Classic Ashes Series: Bodyline 1932-33

England captain Douglas Jardine making a point to his players following the fall of an Australian wicket during the 1st Test match in the infamous Bodyline series at the Sydney Cricket Ground, 2nd December 1932. England won by 10 wickets. (

Adelaide, January 1933: England’s tour manager Pelham Warner pays a visit to the Australian players’ dressing room with the intention of apologising to the Australian captain, Bill Woodfull, for the injuries received when he was struck repeatedly by English pace man, Harold Larwood.

“I don’t want to see you, Mr Warner,” Woodfull reportedly said. “There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket, one is not.”

This was the third test of the infamous Bodyline series and the one in which the style of bowling, called leg theory, really made an impact. Interestingly, Larwood wasn’t actually bowling leg theory when Woodfull was hit and Bert Oldfield, who had his skull fractured in that same Test, always admitted that the injury was as much to do with his poor attempt to hit the ball as anything.

None of this has stopped Bodyline from becoming a legend.

The series took place in the Australian summer of 1932-33 and was characterised by England’s pure determination to win back the urn. Not for the first or last time in cricket history, the Australian team of the 1930s had a formidable batting line up, which included such names as Bill Woodfull, Stan McCabe, Bill Ponsford and, of course, Donald Bradman.

Although Bradman’s first series for Australia ended in a comprehensive 4-0 victory for England. On the return tour to England in 1930, he had matured and gained more experience and it showed. Bradman made double centuries at the Oval and at Lord’s, and the infamous 334 in the third test at Headingley.

With the prospect of a tour Down Under with Australia’s already impressive batting line up as well as this enigma that was Bradman, England knew they would need something special. They found that something in leg theory bowling, or Bodyline as it became known.

Bodyline was not just a style of bowling, but a combination of a certain style of bowling and certain field placements which together made it difficult for the batter to score. In short, the ball would be bowled so that it pitched short down the leg side and rose up at the batsman. The fielders were stacked behind the wicket and on the leg side with a view to taking a catch as the batter tried to defend himself from the ball. Add this tactic to a bowler like Larwood, who was devastatingly fast, and the often unpredictable Australian pitches, the English team had one hell of a weapon.

A relaxing day for the MCC England cricket team in Sydney as they prepare for the Ashes Test matches. In the boat are, left-right: Freddie Brown, George Duckworth, Eddie Paynter, Wally Hammond, unidentified local man, and Bill Voce. In the water, Tom Mitchell and Maurice Leyland.

The idea for Bodyline supposedly came about when Douglas Jardine, England’s captain, was shown film footage of Bradman batting at the Oval and noticed that he flinched whenever a ball bounced up at his chest. It was decided that more of these deliveries needed to be utilised in the return tour and that the perfect men to do it were the incomparable pace men from Nottinghamshire, Larwood and his team mate, Billy Voce.

The tactic worked and England won the series 4-1, but it proved controversial. It wasn’t illegal but it was new and unexpected and, with a bowler like Larwood in particular, it could be seen as dangerous. The England team, Jardine and Larwood in particular, were rumoured to fear for their safety because the Australian crowds were livid at what was seen as unsporting and against the spirit of the game. Telegrams went back and forward between Australia and London with complaints about the nature of the bowling; Jardine accused the Australian press of making the whole thing up and the Australian team threatened to stop the series, claiming to do otherwise would “upset friendly relations” between the two countries. But the MCC did nothing and the tour continued.

Years later, Harold Larwood remembered going to the theatre one night in Adelaide and overhearing a little girl say to her mother, “But Mummy, he doesn’t look like a murderer.” For all that, when Larwood scored 98 at Sydney he was given a standing ovation by the crowd as he walked back to the pavilion.

Douglas Jardine was vilified by the Australian public and is still hated to this day by Australian cricket fans. It’s highly unlikely that the MCC would appoint someone with such an unprofessional stance as their captain. It didn’t matter what people thought of the English captain, Jardine’s team had accomplished what they’d set out to do – they’d got the Ashes back.

The game of cricket, though, had changed forever. A letter written by a fan to the Sydney Morning Herald noted that if this type of thing was allowed to continue, the game would start to resemble baseball with all the players wearing helmets and pads. He was right. That is exactly what happened.

Furthermore, Bodyline-style bowling did not go away. In the 1970s, the most formidable pair of fast bowlers on the international scene were Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson, who bowled in a way that was designed to intimidate and sometimes hurt a batsman, not unlike Bodyline.

The Bodyline series, as it has become known, still divides people. Was it really set up just to stop one batter? Was it really intended to be dangerous? Was Jardine really a difficult man who disliked Australians and why did Larwood never play for England again after that series? Had he been made a scapegoat by the MCC or was there more to it? We may never know the answers to these questions, but what we do know is that Bodyline took a quite interesting cricket fixture and turned it into a mouth watering rivalry that sets the cricket world alight every couple of years.

Who would want it any other way?

Quotes courtesy of The Book of Ashes Anecdotes by Gideon Haigh