23 Facts About Fred Spofforth

Fred Spofforth was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets, and the first to take a Test hat-trick, in 1879.

Fred Spofforth played in Test matches for Australia between 1877 and 1887, and then settled in England where he played for Derbyshire.

Fred Spofforth was thereafter employed by the Bank of New South Wales as a clerk.

Fred Spofforth decided that he would pursue the overarm action and spent many years mastering it.

Fred Spofforth was a regular representative of the New South Wales team in intercolonial fixtures and, in the December 1877 game, went in second wicket down to make 25, the highest score in either innings in a low-scoring match.

Fred Spofforth played his first Test match in 1877 in Melbourne.

Fred Spofforth took three wickets in the first innings and another in the second, but England went on to win the match by four wickets.

Fred Spofforth had boycotted the First Test because of Jack Blackham's selection as wicket-keeper ahead of Spofforth's close friend and fellow New South Welshman Billy Murdoch.

Fred Spofforth truly announced himself to the cricketing world on 27 May 1878, when the touring Australians met the MCC at Lord's.

The colonists won by nine wickets, with Fred Spofforth picking up ten for twenty after first clean-bowling Grace for a duck.

Fred Spofforth was the bowler whom English batsmen most feared and is regarded as the one who first brought into the game, as a scaring technique, eye-to-eye contact with the batsman.

The Australians won by seven runs, Fred Spofforth taking match figures of fourteen for ninety.

In February, Fred Spofforth played for New South Wales against Lord Harris' tourists in a game that, on the Saturday, descended into the Sydney riot of 1879.

Fred Spofforth played his last Test match in Sydney in January 1887 in which he bowled twelve overs, conceded seventeen runs and took one wicket.

Fred Spofforth represented New South Wales from 1874 to 1885 and Victoria from 1885 to 1887.

In 1888 Fred Spofforth settled in England and got married, choosing to live in Derbyshire.

In 1890 Derbyshire was found to be in deep financial crisis and Fred Spofforth played a key part in identifying a fraud that had been committed.

In 1896, Fred Spofforth, playing for MCC, although in his forty-third year, took eight wickets for 74 against Yorkshire.

Fred Spofforth played club cricket for Hampstead for some years after 1890 and secured a large number of wickets at a low cost.

Fred Spofforth revisited Australia on more than one occasion and retained his interest in the game to the end.

Fred Spofforth died on the eve of the 1926 Ashes series from chronic colitis at Long Ditton, Surrey.

Fred Spofforth began as a fast bowler, although he did not have a very long run.

Fred Spofforth might have been the original inventor of swing bowling.