51 Facts About Bart King

John Barton "Bart" King was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Bart King successfully competed against the best cricketers from England and Australia.

Bart King was the dominant bowler on his team when it toured England in 1897,1903, and 1908.

Bart King dismissed batsmen with his unique delivery, which he called the "angler", and helped develop the art of swing bowling in the sport.

Bart King was not a member of the aristocratic and wealthy families of Philadelphia that produced many of the era's top cricketers.

In 1913, Bart King married Fannie Lockhart; the marriage lasted for fifty years.

Bart King's wife died in 1963, and he died in 1965 in his native Philadelphia two days before his 92nd birthday.

Bart King was regarded by many of his contemporaries as an affable person.

Bart King was noted for making jabs at opponents, but leaving them laughing at themselves.

Bart King is said to have spoken for ninety minutes at a dinner during his last tour to England, punctuated every few seconds with laughs.

The dinner guests were kept laughing even while Bart King spoke with a dead-pan expression.

Bart King made their task doubly difficult by sprinkling in a fair mixture of truth with his fiction.

Bart King began to play club cricket at Tioga Cricket Club in 1888, aged 15, starting out as a batsman.

Bart King played his first recorded match for the club in 1889, when he was tried as a bowler due to his physique.

Bart King took 37 wickets for 99 runs for the club in the 1889 cricket season.

Bart King played for Tioga until 1896, when he joined Belmont Cricket Club.

Bart King joined the Philadelphian cricket team for three tours of England while playing at Belmont.

Bart King's most dominating matches came during these tours, playing with the premier American team of the era.

Bart King came in to bat last, at number 11, making 36 runs.

The side was all out for 199, with Bart King taking 5 wickets for 78 runs.

Bart King won the Child's Bowling Cup, the premier award for bowling in American cricket, for the first time in 1896, and joined the Philadelphian cricket team's tour of England in 1897.

Bart King demonstrated his batting ability in the first innings with a fourth-wicket stand of 107 with John Lester.

Bart King then took 7 wickets for 13 runs, and Philadelphia dismissed Sussex for 46 in less than an hour.

Bart King took 6 for 102 in Sussex's second innings, helping the Philadelphians to victory by 8 wickets.

Bart King bowled three hundred overs, more than anyone else in the team, taking 72 wickets with a bowling average of a little over 24 runs.

Bart King played in 13 of the 15 matches on the tour, missing two with a strained side.

Bart King followed that with 8 for 39 in the first innings against Oxford University, though the match was eventually abandoned as a draw due to rain.

Bart King took 7 for 51 and 2 for 28 against a strong MCC side at Lord's.

In Lancashire's first innings, Bart King bowled 27 overs and took 5 wickets for 46 runs.

Bart King clean bowled two more batsmen in his second over, and bowled a stump out of the ground in the third.

One batsman was run out before Bart King returned to take 4 more wickets, ending the innings with 9 for 62.

Apparently, Bart King was so exhausted after his performance that he fell asleep during a speech by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Alverstone at a banquet after the match.

Bart King toured England with the Philadelphians a third time in 1908.

Again the Philadelphians won and again Hordern and Bart King took most of the wickets.

Bart King topped the bowling averages for the entire 1908 English cricket season at 11.01.

Bart King continued to play club matches in Philadelphia and participated in non-first-class fixtures around the continent.

Bart King is noted for holding the bowling record against Canada.

Bart King played in his last two international matches in 1912, against Australia.

Bart King's performances were of the highest quality, given that he was nearing his fortieth year.

Bart King joined the Philadelphia Cricket Club after the 1912 season.

Bart King died at a nursing home in his native Philadelphia in 1965, two days short of his 92nd birthday.

Bart King scored 39 centuries in his North American career, and he topped 1,000 runs in six seasons.

Bart King took over 100 wickets in eight seasons, including a double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in four seasons.

Bart King took all 10 wickets in an innings on three occasions, and took 9 wickets in an innings five times.

The ball stopped within three feet of the boundary, and Bart King had to chase it.

Thanks to his dominant performance over his career and his renown in the world of cricket, Bart King was elected an honorary member of the Incogniti Cricket Club in 1908 and an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1962.

Bart King is credited as one of the first bowlers to utilise swing bowling deliberately.

Bart King made use of a lethal delivery which he called the "angler", a product of his experience as a baseball pitcher, to confuse the English batsmen.

Bart King would come in with the ball clasped above his head in both hands as would a baseball pitcher.

Bart King described it as an in-swinger which, if properly bowled, would change direction sharply in the last 10 or 15 feet of flight.

Bart King used this ball only sparingly and only against good batsmen.