, playing in six Test matches and scoring 194 runs at 19.40 and taking 17 wickets at 26.70.
Aubrey Faulkner's wife left him eighteen months after the war, and he played what seemed like it would be his final first-class innings against a touring Australian side in 1921, making an impressive 153 runs in the first loss the Australians faced on their tour.
Desperate, they coerced Aubrey Faulkner into joining the team for the match despite him now being 42, overweight, and 12 years removed from his last Test match.
Aubrey Faulkner's batting was significantly worse than it had been 12 years earlier, but he still managed to score 25 runs, and while bowling, he almost took the wicket of Jack Hobbs.
In 1925, Aubrey Faulkner started a cricket school in London called the Aubrey Faulkner School of Cricket, the first of its kind, and was credited with shaping some future Test players, including Doug Wright, Ian Peebles and Denis Tomlinson.
Aubrey Faulkner did not discriminate in his school based on class or upbringing, giving every student the same attention level.
Aubrey Faulkner was an all-rounder, proficient with both bat and ball.
Aubrey Faulkner had a stuttering bowling run-up, and as he approached the crease to bowl, he would pump his elbows out wildly, similar to later fast bowler Test bowler Bob Willis.
Aubrey Faulkner's bowling was different from his contemporary leg-spin bowlers in two main ways: the ball would bounce off the pitch faster than most, and he was capable of bowling an almost undetectable googly.
The faster bounce was due to Aubrey Faulkner generating their spin and pace more from a flick of the wrist than from arm movement.
Aubrey Faulkner had eccentric footwork in his defense but had good technique.
Aubrey Faulkner typically fielded in the slips, but he was a capable outfielder.