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Australian
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Australia
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Aus
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Fred Spofforth
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Fred Spofforthjpg
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Right-handed batsman (RHB)
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Right arm fast medium
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18
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217
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943
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0/1
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50
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4185
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94
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1841
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7
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4
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7/44
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11/0
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155
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1928
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988
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0/3
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56
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30593
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853
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1495
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84
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32
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9/18
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83/0
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31 March
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1877
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31 January
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1887
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(born in
Balmain ,
Sydney on
9 September 1853 , died in
Surrey ,
England on
4 June 1926 ) - also called "'''The Demon'''", was arguably the
Australian Cricket Team 's first and best
Pace Bowler of the
19th Century .
He played his first
Test Match in
1877 in
Melbourne in the second match against
England , and took 4 wickets although England went on to win the match by 4 wickets. He had been left out of the first Test match because he refused to play with
Jack Blackham as
Wicket-keeper instead of
Billy Murdoch .
During the January Test match of the
1879 Lord Harris ' England tour of
Australia , played on the
Sydney Cricket Ground , Spofforth became the first man to get a
Hat-trick in Test cricket, giving a brilliant bowling performance of 13 wickets for 110 runs. In February Spofforth also played for New South Wales against Lord Harris' tourists in a game that, on the Saturday, descended into the
Sydney Riot Of 1879 .
Spofforth was also very instrumental in creating history in the 1882 Australian tour of England. The match that gave birth to the legendary
Ashes Series began at
The Oval on 28th August. In its second innings, England needed a mere 85 runs to clinch the match. But Fred Spofforth refused to give up and led his team to a remarkable and one of the closest victories in the
History Of Test Cricket . Australia won by 7 runs with Spofforth taking a total 14 wickets.
After that match Spofforth was dubbed the "Demon bowler" by the British media and became the most feared bowler among the English batsmen. He is also regarded as the bowler who brought the eye to eye contact with the batsman as a scaring technique into the game. Often during his matches Spofforth used to stare straight into the batsman's eyes to scare and shake him.
Fred Spofforth played his last Test match in Sydney in January
1887 in which he bowled 12
Overs , conceded 17 runs and took 1 wicket. England won the match by 13 runs.
After ending his cricket career at the age of 34, he moved to England and got married. He later became the managing director of the
Star Tea Company which belonged to his wife's father.
Fred Spofforth died at the age of 73 in
1926 in
Surrey , England.
In
1996 he was posthumously included in the
Australian Cricket Hall Of Fame as one of the ten inaugural inductees along with
John Blackham ,
Victor Trumper ,
Clarrie Grimmett ,
Bill Ponsford ,
Don Bradman ,
Bill O'Reilly ,
Keith Miller ,
Ray Lindwall and
Dennis Lillee .
- ''The "Demon" Spofforth'' by Richard Cashman (ISBN 0-86840-004-1)
